Answer the following questions reflectively in your journal. These questions apply to you as a person, but they can also be used in the classroom with students.
1. Think about a time when a friend was struggling. How did you respond? What did you say? What did you do?
2. Now, visualize a time when you were struggling. How did you respond to yourself?
3. What is the difference? Why? How did you self-criticize? Did you feel alone or did you feel supported by others?
4. Now, write down how you would treat yourself in that same situation if you controlled the self-critic by speaking to yourself kindly with compassion.
After answering the questions above, take a short break to reflect on what you have written. If you are working individually, add any additional notes that may have come to mind. If performing this exercise in a group, have another member of the study group share their answers as you listen without judgment, and then you do the same.
