At the beginning of a new year, we reflect on the past twelve months and look forward to the next three hundred and sixty-five days. This can be at a personal level, as well as collectively across the World.
Reflecting on 2025, we see the expansion of conflicts and increased global tension, rapid technological change, the hottest recorded average annual temperatures, and extreme weather and wildfires caused by climate change. These conflicts and disasters led to an upsurge in the number of people forced to leave their homes and migrate to safer areas. There was also positive news. Renewable power sources, including wind and solar, overtook coal as the World’s leading source of electricity. In 2025, wind energy accounted for around a third of the UK’s energy. After lengthy negotiations, a global agreement to protect the high seas was ratified in September 2025. Also in 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a decision that will help nations impacted by climate change to take legal action against polluting countries.
Looking ahead, we can expect the World to become more chaotic and uncertain as humanity undergoes change and transition. Let’s hope 2026 brings greater peace and stability and that we collectively reassess how we live on this beautiful, yet fragile planet.
In this context, it is helpful to experience compassion as an expanding circle of care, kindness, and understanding that begins with yourself, your family, community, and country, and then extends to all people and living creatures, nature, and the environment, encompassing the whole of the living planet we call home.
Rather than setting resolutions, in mindfulness practice, we tend to set intentions rather than goals. One useful intention for the year is to start with the first circle of compassion and be kind to yourself and others. We all have faults and make mistakes, which is part of being human. Self-compassion is about accepting our imperfections and relating to the whole sense of who we are, rather than to a limited part of ourselves. In the time-poor, stress-bound World we live in, many of us entertain and identify with the harsh-voiced inner critic. Although we may consider ourselves generally kind to others, there are many times when we could have responded with greater kindness, even to the people we are closest to.
Although the culture many of us grew up in taught us that we’ll only succeed by being hard on ourselves, the reverse is actually true. Self-criticism erodes our self-worth and increases anxiety, anger, and low mood. Leading a good-enough, rather than a perfect life, means practising self-compassion. It also means realising that, in the Western World, we are embedded in a biased culture that encourages competition and challenges our self-worth, thereby making us compliant consumers. Recent research on people who developed greater self-compassion found that they performed better on tasks and were generally much happier.
So, here are some tips on bringing self-compassion and kindness into your year:
- Don’t assume that you’re naturally kind to yourself; really listen to the quality of the self-talk you identify with, using curiosity, kindness, and beginner’s mind – as if you never really heard your self-talk before.
- Cultivate greater awareness, appreciation, gratitude, care, and compassion for your body, for all of the stress, strain, and negative judgements you impose on it. Try relating to your body with the same compassion you would show a favourite child or pet.
- Bring moments of peace and calm into your day by pausing between activities and focusing your attention on your body and breath.
Learning to be more self-compassionate takes time; it’s a marathon, not a sprint, which is why setting the intention for the year is a useful timeframe. Many hidden aspects of ourselves are worth exploring, and self-compassion can help light the way. As the 14th Dalai Lama said, “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
Suggested weekly practice
- Review any New Year’s resolutions, goals, or intentions and weave in some kindness and self-compassion.
- As well as resolutions, review your intentions for mindful self-development for the year. For instance, to meditate every day, to notice more, to be less reactive, or to bring kindness and compassion into each day.
- Watch out for difficult things that you habitually tend to avoid and instead, find the inner courage to move towards the difficult, and befriend it with kindness and understanding.
Guidance
Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified, and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware.
There are two guided practices for this session. You can close your eyes or lower your gaze while the meditations play.
- Play the first settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps.
- Then play the second practice to explore and experience self-compassion and set intentions to be kind to yourself over the coming year.