Best Self Magazine

I Practiced Self Compassion for a Year — This is What Happened

I Practiced Self Compassion for a Year — This is What Happened, by Rachelle McKeown. Photograph of woman sitting alone hugging herself, by Anthony Tran.
Photograph by Anthony Tran

How practicing self compassion and releasing judgment can reduce stress and anxiety while increasing your productivity and happiness

Have you ever thought about how much we abuse ourselves? What about how often we think, “I should’ve said/done that differently,” or wonder why we did something ridiculously idiotic when we knew better? As someone with high functioning anxiety, I tend to obsess over this stuff, calling myself and idiot or

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Best Self Magazine

Best Self Magazine4 min read
Love and Heartache: An Unfathomable Separation of Mother and Child
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes — 1970 in pre-Choice America. The lonely only child of a high-ranking naval officer and a socially ambitious mother, after our eighth move in thirteen years, I longed for a normal adolescence — to have lasting frien
Best Self Magazine5 min read
Chasing Happy: 3 Steps to Life-Long Transformation
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes — It started with a simple question: “Mommy, can I give you a goal this year?” At the time I was working long stressful hours leading a large client relationship for an advertising agency while balancing having two
Best Self Magazine7 min read
How Cancer Helped Me Let Go of Fear and Make Deep Connections
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes — I am a two-time breast cancer survivor, but my story is not really about cancer and its trials. It’s about how cancer taught me that humor, nature, exercise and relationships with both family and “found family” h

Related Books & Audiobooks