There are people who worry that if they treated themselves with compassion and mercy, it will somehow stop them from holding themselves to high standards or holding themselves accountable.

But that makes no sense.

You can both hold yourself to a high standard and acknowledge that almost none of us can live up to those high standards every day.

We can acknowledge our divinity and our frailty at the same time, and plan for both. The capacity to hold a person - or yourself - to account can co-exist with the capacity to empathise when a person falls short of their, or our, standards.

Even courts of law understand justice and equity.

And so, for the sake of your own humanity, should you.