Hello and welcome to Sangoma Society, where we demystify all things pertaining the ancestral.
My name is Honey Makwakwa, I am Makhosi Nomabutho emsamo and this is the self-care season, coming
to you the Maldives.
And today, we're talking about self-compassion.
So what is self-compassion?
Self-compassion is taking the time to reflect.
Same energy that you give to strangers, that you give to others.
We're so quick to say
"No, that's too much for them.
They need time."
How often do we say that about ourselves?
How often do we say, "This is too much for me.
I need time."
We are always expecting ourselves to be ready, to get up and go.
We're always expecting ourselves to be happy, to be booked and busy.
We say to ourselves, "Oh, my God.
These are the things that we prayed for."
Did we pray for them to wreck us?
Did we pray for them compromise our health?
In the context of African spirituality, we need self-compassion
because
without it, how do we begin to do the work of healing?
without some level of compassion,
how do we truly focus our energy on what we need to do?
We don't ask for help
we're always expecting the ancestors to expect something from to the extent that we forget
that we can say to them, "Help me out."
But I do want people
practicing enough compassion with themselves to ask for help.
The capitalist system is at odds with everything that humanity presents us and yet we choose
to celebrate it, and in celebrating that system, we demonise ourselves
we see ourselves less than worthy
we see ourselves as not keeping up
and we are so harsh, impatient and cold to ourselves.
Check your inner language.
What are you saying to you?
How is it landing with your spirit?
Are you building or breaking yourself?
Exercise some self-compassion.
If you don't know how,
get some help.
if you don't know how, learn to meditate.
I personally recommend Vipashna meditation.
It's ten days of silence
and the purest form of meditation that I've encountered.
There is no chant, there's no incantation,
any person of any religion,
of any belief system
can engage with it.
And now back to today's programming.
why do I recommend meditation?
Because in meditation, in that stillness,
you can recognise your pattern.
And some people say, "Stillness is not for me."
Stillness is not for you because perhaps what you're hearing when you are still scares you,
freaks you out
isn't your cup of tea.
That's fair, that's fine, but you've got to endure, you've got to stick with it.
Because you need to change the language that you use with yourself.
At some point, we need to become compassionate with ourselves.
at some point, we need to become gentle and kind with ourselves,
because it's only when we exercise compassion with ourselves that we are able to get to
this place of
being responsible for ourselves.
We think punishing words towards ourselves mean that we're holding ourselves accountable,
that we're being responsible.
It's not.
It actually hinders your progress, it actually hinders your progress because you're unable
to get out from under your self-abuse long enough to know what you actually need to be
focusing on in this moment.
Give yourself a fighting chance against what is holding you down today.
Give yourself some compassion.
This is Sangoma Society, where we demystify all things pertaining African spirituality.
I am Makhosi Nomabutho emsamo, I am @HoneyTellAStory on all social media platforms and I am Honey
Makwakwa at home.
And this is Sangoma Society self-care season.
we're coming to you from the Maldives.
Please subscribe if you haven't already.
Join us for the journey.
If there's something about self-compassion that I may have missed in today's episode,
please pop your question in the comment section below.
We're here to demystify the ancestral.
Come with us.