Silence your inner critic: a guide to self-compassion in the toughest times

Is your internal monologue friendly, calm and encouraging - or critical and bullying? Here is how to change it for the better

Tobyn Bell still remembers the precise moment when his self-compassion practice paid off.

He had just arrived home from work and was turning over in his mind the mistakes he had made that day, what he could or should have done - the kind of self-critical thoughts he had struggled with for years. Then, unexpectedly, another voice piped up in response, calm and steadying, addressing Bell by a fond nickname from his childhood.