Being Self-Compassionate Creates Better Mental Health

Summery


A recent study found that people can live life in a more balanced way if they use self-compassion against negative influences such as defeat, loss, failure and rejection.

Original source:
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/110/109639.htm

 

Details

  • Life is a journey and we all have obstacles to overcome; new research shows that obstacles might not be so bad if you treat yourself with compassion.
  • In other words, don’t be so hard on yourself when you experience failure.
  • Self-compassion is in some ways more important than high self-esteem, report researchers from Wake Forest University.
  • “Although Western society has emphasized the importance of high self-esteem, the more important thing may be to have self-compassion — the ability to treat oneself kindly in the face of failure, rejection, defeat, and other negative events,” says researcher and psychology professor Mark Leary, PhD, in a news release.
  • Leary and colleagues presented three self-compassion studies in Washington, D.C. at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention.
  • In the first study, students were asked to imagine themselves in certain situations, like causing their team to lose a game or forgetting their role in a play.
  • Those who were harsher on themselves were more likely to fret with statements like, “This is awful,” or “I’m such a loser.”
  • Lastly, students in the third test boosted self-compassion by recalling a failure from their lives and writing about it as if they were writing to a friend who had gone through the same thing.
  • They also reported being happier and less angry than participants lower in self-compassion.
  • Self-compassionate students were also less likely to dwell on negative events and to view neutral feedback positively, the study showed.
  • They handled failure better if they were kind to themselves about it, even if they had low self-esteem.
  • “A self-compassionate mindset may be particularly beneficial for people with low self-esteem,” states Leary in the news release.
  • * Raising low self-esteem doesn’t bring new coping skills if people still beat themselves up for failures.

Article can also be found at: http://www.naturalnews.com/011456.html

by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor