Self-Compassion Break
Participants will think of a situation that is causing them stress. Call it to their mind, they will acknowledge it as a moment of suffering and then consider how suffering is a part of life. This can be guided and can happen anytime of day or night.
Reasoning
The three elements in this practice—mindfulness, common humanity, and self-kindness—all play important roles in increasing self-compassion. Mindfulness allows people to step back and recognize that they are experiencing suffering, without judging suffering as something bad that they should try to avoid. Sometimes people fail to notice when they are in pain, or deny that they are suffering because it brings up feelings of weakness or defeat. Common humanity reminds people of their connection with other people—all of whom suffer at some point in their lives—and eases feelings of loneliness and isolation. Self-kindness is an active expression of caring toward the self that can help people clarify their intentions for how they want to treat themselves. Calling themselves by their own name allows them to create distance between themselves and their suffering which allows for stress reduction.
Going through these steps in response to stressful experiences can help people replace their self-critical voice with a more compassionate one, one that comforts and reassures rather than berating them for shortcomings. That makes it easier to work through stress and reach a place of calm, acceptance, and happiness.
Procedure
The participant will bring to mind a situation that is difficult and is causing them stress. Next the participant will call the situation to mind and get in touch with what they think has happened. Once that is done they will say to themselves “This is a moment of suffering.”, using mindfulness practices which is just acknowledging the situation. The participant will then say “Suffering is a part of life.”, they should recognize their common humanity with others, possibly going on to say, “Other people feel this way,” “I’m not alone,” or “We all struggle in our lives.”. Finally they will put their hands over their heart and focus on the warmth of their hands. As they do this they will say a phrase like “May I be kind to myself.”