According to ‘The Sunday Times’ Style magazine “2018 is going to be The year of Self-Care”. [1] I wonder what Kristen Neff will be thinking about her decade of research finally having its moment in the UK? The Times article is generic and accessible and offers fast and easy “Self-care in under 5 minutes” options.  One of which is to “Take a quick shower, sprinkle some uplifting peppermint oil onto the shower floor so that the scent surrounds you” I can hear my eminently practical Mom saying “If you put oil on the shower floor you’ll slip and break your neck, there’s nothing very ‘wellbeing’ about a broken neck” and she’d be right. Whilst self-care and looking after ourselves generally is important, advice on this often transpires into little more than an opportunity for publications to sell the latest face, hand or body cream and we know that the feel good effects of this type of purchase don’t last very long at all, sometimes not even until we get it home. So what can we do support our psychological health? Self-compassion and psychological health Self-compassion is simply compassion, directed inwards. Compassion is what we feel when we notice that something … Continue reading Self-care is ‘trending’