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28. Self-Compassion: Remembering You're Not Alone

 

In this episode, we're talking about self-compassion. We're digging into that third aspect of self-compassion noted by researcher Dr. Kristin Neff, which is: common humanity vs isolation. The essence of this aspect includes the feelings of not belonging and feeling alone in our suffering.

Dr. Neff describes this: 

"Frustration at not having things exactly as we want is often accompanied by an irrational, but pervasive sense of isolation. As if 'I' were the only person suffering or making mistakes.

All humans suffer. However, the very definition of being human means that one is mortal, vulnerable, and imperfect. Therefore self-compassion involves recognizing that suffering and personal inadequacy is part of the shared human experience. Something that we all go through, rather than being something that happens to me alone."

In this episode, we'll work to break out of isolation and break out of these cycles of self-isolation. 

 

Watch this episode on YouTube.

 

Key Takeaways:

  • We have to acknowledge that there are external things in our lives that we have little control over. We have more leverage, more control over our inner experience. 
  • Self-compassion offers us an opportunity to stop fighting with our depression and anxiety.
  • We have to hold ourselves and our pain with love to get relief. 
  • Social pain, the feeling of being left out, is literally painful, using the same pain circuitry as physical pain does. That means when we feel supported, our interpretation of pain will be reduced.
  • Fight, flight, and bite are not are only ways to handle stress... The "tend and befriend" response offers us another avenue to handle stress and reduce social pain.

 

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