Season 1 with Christina Philburn and Patrick Harris - Most of us understand the idea of compassion -- the meaning of the word comes from its latin roots and means “suffer with”. We’ve all had times when we sat with a close friend and listened to their struggles and supported them in whatever way they needed at that moment usually providing kind words in hopes of helping them feel a bitter about themselves and their situation.
Self-compassion, quite simply, is just treating yourself like you would a close friend. And that’s important because we all tend to be pretty hard on ourselves most of the time while being kind and gentle to others.
And the fact that we tend to see the best in others while focusing on our own shortcomings and failures can really make matters more difficult.
So let’s all agree to stop beating ourselves up and stop comparing ourselves to others. That sounds like a great place to start. We’re all perfectly imperfect in our own way and worthy of being treated with more love and kindness.
This idea of love and kindness, or lovingkindness, sounds a lot like mindfulness.
And mindfulness is key to self-compassion. According to Dr. Kristin Neff, you simply can’t have self-compassion without mindfulness.
Mindfulness gives us the ability to sort of step outside of ourselves and recognize our pain or struggles and to turn toward that suffering in a balanced and healthy way and to respond to that struggle with kindness.
Join us next week as we explore the importance of self-acceptance.
Show Notes:
Christina: It's Not Your Turn: What to Do While You're Waiting for Your Breakthrough
Patrick: How to Live: Boxed Set of the Mindfulness Essentials Series
Claudio: Ajahn Chah quote: “Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
Host Lance Vaughn, Co-owner of the Austin Mindfulness Center
Co-host Christina Philburn, LCSW
Co-host Patrick Harris, LPC, PhD Candidate
Co-host Claudio Barrientos, Mindfulness Instructor
If you're interested in mindfulness coaching, you can purchase coaching packages with either Patrick or Claudio on our website.
