Studies in Self-Compassion

Posted on Mar 2, 2011

Flickr/Cyn74 (CC-BY)

“No pain, no gain” may have its limits as a personal mantra, according to researchers exploring the idea of self-compassion as a motivating attitude for everything from mood regulation to fitness and weight control—in other words, less stick, more carrot.  —KA

The New York Times:

Self-compassion is really conducive to motivation,” Dr. Neff said. “The reason you don’t let your children eat five big tubs of ice cream is because you care about them. With self-compassion, if you care about yourself, you do what’s healthy for you rather than what’s harmful to you.”

Dr. Neff, whose book, “Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind,” is being published next month by William Morrow, has developed a self-compassion scale: 26 statements meant to determine how often people are kind to themselves, and whether they recognize that ups and downs are simply part of life.

[...] Dr. Neff says that the field is still new and that she is just starting a controlled study to determine whether teaching self-compassion actually leads to lower stress, depression and anxiety and more happiness and life satisfaction.

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