Ms. Sonia Wynter, Associate Clinical Psychologist and Founder of Tea House Therapy - Sonia Wynter & Associates shared an interesting perspective on “Leveraging Self-Compassion Post COVID.” Ms. Wynter introduced the concept of self-compassion with the following saying: “you cannot pour from an empty cup; you have to take care of yourself first.” This highlights the need of self-care or self-compassion before showing compassion to others. She also intimated that generally we as a people view self-compassion as self-pity, which would make it seem as if self-compassion is a bad thing.
She also stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a psychological crisis, causing a lot of emotional distress. Persons have suffered numerous losses during this pandemic, including jobs, income, family or friends, routine, predictability, control, justice, and belief that we can protect our children and elderly family members. This has caused persons to become hard on themselves because the more an individual goes through, the harsher he/she is on him/herself.
This shows the need to emphasize self-compassion. Ms. Wynter shared three components of self-compassion as outlined by Dr. Kristin Neff, a pioneering self-compassion researcher, author, and teacher. These components are self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness.
Ms. Wynter then engaged members and visitors in some fun self-compassion activities. She then ended by encouraging members to check out Dr. Kristin Neff’s website, https://self-compassion.org and do the self-compassion test and learn some more about self-compassion.