Course objectives:
Define self-compassion as a practice to increase happiness, optimism, and curiosity in our lives, while decreasing anxiety, depression, and stress.
• Discuss how self-compassion motivates with love―providing clear vision and nurturance needed to reach our full potential.
• Discuss how to turn toward our emotions with curiosity, openness, and non-judgement to counter the Default Mode Network.
• Define empathy, self-esteem, loving kindness, and equanimity as related to compassion for ourselves, our loved ones, and all beings.
• Practice and utilize guided meditations and experiential exercises in mindfulness meditation, loving kindness, interconnectedness, and working with difficult emotions as a way to embrace our lives and cultivate kindness toward ourselves.
Why does it feel so natural to be compassionate and kind to those we care about―yet so hard to treat ourselves the same way? "Our culture teaches us to use self-criticism for motivation and to build self-esteem by constantly measuring ourselves against everyone else," says Dr. Kristin Neff. "We need to re-learn the essential skill of being genuinely nurturing and supportive toward ourselves." With Self-Compassion Step by Step, this groundbreaking researcher reveals the clinically proven power of self-kindness, with practical training for cultivating an enduring and unshakable sense of your fundamental human worthiness.
Self-Compassion: The Mainstay of Happiness and Well-Being
Over the past decade, an overwhelming body of research has shown self-compassion to be a master key to good psychological and physical health. Whether you wish to reduce stress, develop healthy habits for exercise or diet, unlock your creativity, or even deal with serious conditions such as depression or addiction, a strong sense of self-compassion is an essential ingredient for success. Best of all, self-compassion is a skill that can be learned. Through six sessions of teaching, Dr. Neff offers guided meditations, experiential practices, and on-the-spot techniques to help you build a strong foundation of self-compassion in your daily life.
"We often become our own worst critic because we believe it's necessary to keep ourselves motivated," says Dr. Neff, "but in fact the research shows that healthy self-compassion increases our inner drive, our resilience to setbacks, and our ability to excel at work and in every aspect of life." With Self-Compassion Step by Step, she presents a powerful training course that is both accessible and profoundly transformative―a practical approach for creating a life of greater happiness, fulfillment, and love.
Highlights:
Self-kindness―how actively comforting ourselves activates our physiological systems designed for soothing and safety
• Common humanity-recognizing the imperfect nature of the shared human experience
• Mindfulness―meeting our moments of suffering with balanced awareness rather than ignoring or exaggerating our pain
• Why we resist self-compassion―debunking the common myths
• The clinically-proven benefits of self-compassion in numerous aspects of life
• The essential difference between competitive self-esteem and true self-compassion
• The natural progression of self-compassion practice
• Guided techniques that use visualization, touch, language, and awareness to evoke states of self-compassion, and much more
Kristin Neff
Kristin Neff, PhD, is currently an associate professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, conducting the first empirical studies on self-compassion nearly 20 years ago. In addition to writing numerous academic articles and book chapters on the topic, she is author of the book Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. In conjunction with her colleague Dr. Chris Germer, she has developed an empirically supported training program called Mindful Self-Compassion, which is taught by thousands of teachers worldwide. They coauthored the Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook: A Proven Way to Accept Yourself, Build Inner Strength, and Thrive and Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals. Her newest work focuses on how to balance self-acceptance with the courage to make needed change. In June 2021, she will publish Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive.
For more information on self-compassion, including a self-compassion test, research articles, and practices, go to self-compassion.org.
