What is Self-Compassion?
Self-compassion is the practice of relating to ourselves like a good friend - with unconditional love and support - especially when we are having a hard time. It is a skill that can be learned and is scientifically correlated with mental health and resilience. It has 3 key ingredients:
1
Self-kindness
Being warm and understanding toward ourselves when we suffer, fail, or feel inadequate, rather than ignoring our pain or punishing ourselves with self-criticism.
2
Common Humanity
Self-compassion involves recognizing that suffering and personal inadequacy is part of the shared human experience – something that we all go through rather than being something that happens to “me” alone.
3
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a non-judgmental, receptive mind state in which one observes thoughts and feelings as they are, without trying to suppress or deny them.
We will regularly use these 3 skills during our time together. The goal is to practice this way of relating to ourselves in order to re-pattern our nervous system so that care and compassion for ourselves is an increasingly habitual response to the challenges of life, rather than self-criticism or self-rejection.
“When therapy is successful, people become more self-compassionate. And what we know from the research is that people who are self-compassionate tend to have a whole host of psychological benefits associated with it, such as well being, life satisfaction, wisdom, social intelligence, and resilience.”
- Chris Germer, PhD, Clinical Psychologist and Author