Reset for Resilience:The Power of Self-Compassion
Compassion: From the Latin com- and pati meaning “to bear, suffer”; a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it. (Source: Merriam-Webster, 2025)
I usually love January. It’s the ultimate fresh start. The new year unfolding with the crispness of a flat sheet dried in the sunshine: Unmarred. Anything is possible.
Well, a 50lb pigeon just slow rolled over my perfect year and left a deposit that dripped all the way to December.
I want to do-over. I want a refund. I know I’m not the only one.
What are you navigating in 2025?
Tending to painful health struggles? Caregiving a loved one? Enduring job insecurity or a toxic work environment? Navigating a gutting loss? All of the above?
It’s time for a reset, friend. A reset of self-compassion.
The professionals I work with are brilliant, resilient and strong. They lean into challenge when others are leaning toward the door. They’re tenacious and for many, the default response to a tough season is to double-down.
But friends, many of us are not where we were. The environment and the weights we’re carrying have changed.
Imagine you’ve trained for a 5k. You’ve got the gear, you’ve built up the miles and know the course.
Then at the starting line a 150lb critical “friend" climbed onto your back.
That weight is HEAVY and they're shouting criticisms:
You’re not running right! Look at your poor form! You’re too slow. Hurry up, you’re falling behind!
It’s a different race than what you planned for.
And that critical friend? They’re all too often present in our minds. We're the ones pushing ourselves to go farther even as we’re struggling to stay the course.
But countering our suffering with more strain, we dig ourselves deeper, intensify our burnout and can seriously injure ourselves. Like a car stuck in the mud or snow. We hit the accelerator pedal and the tires spin. But rather than moving forward, they’re creating a deeper trench.
There’s a cost we pay in grinding away. We’re not hearing our own call for self-compassion.
Friend, if this season is taxing you, listen.
If you’re digging deep to find daily motivation, listen.
If you’re struggling to be gracious with loved ones or colleagues, listen.
These are signals to recalibrate. Reset. An invitation to change how you care for yourself.
We can become practiced at serving everyone else first. People pleasers and over-givers, I see you! It’s a pattern that gets reinforced over time.
The cost? We’re subsisting on scraps. Literally nourishing ourselves last.
This life? This day? It’s YOURS.
So, instead of serving everyone first, turn that plate of overflowing brilliance back around. Offer yourself a generous helping of nourishing goodwill, energy and love FIRST.
If this is hard, consider: What you would advise your best friend? What would you advise your child? What compassion would you express?
We need to pay more attention. Because the cost of subsisting on remainders just got much more expensive. The environment changed. The stakes skyrocketed. Your obligations grew.
Committed change-makers: The world needs your passion and gifts. Listening and treating yourself with compassion FIRST also means you’ll have more to share. You’re building resilience for the long game.
To navigate this new season will require different strengths and strategies. You need more nutrition and energy stores. And you deserve more.
You deserve rest.
You deserve joyful downtime.
You deserve pointless, unproductive play.
Not because you’ve labored hard or finished the race. Because you’re YOU. This is YOUR life, love. Treat it with kindness.
