Edited by Jill M. Salahub Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 The Beginning ............................................................................................................................................... 4 Mary Anne Radmacher ................................................................................................................................. 8 Mary Anne Radmacher’s Body Gratitude Practice ..................................................................................... 16 Andrea Scher ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Laurie Wagner ............................................................................................................................................. 24 Judy Clement Wall ...................................................................................................................................... 30 Anne-Sophie Reinhardt ............................................................................................................................... 38 Susan Piver .................................................................................................................................................. 42 Kerilyn Russo ............................................................................................................................................... 48 Rachel Cole .................................................................................................................................................. 57 Niight Wind ................................................................................................................................................. 62 Jennifer Louden ........................................................................................................................................... 68 Susannah Conway ....................................................................................................................................... 74 Courtney Putnam ........................................................................................................................................ 80 Tammy Strobel ............................................................................................................................................ 88 Kristin Noelle ............................................................................................................................................... 93 Anna Guest-Jelley ........................................................................................................................................ 98 Laura Simms .............................................................................................................................................. 103 Kat McNally ............................................................................................................................................... 107 Barbara Markway ...................................................................................................................................... 115 Julia Fehrenbacher .................................................................................................................................... 122 Jamie Ridler ............................................................................................................................................... 126 Jennifer Matesa ........................................................................................................................................ 131 Sandi Amorim ............................................................................................................................................ 139 Cigdem Kobu ............................................................................................................................................. 145 Lisa Field-Elliot .......................................................................................................................................... 153 Marianne Elliott ........................................................................................................................................ 159 Sherry Richert Belul .................................................................................................................................. 165 Jill Salahub ................................................................................................................................................. 173 Introduction By Jill M. Salahub As I put the finishing touches on this collection, it’s almost a full year after the final post of the series was published. My intention was to have the ebook done much sooner, but as so often happens when we make a plan, life interrupts us with another idea. I published the first Self-Compassion Saturday post on June 1, 2013. On June 27, 2013, my sweet Dexter died. We’d known for a year that he had an incurable cancer and we were going to lose him, but that didn’t make it any easier. We’d been through a similar situation with our first dog Obi less than three years earlier, and that grief still lingered. And our Sam was sick with a mysterious condition that no one, not even specialists, could diagnose or tell us how to treat. We thought we might lose him too. In the year since Self-Compassion Saturday ended, a lot has happened. I’ve had so many opportunities to apply what I learned from this project, to practice self-compassion. We got a new puppy, we finally uncovered the cause of Sam’s condition and found a way to treat him, and I became a certified yoga instructor. I continued to search for answers and help in terms of my own health. Every time I set the intention to finish this ebook by a certain date and that date passed without a finished product, I was gentle and forgave myself. I cultivated self- compassion by failing, not beating myself up about it, and starting again. As for the women who took part in the project, they’ve experienced their own losses, celebrations, and changes. Babies and books and new projects have been born. Relationships have transformed, some have ended and others just begun. Businesses have shifted and reshaped. Old offerings have been retired and new ones manifested. As I pulled together all the intelligence and love they offered us through this project, I updated links or anything else that might cause confusion a year later. Other than that, I left it as is – a time capsule of so much wisdom and compassion. I hope when these women reread it, they might, as I did, see how much they’ve learned and grown since then, and maybe discover some new message that finds them where they are now and offers the exact insight they need in this moment. May we all know the peace and comfort and freedom of self-compassion, and continue to remind each other how to find our way back to it when we forget. The Beginning By Jill M. Salahub June 1, 2013 http://thousandshadesofgray.com/2013/06/01/self-compassion-saturday-the-beginning/ You, yourself, as much as anybody else in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. ~Buddha For just a minute, I am taking a deep breath and sinking into this moment. Eric is in the kitchen making pie crust — I’ve had a thing about pie lately, buying store made versions that claim to be Marionberry but aren’t quite, and he wanted to make me a “real pie.” Emeli Sandé is singing Next to Me, part of a mix I made myself on Rhapsody that I listen to while I write. Both dogs are asleep in their beds behind me. The window is open and I can hear the wind blowing, see the blue sky and bright green of my lilac bushes and the trees above. My hair is still wet from a shower, and I’m wearing clean soft cotton pjs and my favorite sweater. *sigh* I feel pretty content right now, in this moment. But I don’t always feel like this. I struggle, I suffer, I smash myself to bits. There are old, habitual ways of thinking and being that no longer serve me, and yet I still act them out, get stuck. It came to me recently that at the heart of all of my issues, underneath every irritation or sadness was one thing. And when I realized what it was, I felt a deep longing, an intense hunger to understand, to heal, to transform that suffering, and I knew that I was connected to a tribe of wise and compassionate women who could help me, if only I was brave enough to ask. So I sent a request to them. It started like this, Dear Beautiful You, I said a prayer and took a deep breath before beginning this message to you. I am so worried it will come off like a creepy sales pitch or inappropriate request — it isn’t. This email, this request is an utterly authentic wish from the deepest part of my heart, an expression of my ongoing longing to ease suffering, in myself and in the world, and to be of service. It isn’t about my blog stats, building my own worth or value, or any other self- serving, self-fulfilling ego bullshit. This is not about little me, this is about Big Love. In fact, it would be so much easier for me to not do this, to not ask, but I feel compelled to, and as Ram Dass said, “We are all just walking each other home.” I am writing to you with a tender heart full of longing. I am writing to YOU because you are a wise and compassionate teacher, writer, healer, artist. I am writing