If you also struggle with perfectionism, you likely have high expectations for your academic performance. Grades can make or break you. When you rely on test scores to determine your worth, it’s easy to spiral.

“Anything that impacts an individual’s sense of self – like attachment injuries or divorce – could lead to the development of an eating disorder,” says Kindful Body therapist Samantha Young.

All about self-esteem— what it is, how it develops, why it becomes low, and how to raise it.

Practicing self-compassion and self-care is one of the most beneficial ways we can heal from our past experiences, appreciate the present moment, and look to the future with open and curious eyes. Here are 19 lists to make for self-compassion and self-care for 2019. Keep these lists together in a journal or folder for reference to help you get through times of struggle, and know that there are no right or wrong ways to be kind to yourself.

As we reflect on past experiences and where we want to be in the future, we may reach a point where we feel disconnected from ourselves or our purpose. We may start feeling like we are broken and have lost the sense of who we are or once were, and begin a journey to “find ourselves” again. But here’s why we don’t actually need to “find” ourselves and how we can return to our true selves instead.

As the New Year rolls around, and we hear of all the ways people are resolving to eat or exercise differently, there’s one object that is the biggest source of anxiety and terror: Your scale. But here’s the thing: a scale is just a scale. It just measures your relationship to gravity in one moment in time. To make 2019 the year of your recovery from diet culture, it’s time to smash your scale.

Compassion is widely accepted as something that’s beneficial for us, but it’s common to feel resistance in receiving compassion as well. You may not even realize that the resistance is actually a fear. Learn how fear of compassion presents itself, why it holds you back in recovery, and how to tell if you have fears of compassion.

Rather than allowing negative thoughts to bully you and affect how you feel about yourself, start practicing these five mindful ways to respond to your negative thoughts (and even befriend them to understand how they are trying to help you).

Our need for love and belonging is as essential as the physiological and safety needs. To truly feel love and belonging, we must start with self-acceptance.