Before I started practising mindfulness, I loved to give myself a hard time. In fact, if I had people in my life who spoke to me the way that I spoke to me, I suspect we wouldn’t have been friends for very long. My thoughts were filled with self-criticism and negative self-talk. Through meditation, I learned to be kinder to myself by observing these thoughts as thoughts alone. We could all do with a bit more self- love in our lives, which is why I begin here with my students.