When Self-Compassion Becomes Self-Sabotage

Yes, it’s very possible to give yourself too much of a break

Photo: PM Images/Getty Images

Maria wanted to make a budget. The 27-year-old customer experience representative — newly married and normally quite organized — had put herself in charge of the task in the hopes of socking away some extra savings. Then the pandemic hit, and all budgeting bets were off. Instead of wrapping up her remote-work days in front of a new spreadsheet, she’d stretch for an hour of yoga to temper the general overwhelm she felt. “I’d say to myself, ‘This is what you need right now,’” she tells Elemental. Maria said it almost every day.

It was, Maria reasoned, the self-compassionate thing to do: Why tack a stressful item onto her to-do list when she was already feeling defeated by Covid-19 and quarantine? A quick workout or a long binge session were kinder to her mental health than making a budget, Maria decided.

But her self-care routine was causing harm: Maria was delaying setting savings goals. And fees were hitting the couple’s savings account because they weren’t keeping the required balance in the bank. “I would say, ‘Meditating right now will put me in a better headspace than calling people at the bank and sitting on hold for 40 minutes,’” Maria explains. “I was losing money because I couldn’t sit down and do this thing. I…