Image
Want to experience less shame and more self-compassion this Lent?
Talk to yourself like a fierce friend would.
The world is weary with death. Death in the news. Death in our families. The little deaths of daily life that threaten to bury us in despair. We need to bear witness to “little resurrections”, too, if we hope to hang on and rise up for each other.
Lent is a 40-day liturgical season in the Christian tradition that leads up to Easter, in which we walk toward death with Jesus to pause, reflect on, and repent of (or, more simply, to turn away from) what’s keeping us from a resurrected life—and effective ministry to others.
Historically, Lent is a time of earnest self-examination—not navel gazing!—where we seek to (re)align ourselves with our Christian vocation: to love and serve the weary world. However, too often this season of self-examination can be co-opted by a season of self-critique.
That’s why this Lent we’re focusing on shame—that sneaky barrier to healthy ministry—and how the practice of "distanced self-talk" can help soothe it.
In a world that feels more divided every day, it’s important to remember that the purpose of self-compassion isn't just our own personal well-being. It’s about building up a muscle that can be aimed both inward and outward. In other words, self-compassion helps right-size our relationship to the world and compels us to right action in our small slice of it because we are not ensnared in shame.