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.
There are few things that can bring out our common humanity more than the maddening struggle with sleeplessness. Trained mindfulness expert and MSC teacher, Catherine Polan Orzech, teams up with behavioral sleep specialist, William H. Moorcroft, to offer evidence-based meditations and an four-week protocol to address the root of sleep issues.
After a devastating attack on over 300 women and children in Elgon, Kenya, a team of MSC teachers aspires to guide and support affected families as they begin to turn toward their grief and suffering. Your financial support helps make the trip possible.
Compassion, consciousness and civility in the workplace are essential. Join the Compassionate Leadership Summit and learn new tools to bring your vision for enlightened leadership to life.
—✦— Giving oneself compassion is a challenging process for just about everyone. That’s why the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program was created by Drs. Chris Germer and Kristin Neff in 2010…
This incisive and thoughtful commentary teaches how self-compassion, mindfulness, and relationship can support us in coping with tragedy and violence
I can remember my very first MSC training experience from several years ago like it was yesterday. There was definitely a surge of internal experiences that I observed as I…
Six years in the making, a comprehensive textbook describing the Mindful Self-Compassion program will finally be released this August. This is THE authoritative guide to conducting the MSC.
Touched by the depth of caring and authentic brotherhood he found during a recent trip to Angola Prison in Louisiana, USA, Chris Germer discovered the power of self-compassion to support those suffering under the oppressive weight of shame for their crimes, their incarceration, and their inability to care for their families while in prison. So where must we go from here?
While it might be difficult to imagine an online learning experience being as effective as a traditional classroom experience, we’ve found over the years of teaching MSC online we can come close. If you cannot make it to a live class due to your life circumstances, we invite you to try out online learning for yourself.
By Dr. Chris Germer
Co-founder, Center for Mindful Self-Compassion
DEI training may appear to be simply the latest American obsession, but, in my view, it will soon become a global imperative. Regardless of the culture, there are always vast numbers of people who are suffering due to systemic oppression (unconscious bias, marginalization, or discrimination) of individual and collective differences. As our world becomes increasingly globalized and we live cheek to jowl with people quite different from ourselves, especially people with different views and values, our need for compassion will only increase if our planet is to survive.
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 Jennifer Ayres, PhD
A cherished painting, a well-loved game of Candy Land, and an old journal: A Texas psychologist excavates the many layers of her self-compassion (r)evolution.
by Krista Gregory, MDiv
Amidst unprecedented rates of burnout and suicide, RCT shows that abbreviated MSC program provides much-needed relief to health care professionals.
By Lyndi Smith
Low-back pain is a big deal. An estimated 80% of the population will suffer from back pain at some point. Read five self-compassionate responses that can help.
By Dr. Cynthia Phelps
Shame and recovery: How self-compassion stepped in where rehab left off
By Dr. Steve Hickman
As the Jedi Master Yoda famously said “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
By Daniel Ellenberg, PhD
A startling number of men suffer in silence. They hide their pain, often from even themselves. Self-compassion leads men to the source of their own inner strength.
A recent study examined the effects of dog ownership on veterans with symptoms of post-traumatic stress. This research suggests that being a dog owner may be a way to access and cultivate the warmth and comfort provided by self-compassion through connecting with the loving presence of a canine friend.
By Steve Hickman
“The beatings will continue until morale improves!” In the new year, what would it be like to motivate yourself out of love and positive regard for yourself rather than criticism, judgment and shaming?
Written by Cassondra Graff, M.S., LCSW
Something inside me said “Go!” So I did.
I went to Vietnam in the Spring of 2018 with an international delegation of like-minded people with two objectives: firstly, to bring the Mindful Self-Compassion, MSC program to Vietnam and make the program more accessible to the locals; and secondly to enable Vietnam to self-sustain MSC programs in the future. We would ultimately achieve these objectives with our Vietnamese partners and the generosity of people from all over the world…
by Michelle Becker
How compassion for our partner and ourselves can help when disillusionment and negativity bias kick in.
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.
Written by Dr. Steve Hickman
Her radiance, the lack of self-consciousness, the spirit of a Carioca (a resident of Rio) all shone through because she could embrace her true nature as a glorious, lively, perfectly imperfect human being who simply wants to be happy and free from suffering.
Written by Dr. Kristin Neff
In many ways the #MeToo movement can be seen as the collective arising of female yang. We are finally speaking up to protect ourselves, our sisters, our daughters and sons. Thank goodness. Women need to fully embrace and integrate both tender and fierce compassion if we are ever going to free ourselves from patriarchy.
Our China-based Certified MSC Teacher and Teacher Trainer, Hailan Guo was selected as one of China’s Top 50 Influential Figures in the Mental Health Sector by YiXinli, China’s largest mental health education and consultation platform with over 17 million subscribers.
Written by Dr. Kimberly Sogge
After an evening of soaking in Pink Floyd’s iconoclastic sound, I came away convinced that their legendary rock music is the perfect metaphor for the processes of transformation at work in the human psyche on a meditation retreat. If you are considering making an extended retreat part of your practice, consider the following and then, as my first zen teacher used to say “believe nothing I tell you; go, and find out for yourself”.
What could possibly be the role of self-compassion in a prison? And how could such a concept ever be of use to hardened lifers in one of the toughest prisons in the United States?
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.
