I met Nichole when I was assigned to the Defense Information School. Nichole routinely joined my yoga for vets classes at the schoolhouse as well as at Whole Yoga. She has been on an amazing spiritual journey…and it has been an honor to experience from afar.

Compassion is something I have tried to give to others but never thought about giving to myself. I recently attended a Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) workshop and it changed the way I see myself. It is not easy to grant yourself the same grace you give others. Sometimes I am not very kind to myself. It is like there is me and a "mean girl me” who likes to beat me up for my thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Self-compassion shifts your brain to look at the way you talk to yourself and to consciously talk to yourself the way you would to a friend or a child who is hurting.

Self-compassion brings a calm and equanimity to my life that I can access any time I feel I am in a spiral. It allows me the space to acknowledge I am in a spiral, that it is hard to be in this spiral, and that I am here for me. "I know this is hard. I am here." This is one of the tenet phrases of the MSC training. There is power in these words. "I know this is hard. I am here."
Self-compassion is teaching me how to be kind to myself. We could all use more kindness in our lives.