Thank you so much for being a part of the Umbrella Project and helping us improve wellbeing for everyone!

Each month, we focus on one piece of what makes a powerful umbrella of wellbeing skills. In December, we are adding Self-Compassion to our umbrella of wellbeing.

Do you often catch your child saying harsh things about themselves and their abilities or struggling to take ownership for their mistakes?

You won’t be surprised to hear that 75 percent of people treat others more kindly than they treat themselves. In fact, self-compassion is the umbrella skill that is the weakest piece in most umbrellas (children and adults alike). It’s also the piece that most adults report wishing they had learned earlier in their lives.

What is self-compassion?

Self-compassion is treating yourself like you would a good friend instead of offering harsh judgement to self-motivate. It’s understanding that our struggle and imperfections are a normal part of being a human instead of something bad.

When we are critical and mean to ourselves, it is like having our own personal bully following us around all the time. This critical voice reduces our self-confidence, making it harder for us to succeed. Instead, self-compassion helps us to be kind to ourselves and recognize that struggle is a normal part of life that everyone experiences. It allows us to accept difficult feelings instead of trying to suppress or getting swept away in them.

Self-compassion has so many benefits including improving our body image, our resilience to stigma, our desire to learn and our ability to take responsibility for our mistakes.