What is this self inside us, this silent Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us And urge us on to futile activity And in the end, judge us still more severely For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?
– T.S. Eliot, The Elder Statesman (1959)
We have a tendency toward self-criticism as a way of motivating and stimulating personal growth. As a result, we sometimes doubt our potential; our personal goalposts for what counts as “good enough” can seem disappointingly out of reach. To answer this inner critic, we must learn to stop judging and evaluating ourselves altogether. Self-compassion offers a powerful antidote to the inner critic. Learn how you can use compassion to support your own personal development and equip students to take on the challenges of learning. There are few places in greater need of self-compassion than the academic realm.
