On Replacing Self-Pity with Self Compassion
5 Practical Ways To Change Your Inner Dialogue For The Better
The pandemic has made us feel isolated, alone, disturbed, anxious among many other feelings. In the last seven months of isolation, I’ve experienced it all.
In difficult times, it’s easy to get trapped in the cycle of self-pity. It’s easy to start feeling sorry for yourself and ruminate endlessly about your problems. It’s easy to start bearing resentment in situations that feel unfair.
Sadly, as easy as this feeling of self-pity comes, it doesn’t help us in any way. In fact, it only leaves us feeling worse.
“I don’t want it to end, and so, as every therapist knows, the ego does not want an end to its “problems” because they are part of its identity.
If no one will listen to my sad story, I can tell it to myself in my head, over and over, and feel sorry for myself, and so have an identity as someone who is being treated unfairly by life or other people, fate or God. It gives definition to my self-image, makes me into someone, and that is all that matters to the ego.”
