When we feel safely connected to others we begin to feel content and safe. This loving-kindness practice can help bring you out of your threat defense system and into your care system, where you are resourced rather than reactive.
CMSC Blog
Planting Seeds of Compassion in Israel
In my home country of Israel, as we watched the COVID virus touch so many families and friends, a group of women friends and I created a new compassion program to help our community cultivate inner peace. We called it “Planting Seeds of Compassion” and offered it as a bilingual program taught in Hebrew and Arabic for Jews and Arabs in Israel.
The Body as Friend, Companion, and Guide: Restoring Connection Through Self-Compassion
When your body does not behave, look, or feel the way you want it to, you may feel that wish to pull away, blame, and shame it. It is exactly in these challenging moments that self-compassion is there to remind you that your precious body never meant to cause you any harm or distress. Rather, it is, and always has been, just trying to guide you along this journey of life.
Transformations Through Mindful Self-Compassion in Eldoret
Sometimes, there are atrocities that are so horrific that we can’t help but be moved to compassionate action. Such was the case in 2018 when over 300 women and children were caught in the political crossfire between warring factions in the secluded mountainous region of Chepkurkur on Mount Elgon in Kenya. With the encouragement of Lilian Muthui, a Kenya-based psychologist and counselor, a team of us set out to provide carefully adapted Mindful Self-Compassion training for the women, teens, and children of the war-torn community. Here is my story.
Being Your Own Cheerleader
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.
Taking the Self Out of Self-Righteousness
Most of us understand the importance of doing good and standing up for what is just, but how might we discern being “upright” from being self-righteous? A dedicated mindfulness practice can help.
What is possible when we surrender?
When we feel like giving up, there is something heroic and necessary in simply standing and finding our feet, steadying our hearts and minds the way we would do this for another, and beginning to put one foot in front of the other on a renewed life journey of redemption, forgiveness and release of the ill-fated wish for something else. Writing this article was my first step on that journey. What will be yours?
Preliminary Research on the Role of Self-Compassion During the COVID Pandemic
Findings from recent studies in Hong Kong, Spain, Israel, Iran, and Austria illustrate the range of ways, during the tumultuous conditions of the COVID pandemic, that self-compassion can guide us to take actions that promote our healing and interconnected wellbeing.
Renew Your Self-Compassion for the New Year with Two Free Mini-Retreats
As we turn our minds and hearts toward 2021, the transition is an ideal time to focus on restoration and renewal for ourselves, the collective, and our earth. All are welcome to join Chris Germer, Steve Hickman, and other MSC teachers for inspiration, nourishment, and guidance during these two free mini-retreats.
Study of 80 Veterans Shows that MSC is a Valuable Addition to Medical Pain Management Strategies
In a recent study by Dr. Greg Serpa and colleagues, it appears that teaching Veterans to meet their emotional and physical suffering with kindness had an impact on their medication use. “Our treatment system has medicalized pain management and then blamed and marginalized those who suffer for seeking the very thing our system has trained them to see as their best path for relief. Humans have used compassion to alleviate suffering for millennia. Isn’t it time to support those who are suffering with compassion training?”
Steadying Ourselves with Daily G.L.A.D.S. Practice
“Existence will rush to fill us and overwhelm us if we don’t meet the outer world with an inner life.” -Mark Nepo In a world struggling under the burden of…
New brain imaging study shows self-compassion training alters neural responses to chronic pain
A new brain imaging study shows that self-compassion training alters neural responses to chronic pain.
MSC and Being with Ageing Parents
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.
Building Inner Strength for Hard Times: Self-Compassion for Young Adults
In the new Embracing Your Life course, young adults learn ways of meeting emotional challenges unique to this age group. Adapted from the empirically supported Mindful Self-Compassion program, Embracing Your Life offers tools to become more resilient to anger, sadness, anxiety, and more. Needed now more than ever.
The Near and Far Enemies of Fierce Compassion
Practitioners of compassion inevitably ask, “What specific actions should I take?” to address injustice in their lives. Cultivating the qualities of mindfulness, common humanity and kindness is a good foundation for compassionate action, and when we add a measure of wisdom, we can surely change the world for the better.
Self-Compassion and Waking Up to Racial Injustice
By participating in and benefitting from an unjust system, we perpetuate racism. We need to have self-compassion to see our role in racism clearly, holding this uncomfortable truth with love and acceptance, so we can wake up and commit to do things differently.
The Surprising Benefits of an Online Meditation Retreat
Online retreats can be a loving refuge amidst chaos in the time of global pandemic. Beth Mulligan shares that by gently challenging our expectations for what a retreat “should” look like, we open ourselves to seeing that one need not travel to “get away from it all.” Indeed, the potential for connection, insight, and ease are right here at home.
Chris Germer: Past, Present and Future: A Biographical Interview
“I think we’re at the beginning of a great wave of compassion.” – Chris Germer
Self-Compassion and COVID-19
What kind of world do we want to create as we navigate through global challenges like Covid-19? Will our hearts expand or contract as they bump into each new challenge? A global commitment to living compassionately can make all the difference and self-compassion seems like an excellent way to start.
Rx when Parenting a Child with a Chronic Condition
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.
The Promise of Self-Compassion for Attorneys
Many lawyers may think that self-compassion is too touchy feely and that if they indulge in such feelings, they will lose their edge. While skepticism is understandable, research findings debunk some of the common misconception about the construct.
Noticing what you need and then asking for it: Self-compassion 101
Like so many other women, my fierce self-compassion is still very much a work in progress. But I’m getting better at the self-awareness part. And so, for today, I practice self compassion by congratulating myself on how far I have come – and I refuse to beat myself up over how far I have yet to go.
An ambitious vision for compassionate children’s television is steadily taking root with “Sophie and Friends”
Inspired by her experience learning self-compassion, MSC graduate Sophie Kirby wondered, “What if we taught kids compassion from the get-go? Imagine what their world could become.” Her ambitious vision for remarkable children’s TV is now ending its first season and going strong.
Healing in Community: Project Huruma
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.
Coping During Australia’s Bushfire Crisis: MSC Teachers Share Their Stories
“… A knowing arises in me that I need an anchor, a way to find balance for my nervous system. This anchor is what gives me some stability to hold onto. Without that I become a mess and am unable to be of service to myself or anyone else.”
Bringing the Benefits of Self-Compassion into the Workplace: MSC@Work
Harsh, performance-oriented workplaces can take an emotional and physical toll on employees. MSC@Work, debuting in January, helps build the inner resource people need to thrive at work and in life: self-compassion.
Cultivating Kindness and Strength in the Face of Difficulty: Yin and Yang of Self-Compassion
Kristin Neff discusses the importance of deepening our understanding of self-compassion to include self-protection, self-motivation, and providing for ourselves.
Taking Our Practice into the World
While we may begin training in self-compassion to ease our own personal pain, the transformation that follows is a deeply practical, radically counter-cultural state of being which directly benefits the world at large.
The Little Book of Self-Compassion
The Little Book of Self-Compassion by MSC Teacher, Kathryn Lovewell was born out of the desire to share the transformative power, potency and accessibility of Mindful Self-Compassion. It is intended as a deep bow to Chris and Kristin’s work and a “first step” for all those who want kindness inside, but don’t know or believe it is possible.
The Case for Surgical Self-Compassion
The ubiquitous story that the road to excellence and high performance should be paved with external or internal criticism and shame is a psychological barrier that needs to be broken down in the world of medicine. Retired thoracic surgeon Michael Maddaus explains why.
