One of my favorite resources for my WLS journey is Experience Life magazine. I was looking for a sensible health and fitness magazine so subscribed to it without ever having read or seen it just based in the topic descriptions.

I stumbled upon a GREAT resource.

Every issue is full of helpful information and wisdom. Yes, there have been one or two articles that were a bit out there, but by in large I have found a great deal of helpful inspiration.

I just received the recent issue and there are several great articles (one on exercise motivation is particularly appropriate for many of us), but wanted to share the article on Self Compassion here: https://experiencelife.com/article/cultivate-self-compassion/

If you are struggling with self compassion I encourage you to read it. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Wil ldefinitely check it out- thanks for sharing.

@@Inner Surfer Girl -- love Dr. Neff's work and have posted about it before. Her book on self compassion has helped me be successful with my WLS as lack of self-compassion was why I got so big. I am so inspired that I am going to try to go to one of her Mindful Self Compassion workshops later this year if I can save up the funds.

I try and use her techniques daily and it has transformed my life....so much so, that I gave over a dozen of her books away to friends this past Christmas. If you haven't gotten her book, I highly recommend it (less then $10 on Amazon). It all started with her TED talk, which I encourage you and others to check out if you have not already.

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-Space-Between-Self-Esteem-a

Dr. Neff works out of UT Austin department of social work which is where I attend school too. I haven't met her yet but I am very hopeful I can get into one of her classes this fall! If you like her you might also like Brene Brown who is out of UT Houston. You can find her stuff on her website. www.brenebrown.com

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Edited April 2, 201610 yr by Kittymappus

@@Kittymappus I am so jealous! I am about to graduate with my MSW and wish I had a chance to take a class with her...and yes, I found Brene Brown too (and she is a social worker, yay for social work!) and between their work, I have finally found my solution and am gaining the skills to address my shame and self-hatred through self-compassion.

I hope you are successful at getting into one of her classes!

Lovely piece.

Several years ago I was engaged in some pretty terrible conflict within my "family of origin" as the phrase goes. In other words, my stupid f*ck**g siblings were all acting like total assholes to me.

I won't go into details. But the situation was so terrible that it precipitated a brilliant epiphany for me: "No matter how badly everyone is behaving, they're all doing the very best they can right now. In the future, they may be able to do better."

I have no idea how this bit of brilliance occurred to me. But it truly gave me tremendous peace and eliminated my compulsion to try to fix them or their opinions or their behaviors or anything about them.

And obviously, this same epiphany applies to me and my own very entertaining and obviously superior versions of insanity.

I'm probably doing the very best I can right now. In the future, I may be able to do better.

It also seems to be true.