In my profession, I have a bird’s-eye view of the intense daily life struggles experienced by many teens who are overwhelmed by academic standards, social pressures, and familial stresses. This is a story about a courageous young woman, Malavika, and her journey out of despair and into self-compassion.
Compassion is relational. And perhaps the most complicated of these relations at times are within our family. Families are the very foundation of this human experience, and so many threads of the tapestry of our life may well be family relations. Bearing the complexity of this in mind, I humbly offer my story of the caring relation-shipping that I had with the four elders in my life: my parents and my husband’s parents. And if you are in the time of your life where you are caring for an elderly parent/s, my wish for you is to include yourself in your caring. Know that the caring goes on long after they die and that loving relation-shipping is eternal.
Excessive focus on one’s own negative aspects can have harmful effects, such as depression. It is especially so for adolescents, because they are more vulnerable to peers’ negative appraisals. We…
Parenting a child with an illness or disability is very common yet remains a silent plight for many. Close to 20% of parents have a child with a chronic condition or disability, which is defined as any condition that has lasted or is expected to last for at least 12 months.
We are excited to announce our first Regional MSC Teacher Festival is currently planned for July 15-18, 2021 in the Niagara Falls region of North America, on the Canadian-US Border.
Project Huruma has emerged with a vision to support caregivers and survivors of trauma around the world with mindfulness and self-compassion skills, starting with the Mt. Elgon community in Western Kenya. Here, we offer you the first in a series of articles on the project’s progress.
Compassion is aimed at the alleviation of suffering—that of others or ourselves— and can be ferocious as well as tender.
-Kristin Neff
by Mara Elwood
CMSC Correspondent
Parenting can be one of the planet’s toughest jobs. In her forthcoming book, Susan M. Pollak, MTS, EdD, shares practical strategies and practices for the parenting journey, all based on a foundation of self-compassion and acceptance that we are enough, just as we are. Interview with CMSC Correspondent, Mara Elwood
by Catherine Polan Orzech
Mothers in recovery face the challenges as parents that others of us will never have to face. But they also face many of the same internal hurdles that bedevil all parents. We can learn from them, and with them, how learning to parent ourselves with mindfulness and compassion can help us engage with and recover from our own daily challenges in the amazing journey of being a parent.
My son Benji reminds me of Lovejoy, the glowing green comet that visited earth a few years ago for the first time in 11,500 years. Both are beautiful and rare, other-worldly phenomena transiting my life.
Families today live in a society that is rapidly changing, increasingly demanding, faster moving, overly stimulating, increasingly unpredictable, and financially insecure. In the midst of this, stress-related symptoms and conditions in adults and children alike have become common, and cross all socioeconomic lines.
