Living Every Day Without Regret: Using Self-Compassion To Be Real And Exciting

Living Every Day Without Regret

Self-Compassion is not just an internal process.  It is an external one, too.  Sure, it is important that when you are having a difficult time that you are able to acknowledge that experience and bring kindness to it, but you also need to take action that connects you to people, places, and things that thrills, deepens, and enlivens your experience.  You want to live a life that you can be proud of now and later. 

Here is the difference between self-compassion and every other strategy of which you have ever heard.  Other strategies say, “Do great things now, so that you can look back on your life without regret.”  Self-Compassion says, “Live life every day, so that you have no regrets.”  Well, we all have regrets, but self-compassion helps us avoid the big ones.

Notice the nuance between the two previous statements.  The former has us believing that we need to do amazing things, while we are young.  The latter persuades us to do amazing things forever.  Self-Compassion has keyed on an obvious, but easy to miss fact.  You do not die, when you stop being really young, so it might be nice to still find excitement, depth, and joy in your life.

The Longer You Practice The Greater You Become

The best part about self-compassion is that the longer we work on it, the better we get at it.  The better we get at it, the more enjoyable our life gets.  Ever become stressed out of your mind because there are so many choices that you cannot decide what you want?   Most people feel that way about life, do less, and then live with regret.  You cannot practice self-compassion without getting to know yourself better, so inevitably you will be able to make more fulfilling choices with greater ease.

If you ask most people what they fear, they will tell you illness, poverty, and death of loved ones, but when you take these off the table, most people are afraid of one thing.  Can you guess what that is?  It is being boring.  They will travel the world, shop till they drop, and eat in every known restaurant to prove to themselves and others that they are not boring.  Do not get me wrong, traveling, shopping, and eating are great, but not if they are a reflection of your desire to not be found out about being boring.

The Secret To Not Being Boring

The secret to not being boring is to accept yourself, to be yourself, and to maximize who you are.  Very few come by this existence naturally.  The rest of us need self-compassion.  If you invest in self-compassion, and work on the aforementioned traits, you will fill the world with excitement and warmth like the sun as it sets in a mixture of purple, red, and orange.  You will draw the people to you, who are the best matches for your authentic self, and even the people who disagree with you and your lifestyle will have to acknowledge that you are interesting, and why shouldn’t they?  Who likes robots?

You will not live forever, and that makes me and others deeply sad, but while you are alive give yourself permission to be kind to yourself, and to pursue with vigor the parts of yourself that emerge as a result of your self-compassion practice.  Your most fulfilling hero will always come from within, but only if you let him/her come out.  You may not get a parade (immediately), but we will all be silently cheering you on, and of course, finding you intoxicatingly interesting.

365 Days Of Self-Compassion.  Day 149.  In The Books.