In our culture, we tend to be overly self-critical. Sometimes we are so preoccupied, we aren’t even aware of how harmful our thoughts can be to our well-being. We are hard on ourselves when it comes to our weight and appearance, whether we are achieving enough in our workplaces and in our homes, and whether our children are in enough extracurricular activities, and the list goes on! Oftentimes, we feel guilty. Guilty that we didn’t make it to the gym enough, guilty our work obligations got in the way of making it to all of our children’s activities, guilty we got take-out too often, guilty we didn’t have time to volunteer our time more. These thought processes hold true when we are grieving, too, and it is time we start to practice releasing critical thoughts and replacing them with tender thoughts.