I'm a bilingual yoga teacher who helps people who sit a lot gain mobility, move without pain and reduce their stress.
The dishes that changed my life (sort of)
|
On Monday I got up in the morning and went to the kitchen to make myself a coffee. The sink was empty, the kitchen spotless, even though I did a big cooking session the night before. Last night’s tired version of me had done the dishes. And I told myself: “I love myself for having this habit of washing the dishes right after cooking. It’s such a nice present to my future self.” Whenever I speak to myself in such a nice way, I’m always a bit taken aback. Like my clients, I’m more familiar with negative self-talk. Criticising myself for not doing enough, not being enough. And I realised my habit of doing the dishes right after I’ve cooked is a prime example of the fierce self-compassion I’m hoping to inspire you all to practice. Fierce self-compassion is about treating yourself well, and doing what is best for yourself even when it takes you out of your comfort zone.We sometimes think of self-compassion as self-indulgence, but it’s so far from it. In my case, self-indulgence would have been to leave the dirty dishes in the sink, because I only wanted to enjoy my dinner and watch Adolescence. Self-compassion was doing the dishes because I knew my future self would love a calm, clutter-free start to her day. I also knew that she would be thankful I did that for her, and it would make her want to do more nice things for her future Clem, setting up a virtuous momentum of good habits and good decisions. Fierce self-compassion isn’t limited to chores, it shows up in other moments too.It’s doing the workout when you’d rather chill on the couch, because you know how accomplished you will feel afterwards. Or setting boundaries with your colleague even if it feels awfully uncomfortable in the moment, because you know your future self deserves better. I often encourage you to do a little, often. It works for physical activity and it works for building healthful habits. These little acts of self-compassion compound. What’s one small, thoughtful act you can do today that your future self will thank you for? Om, peace 🧡 Clem |
Clémence Dieryck
I'm a bilingual yoga teacher who helps people who sit a lot gain mobility, move without pain and reduce their stress.
Do you know the famous psychological bias called "the sunk cost fallacy"? It's when you've already invested so much time or energy in a project that you can't bring yourself to abandon it, even when you know it's going nowhere. Once we know it exists, we start seeing it everywhere: our friend who's staying in a relationship that emotionally ended years ago, the degree we're no longer interested in but we're "too far in" to quit... We keep pouring energy into something because we can't bear to...
Where does it hurt when your back aches? In the last few months, I've had a few new clients who all pointed to the same spot: on their lower back, just above the hips. They all told me they had a back problem, which is the logical thing to think. But most of the time, the issue doesn't come from the back... but a bit lower. I know, you know, we all know that we sit too much. And when we do, our hips become tight and weak. They gradually lose their ability to both move and stabilise our lower...
6.5 hours a day. It's the average amount of screen time for a woman my age. I've seen it in myself and in my clients: when we start wanting to take better care of ourselves, there always comes a moment when we realise we're going to have to reduce our screen time. And it's hard. It's hard because it's become automatic, and everything is designed to bring us back often, and especially to keep us there as long as possible. But this screen time also translates into neck tension, fatigue, rising...