More Mindfulness - Week 6

In the last week of this More Mindfulness series, we examined the seminal work of Kristen Neff in her new book, Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power and Thrive. 

It may feel almost counter-intuitive to think about how to be self-compassionate when you are in the middle of a crisis and just need to get through it, but Neff encourages us to think again. The way we speak to ourselves when things go wrong plays an important role in how we emerge and how we perceive the world around us.

Neff explains that “Fierce self-compassion involves “acting in the world” to alleviate suffering. It tends to involve protecting, providing for, and motivating ourselves. Sometimes we need to stand tall and say no, draw boundaries, or fight injustice. Or we may need to say yes to ourselves, to do what’s needed to be happy rather than subordinating our needs to those of others. And if we’re stuck in a bad situation or habits that are harmful, it means doing something different. Not because we’re unacceptable as we are, but because we care.”

Neff explains that “The golden rule says: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. An addendum should be: Do NOT do unto others as you do unto yourself, or you’ll have no friends.”

To read more about her ground-breaking work on self-compassion, see the links below. 

For those of you who would like to delve deeper, here is this week's selection of links:

Books: Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power and Thrive, by Kristen Neff. Click here.

Meditations: A 10-Minute Guided Meditation to Connect With Loving Kindness by Sharon Salzburg. Click here.

Articles: The Transformative Effects of Mindful Self-Compassion by Kristen Neff and Chris GElmer: Click here.

Three Simple Ways Parents Can Practise Self-Compassion by Maryam Abdullah. Click here.

This Week’s Prose by Yung Pueblo

“Every time someone loves themselves better, builds their self-awareness, understands their patterns, improves their ability to communicate and expands their compassion for others the future of humanity grows brighter. Your healing makes a difference.”