A recent article by compassion researcher Dr Kristin Neff raises some important points about different ways of being compassionate. Often people notice a difference between what Dr Neff calls ‘yin, or soft compassion’ when things haven’t been going well, compared with joyful compassion when all is well in our world.
Now this article by Dr Neff, raises another type of self-compassion – fierce self-compassion – when we say ‘Enough. For my safety and well-being, I must stop allowing that to happen again’.
Whilst it is important in leadership and service roles to listen to the client and to colleagues, it is also important to learn to express our limits. These may be limits on the day – if we are tired / everwhelmed / something negative has happened; or values limits – this is not okay for me to keep seeing / hearing / experiencing.