Mindfulness: compassion towards oneself

I followed several mindfulness sessions about compassion towards oneself (a model developed by Kristin Neff, www.self-compassion.org) and I would like to share some information on this subject.

According to this model, compassion for itself involves three components:

• Caring for oneself
• Recognition of his humanity
• Mindfulness.

Caring for oneself

Be warm and understanding towards oneself in painful moments, failure or inadequate feelings, rather than ignore difficulties or criticize oneself negatively.

Compassionate people acknowledge that being imperfect, experiencing failures or difficulties is inevitable. They tend to be kind towards themselves in these situations rather than feeling anger. There comes a greater serenity. When this reality is denied or fought, suffering increases in the form of stress, frustration and self-criticism.

Recognition of his humanity

Recognize that suffering and personal failure are part of the experience shared by humanity.

The frustration with the fact that things do not happen as desired is often accompanied by an irrational feeling of isolation, being alone in these situations. Recognizing that we are human is also recognizing that thoughts, emotions and behaviors are affected by "external" factors such as parental history, culture, genetic and environmental factors, and also the behaviors and expectations of others. This recognition helps to be less critical about his personal weaknesses.

Photography from Pexels and used under the CC0 license.
Original source: Dr. Kristin Neff (www.self-compassion.org)