Mind the judgements

My ongoing journey as an Intentional Therapist has taken me down several paths of self-reflection. It’s reminded me how vulnerable we all are (yes, even mental health professionals!) to unhelpful thoughts that, in turn, lead to unpleasant emotions and unhelpful actions. As humans we are inherently prone to making judgements on a daily basis. In some cases an expressed judgement is simply a short-hand way of stating our opinions (“That movie was terrible”) and really causes no harm.

Other judgements, however, can be more subtle and be used to justify actions that we may perceive as supportive to our colleagues when, in fact, they can be quite the contrary. Take a moment to reflect on the actions you take in an effort to support your colleagues in their self-care and work-life balance efforts. What drives these actions? Are they based on a set of rules or judgements you make related to your own definition of good self-care and appropriate work-life balance?

Or perhaps you find yourself looking towards others who seemingly have all the “proper” ingredients for self-care and work-life balance and you judge yourself as falling short in comparison. Or maybe you judge yourself harshly in comparison to colleagues who are seemingly able to “do it all” in terms of having a highly productive and successful career.

I know I’ve fallen into all of these scenarios at various points in my career. Judgements like these only serve to contribute to the false belief that healthy work-life balance and appropriate self-care looks the same for us all.

As you continue on your own journey as an Intentional Therapist, see if you can be mindful of the judgements along the way. We are all unique and, because of that, it's ok that self-care will never be “one size fits all”.