Self Compassion and Mindfulness

Hi there, welcome to today's blog post :-) Take a moment before you start reading, to breath deeply, relax and become mindfully aware of your body, your posture, your feelings. Notice any tension in your shoulders, your chest, your gut, your heart, your pelvis, your legs. Acknowledge what's going on in your body and your life.

Now gently let any tension go and allow warm relaxing feelings to breath through your body, your heart and mind. Really enjoy a deep sense of loving self compassion in your heart and calm abiding in your gut right now. Take another deep easy flowing breath and smile, smile deeply, smile wonderfully. Smile from your head, down into your heart and on into your gut. It feels great and you deserve to experience it mindfully now :-)

Today's Blog: why it's so practical

 
I've blogged before about how life enhancing compassion and mindfulness can be, how they can add practical value to your life and how they are linked with your heart, head and gut brains... and so today I want to reinforce this knowledge by sharing a short youtube vid entitled 'Self Compassion: What it Really is and Why it's so Practical'

Do you remember the blog post I did on Transcending Pain? In it, I described how pain is a signal and the word 'pain' can be considered to be an acronym that describes the role of this signaling:

PAIN = Please Acknowledge Information Now

Once you have consciously acknowledged the experience of the paining -- the information -- you find the emotional valence of the experience is often massively decreased. Notice the links between this and what Dr. Germer described in the video. Suffering decreases when you mindfully acknowledge and accept pain, either physical pain or psychological pain.

SUFFERING = PAIN x RESISTANCE

Self  compassion, mindfulness, heart-felt acknowledging and openness, all lead to a change in the unconscious response to paining and decrease suffering. Every one of us has and will experience times in our lives in which pain is inevitable. The ability to control that paining, to transcend it and to overcome and transcend suffering is incredibly life enhancing.

You might want to increase your knowledge and skills in Self Compassion and Mindfulness by reading Dr. Germer's book:


The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions