Self-compassion is associated with less anxiety, depression, rumination, thought-suppression, and perfectionism. Again, it is related to greater life-satisfaction and social connectedness. Hence, how to practice self-compassion deserves attending to. The practice draws in the extra good of increased optimism, curiosity, and personal initiative.
In detail, self-compassion is an open-hearted way of accommodating the negative aspects of ourselves and our experiences. This attitude promotes greater emotional resilience and overall well-being. To continue with, self-compassion starts you holding negative emotions in mindful awareness, and accepting yourself with kindness and non-judgement. It engenders emotional equanimity and primes you to see your experiences as part of the larger human experience.
The Three Key Practices Of Self-Compassion
1. Show Kindness And Understanding To Yourself In Instances Of Perceived Inadequacy Or Suffering
This attitude motivates you to keep off harsh judgements and self-criticism. When you quit judging yourself harshly or blowing your failures out of proportion, self-condemnation lessens, and your self-confidence in your ability to learn increases. In consequence, you become more adaptive in the face of failure. Also, you tend to choose goals that promote mastery, goals that stimulate intrinsic satisfaction or fulfillment.
2. See Your Experiences As Part Of The Larger Human Experience
You are not isolated or separated from the larger humanity by virtue of your challenging experiences. What you are going through is not strange to many. Understanding that your experiences form part of the shared human experience stimulates you to become more accepting of and kind to yourself and others.
3. Hold Your Painful Thoughts And Feelings In Balanced Awareness
With this attitude, you keep from over-identifying or exaggerating your painful thoughts and feelings. In addition to, soothing yourself with positive self-talk when you feel threatened, defensive or critical, generates feelings of warmth and compassion towards yourself. The resulting upshot features as significant reductions in depression, anxiety, self-criticism, shame, inferiority and submissive behaviors.
Benefits Of Self-compassion
Self-compassion is associated with reduced stress, anxiety. In line, it tones down the bent towards thought-suppression and perfectionism. It fosters self-knowledge, optimism, wisdom, curiosity, exploration and personal initiative, that quicken self-improvement. Greater life-satisfaction, social connectedness, self-concept accuracy, and emotional equanimity when confronting daily life events, also headline.
Further along, it boosts relationship satisfaction. Self-compassion stimulates emotional connectedness, accepting and autonomy-supporting attitudes, and decreases detachment, controlling and aggressive behaviour. Of a truth, it lessens self-condemnation, and heightens your self-confidence in your ability to learn. This learning happens within the context of goals and activities that promote mastery since you are concerned with the intrinsic satisfaction or fulfillment derivable from them. The benefits reach beyond the boundaries of the personal.
A sense of meaning, belonging, and security, independent of bolstering your ego or evaluating yourself in contrast to others, arises from self-compassion. Hence, self-compassion provides a caring motivation for personal growth. In turn, the concept of how to practice self-compassion, promotes the recognition and feeling of tenderness for the shared human experience. It stimulates human connectedness, the use of more interconnected language, and caring behaviour. With that, the use of isolating language, especially when describing a perceived weakness, and the desire to strike out against others, peters out.
