Quick Spoon - What if you spoke to yourself like a friend?

When something goes wrong, it's easy to add another layer of difficulty by being hard on ourselves.

What's wrong with me?

I should be able to handle this.

Why can't I cope?

In this People Soup Quick Spoon, Dr Amanda Super recalls a nurse telling her:

“You're being very hard on yourself.”That comment helped Amanda discover self-compassion — and it got me thinking about how differently we sometimes speak to ourselves compared with the way we'd speak to someone we care about.

So here's something to try:

Imagine a close friend is in the same situation as you.

What would you say to them?

How would you speak to them?

What tone would you use?

And then ask yourself: