Practicing self-compassion can result in increased peace and happiness and a more loving relationship with yourself and others. One of the best kept secrets about being human is that most of our suffering is not personal. Even though much of the time we compare our insides to other people’s outsides and often conclude that everyone else is ok and we are not, it’s not personal.
Most of our suffering is simply a part of our human nature. That feisty inner critic in your mind? Most of us wrestle with it until we learn skillful means for making peace with it, which is entirely possible, by the way. One of the things the mind does when we don’t give it a task to do is that it makes commentary about the present moment. The commentary is often critical, and much of the time it’s directed inward toward ourselves.
Practicing Self-Compassion Meditation Changes the Brain
Regular mindfulness practice has been shown to increase grey matter in the area of the brain that relates to empathy and compassion. So just meditating regularly will grow your self-compassion, as will bringing mindful awareness to the moments in which you’re being unkind to yourself, pausing, and engaging in a merciful act of kindness toward yourself. And just in case your mind is telling you that self-compassion equals self-indulgence, it’s not true. There is a skillful way toward practicing self-compassion and still holding ourselves accountable.
If your compassion does not include yourself, it’s incomplete. –Jack Kornfield
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3 replies on “Practicing Self-Compassion for Peace and Happiness”
A good reminder.
Hope it’s helpful!
I too can quickly find myself making “commentaries about the present moment,” so I’ve devised a list of activities to help shush that inner narrator. Writing and photography are two of those activities