The Power of Self-Compassion

by Laurie J. Cameron

There’s no denying that life can be difficult. Simply being human means experiencing emotional and physical pain. None of us escapes dealing with pain, failure, and setbacks. But learning how to practice mindful self-compassion can be life-changing. Self-compassion comes from the understanding that every human being suffers, that we all want to be happy, and that this commonality connects us with everyone else.

Over the last decade, there has been an international explosion of research on mindfulness and self-compassion. Contemplative practices are being integrated with science and psychology. Researchers are sharing information on the power of inner-directed compassion and its beneficial effects on mental well-being, growth, motivation, relationships, and physical health.

Join expert Laurie Cameron to discover tools—including meditations, exercises, journaling, and in-the-moment practices—that will help you evoke mindfulness and self-compassion in your everyday life, in a way that it becomes your natural response—your new set of habits. As you adopt these practices, you’ll start to see a shift in how you work with stressful life events, as well as how you connect with the shared human experience of loss, challenge, disappointment, failure, and setbacks.

Genres: Audiobook, Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Personal Development, How To, Leadership

Audible Audio

Published January 2, 2020

About the author

Laurie Cameron, author, and founder of PurposeBlue, shares her energy and compassion to inspire, teach, and coach internationally. Recent clients include Google, Deloitte, The Aspen Institute, Cisco, Sunovian, Gemalto and Union Bank, among others. Laurie received the Five Mindfulness Trainings directly from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, and offers these teachings as everyday applications. Laurie’s forthcoming National Geographic book The Mindful Day is for the busy professional who wants to learn practical, accessible ways to integrate mindfulness into daily life. She authored “A Mindful Approach to Navigating Change” in the book The Neuroscience of Learning and Development, Stylus, 2016 and is featured on mindfulness in National Geographic’s book 100 Things to Make You Happy, 2015.

Currently a Senior Fellow with the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University, Laurie teaches Mindful Leadership at Maryland’s R.H. Smith School of Business and is a Master Teacher with Google’s Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, teaching in London, Paris, Munich, Zurich, Beijing, Hyderabad, Helsinki, Copenhagen and throughout the United States.

As a former leader in Accenture’s Change and Human Performance practice, Laurie has served Fortune 100 companies globally, while living in Germany, the US and Brazil. She held executive positions in Leadership and Organization Performance at Williams Sonoma, Blue Shield of California, and Fort Point Partners. Laurie is a certified executive coach with the International Coaching Federation and works one-on-one with clients to optimize performance and well being. Laurie teaches in schools and has taught over 1500 young students and 300 faculty the core concepts and practices of mindfulness and compassion.

Reviews

[Herzl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good supplementary course AFTER you have finished a full-length self-help book or two. I first read “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” and “The Art of Communicating” before I jumped into this course. In the first chapter, Cameron referenced Thich Nhat Hanh and his teachings (the autor of the second book I mentioned). I was ready to give this one a rating of two stars because I thought she was just ripping off his works. THEN THE GUIDED MEDITATION STARTED.

I have tried ~meditating~ before, or at least that was what I thought I was doing. I failed at it since my thoughts just grew louder as I was trying to quiet them down. Doing it on my own for my first time was a wrong move (TWSS lol). What I had not tried was guided meditation. This course offered me that. My thoughts started to become a lot more organized in my head and on my notebook. I liked that each chapter offers a different variation of meditation or relaxation guide, which is always during the last eight or so minutes – I can easily go back to these guides whenever I want or need them.
THIS COURSE IS A GREAT COMPANION TO YOUR FAVORITE SELF-HELP BOOK. My personal favorite by far is Thich Naht Hanh’s “The Art of Communication” – I still go back to my notes from that book almost daily. Listening to this felt like I was in a retreat. I first attended a seminar by Thich Naht Hanh, then Cameron served as a facilitator of a guided meditation workshop that followed afterwards. It was a great start to my year.

I do not think I would have appreciated this course as much had I not read a few good self-help books prior. It does not stand on its own, at least for me.

[Jenny Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audible Challenge: My goal is to catch up on my Audible library collection instead of hopping onto Overdrive and Cloud Library for my next audiobook.

Short and basic, but it has nice journaling exercises and guided meditations.

[Omar Bajaber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll start with a disclaimer. Based on most of the examples and anecdotes I get the impresion the book isn't well suited to all demographics including mine, although nothing in the book description indicates that.
Most of the examples and anecdotes were not relatable or rather the situations were relatable but the level of stress and authors suggested reactions were not relatable.
In fact most of the examples remind me a lot about first world problems.

Here's another disclaimer and this is still a negative point for the book.
The narators voice was way too soothing. This works well for the meditation exercises but doesn't for the rest of the book. Due to the relaxing effect of the narators voice, my mind would drift off a lot of the time, and it may be in those moments that all the redeaming parts of the book are. I had to rewind a lot of the time when I would drift off, which means what already feals like an unnecessarily long book was made even longer.

Here's another thing that bothers me about this book, it seems to be a lot more about mindfulness and meditation (although shallow in these topics too) and I didn't get much about self compasion. I understand that mindfulness may be related to the subject but I didn't gather much about the main subject itself.
There are also parts about the therapeutic effects of being in nature and journaling but for the most part they are poorly contextualised with the main topic of self compassion.

There were way too many meditation exercises. The book description does say it has some exercises but a lot of these meditation exercises were repetitive and only at the end of each exercise would there be a slight variation poorly relating to the chapters focus. I did most of the exercises but by the last 3rd of the book I was tired of being told to sit up straight, feel my feet on the ground, to focus on my breathing and other repetitive meditation routines. (Don't tell me what to do!)
I gave up on doing the last few exercises because they were more of the same, and I didn't really gain much in self compasion for the first few anyways, only relaxed but thats only because its meditation.

Maybe I would have a better appreciation of the book if it wasn't the first book Ive "read" on the subject of Self Compasion, but I doubt it.

I got this book, interested in and expecting to learn more about self compassion and how to have the same level of compassion for myself as I do for others. Unfortunately, this book did none of those things.

[Prandlt Meyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first impression was terrible and it never recovered. The author of this self help-book wants to convince you she is the right person to help you because of how she recovered from the worst experience in her life: being denied to board a flight to go on vacation. How did she deal with it? She went out with friends for dinner that night. The whole of the first chapter is about this life-changing experience.
From that point on, I could barely cope with the tone, the slow pace, the monochord voice, and this unshakeable feeling of being given lessons about life and self-love by someone who apparently has never really known how difficult life can be and who never had problems being the center of attention.
The only thing that saved this book was that I got for free on Audible, although I won't get the hours it took to listen to it back.

[Elizabeth W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not care about this book. While I'm sorry the author missed her chance to go to South Africa, she was constantly referencing something that I could not relate to. I understand that the point is we should allow ourselves to feel what ever misgiving we feel, no matter its relative signifcance. But constantly referencing something that most of us never had the priveledge to consider doing starts to get distracting and sound like self pity, eather than self compassion. Would it have been better to reference something a little more every day. Like managing a poor job performance review. Or unwarranted criticism from a stranger. We all deal with conflicts and misgivings, there has to be something more universal to apply here.

I will say that she did have a lively voice and her rhythm and speaking, when I didn't focus on what she was saying, helped calm me and lull me into a nice sleep.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a self-help book about cutting yourself some slack. Great idea! We should all! But the author does not give directions how to do so. There's a whole lot of blah blah blah, read by the author as though she's reading a lullaby. It pains me to say negative things but in this case I wish I had had a heads-up. I paid $0 and feel as though I've been had.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I JUST HAVE TO SAY
If it weren't for Audible’s monthly selection I would have never picked this up.

MY RATING ★★★☆☆

RATING EXPLAINED
3 - Good Book. Has all the right mechanics but it's just a little average. It's probably been done before or maybe it's not my cup of tea but I see the appeal and the potential. Many others may enjoy reading it but I wouldn't recommended this one too readily -especially if you're short on time.

REVIEW
I'm going to be blunt. There's nothing wrong with this book but there's also nothing exuberant about it that makes it stick out from all the other self help books on the market.

I think it's important for us to try to treat ourselves and others kindly and that comes from a place of compassion but this book didn't offer anything you haven't already read in memes for free.

It was a nice afternoon listen. It did have me breathing calmer and more self-aware but the book requires you to stop and change location to complete it in it's fullness and in January I'm not going to walk around the forest barefoot to "kiss the ground"

[Cori · Rating 2 out of 5]

A two-star rating might be unfair for this Audible original; I think I just came into it expecting something very different from the final product.

The Power of Self-Compassion is a Meditation and Mindfulness 101 abreviated curriculum. Laurie Cameron leads the listener through ten meditation exercises to punctuate ten chapters of teaching behind mindfulness.

I think I went into it expecting more science and for Cameron to go into more complex teaching. But like I said, this is pretty unfair. As a psych nurse, this was fairly basic information, but I recognize that anyone who is unfamiliar with the subject materials would likely find this beneficial.

In terms of the Audible performance: Cameron's voice will put you to sleep and I sped it up to 1.55 speed and it still felt slow.

I'd rate this a G.

[Roman Kurys · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oof. This was rough. I definitely had to put it on DNF a few times but just couldn’t let it be not finished. It was bothering me, so I consumed it in small chunks.

This book this the opposite it was meant to do to me. It was making me angry most of the time instead of calming me down. (Might be that I am the problem here, who knows?).

Overall I think the message was: “Self-Love”. Much like it seems to be the message from every other motivational book and meme these days. I suppose I just had enough of the same thing. There wasn’t anything new here for me.

I thought the exercises were a nice gimmick, but they would be better suited in something like a mindfulness app or some fitness app. My Apple Watch is already telling me to “Breathe” so I didn’t feel the need for a book to do the same.

Avoid if you can.

Roman

[C Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is very enlightening and must be savored, not gulped. There are a lot of helpful content on mindfulness, some practice meditations, and journaling.

[Angelle Tusa · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are some good ideas here, this book is far too brief to truly be helpful. For example she talks about the importance of journaling long term and how it can help you, but she only presents two journaling exercises overall. The concepts are all very high level, and many are not well explained. If I hadn’t already studied mindfulness, I may have been lost. I do think it’s a good idea to add positivity and compassion to the concepts of mindfulness, but there’s just not a lot here. It feels like a teaser to get you to sign up for her more in depth courses.

[debbicat *made of stardust* · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not bad. Not bad at all. It was an audible freebie...one of the selections for members to choose from during Feb. as a free download. A lot of good points made and i tried some of the meditations. 4 stars just because it got me to try meditating. ;-) It was also useful to put on sleep timer and drift off to sleep to. I tried some of the journaling as well and enjoyed that.

[Philip Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really struggled to finish this book. She had some great points throughout but not something I enjoyed.

[lauraღ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very well-intentioned and there are doubtless parts of it that were very useful, but I don't know how useful it was for me? I really did go into this with the best of intentions, determined to get something from it. I kinda got turned off from the beginning, because I truly could not identify or empathise with the anecdote the author/narrator tells in an attempt to ease us into this idea of self compassion. But I mean, I don't think it's necessarily a must for the reader to empathise with everything about the author in a book like this. The points were all salient, and like, I was already sold on the idea of being more self compassionate, of the good it could do for the self and others. And I tried to take it all seriously; I did all the meditations and the journaling exercises. But in the end, this all felt very surface level and a little useless. To me, at least; I have to underscore that. I don't have a lot of experience with self help books, so idk if this is what they're usually like. But while I don't feel badly about this experience, and I agree with all the points being made, I just feel kinda 'meh' about it in general.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meditation Course
Review of the Audible Original audiobook (Jan. 2020

This is basically a meditation course and is part of Audible's The Great Courses series and consists of 10 lessons of about 25 minutes each. The writer/narrator Laurie Cameron has a relaxed and calming speaking voice which reflects the material but can also be so relaxed that your mind can wander off topic, at least it had that effect on me. The several returns to the author's own stress topic of missing their own family's African safari had a distancing effect being that it would be a trip that most people will never be able to experience.

The Power of Self-Compassion was one of the free Audible Originals for members in January 2020. It is available to everyone for a standard price.

[Norma Christensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't get much out of this one. I'd rather do Tai Chi.

[Arm Patsawut · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad advice / too short / too shallow / zzzzzzz
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เกินครึ่งพูดเรื่องสติ เรื่องสมาธิ เพราะถ้าไม่เริ่มจากการมีสติก่อนก็ไม่ต้องไปพูดถึง Self-Compassion อะไร หนังสือเลยพูดเรื่องการปฎิบัติเพื่อให้มีสติสะมาก เช่น นั่งสมาธิ เดินจงกรม (แบบฝรั่ง) จากนั้นพอสติไม่แตกไม่ถาโถม ก็ค่อยๆ คุยกับตัวเอง โอบกอดตัวเองเอง เมตตากรุณาตัวเอง เหมือนที่เมตตากรุณาคนอื่น และก็คลีให้เห็นว่ามีสมองส่วนใดบ้างที่เข้ามาเกี่ยวข้องในกระบวนการทั้งหมดนี้ และความเมตตากับความเป็นมนุษย์นั้นเหตุใดจึงแยกกันไม่ขาด
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อีกส่วนหนึ่งพูดเรื่องทฤษฎีวิฒนาการกับ Negative-bias ต่างๆส่วนนี้รู้สึกว่าไม่ลึกและพยายามยัดเข้าไปเพื่อให้มันดูเป็นวิทยาศาสตร์ให้ฝรั่งอ่านอย่างสบายใจ
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แต่จริงๆผู้เขียน base on พระพุทธศาสนา ไม่ได้เป็นดร.อะไรทั้งสิ้น เป็นลูกศิษย์ของพระเวียดนาม thick nan han และโดยแก่นแกน Self-Compassion คือความเมตตากรุณา และเป็นปัญญารูปแบบหนึ่ง และปัญญาใดๆต้องเกิดขึ้นโดยมีสติเป็นที่ตั้งทั้งสิ้น
.
That it’s

[Rebecca Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay, and I did find it helpful.

It rehashes all the oft-cited research on mindfulness and neuroplasticity, and combines it with meditation and journaling practices. This research can be framed for just about any circumstance or group of people. I myself have edited self-help books — plural! — based on all the same studies. Now, this particular course is framed for upper middle class white ladies. So, like many other reviewers, I also found the author's central example of a life challenge — having to miss a South African safari with her family — extremely irritating and unrelatable. What I wouldn't give to have that be my main life problem. But, that doesn't make the research or the practices wrong. There's nothing original here, but I did like her voice; it's very soothing and not at all contrived. I also did the work to engage fully with each exercise, which is really the value in all of this.

[Alex Schmidt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a good book if you’re into yoga. I was looking more for something to learn from but this has mindful sessions where you need to stand/sit and focus and I didn’t have the time for that when I was listening so I didn’t get to fully experience this book.

[Hebz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me.

Edit: not that self compassion isn’t for me haha, but that this book isn’t for me. I did find a few information here and there to be useful but I just couldn’t connect with the author and her telling of experiences.

[Kandice Miles-Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw this book on my Audible Originals list and I just had to give it a try. I have been going through some changes in my life, specifically where I live and my new, extended commute to and from work. This change has added significant stress to my life and I feel as if I am failing somehow at living. I thought this book would be a great start.

This book was a very quick read. I listened to it while driving to and from work, which isn't ideal for the exercises the author talks about during each section. However, I went back after I was home and starting to unwind for the day, and redid the exercises in order to get the full experience. I loved how the author explained ways to bring self-compassion into your life in the most simple of ways. The author/narrator has a very soothing and compassionate voice. I did not want to stop listening even after I parked. I felt like I had just walked out of a deep meditative session after listening to the book. This book is great for those looking for self-compassion or hints at how to add it into your life.

[Namrita Hansrai · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reminder to practice self-compassion.

[Amy Colbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2 (audio) - An evidence-based look at the practice and benefits of self-compassion. Includes guided meditations and journaling prompts. It is more of an audio course than an audio book, so going through it more slowly might have increased its impact.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, amazing writer. Dr. Cameron is amazing.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn’t finish… couldn’t* finish.

I have been looking for a good read to help me develop self compassion, but the very first chapter immediately turned me off from this book. The author acts as if her life situations are relatable and just like anyone else’s need for self compassion, but her story is about not being able to go on a trip abroad because she didn’t check passport requirements first. Then she talks all about her self compassion training, also from abroad, and it just wasn’t something that I enjoyed listening to. It didn’t feel like it was helping me, but rather irritating me that her privilege made her believe these were relatable scenarios for the readers hoping to develop self compassion.

One star feels… generous.

[CS · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

I read this to try to get me to be a less anxious person; instead I found myself angry at this WASPy woman and her despair over not being about to go on a trip to Africa with her husband and daughter. That "trauma" does not really compare to the things I've experienced in my life, and I could have done without it.

[John Stinebaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good guide to beginners mindfulness and self compassion. May you be happy. May you be well. May you be safe.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first.

The author sounds exceedingly privileged. Throughout the book she falls back on the example of a spring break trip to Africa that went sideways. She talks about an idyllic home in Europe, spending work time in Zurich, and an impromptu weekend trip to a beach house. She fawns over all the wonderful friends she has and humble brags about gratitude. There was also a lot of name dropping. Oof. None of this is relatable for a great many people, including myself, and it seriously detracts from the message. Perhaps though the people who CAN relate are in her real target audience, because parts of the book read like a plug for her consulting business. Her prospective clients might very well belong to the same demographic. You'll have to decide for yourself if you can look past this. What is most baffling though is how briefly she talks about the death of her mother. Maybe it was still too painful at the time of writing, but that brief discussion felt more real than all the rest.

Now for the other side.

There is a strong irony in seeking to learn about compassion and then refusing to extend it to the author. We can judge her for having first-world problems (and my review is certainly not the only one to latch on to this), but let's be honest. Many of the experiences that leave us twisted up happen to lean in the exact same direction. We all have some kind of trauma, but a huge percentage of our difficulties are of the dwarf variety. Meditation can help us manage both situations, the really big stuff, and the deluge of daily living. So the author is free to use meditation to deal with situations that cause her to suffer, and the rest of us can use the same techniques to deal with our own situations, whatever they may be. This book didn't do much for me because there isn't anything new. It feels kind of like a school report. However, my reaction to the author did remind me, again, that I still have work to do.

I believe that the content of the book is basically accurate, so if you are brand new to meditation then this book is probably a perfectly good way to get started. Plus it is (or was when I got it) included on Audible, which makes the only risk for Audible subscribers a few hours of time.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated this quite a bit, yet not everyone who is open to "mindfulness" will be. If you are turned off by things you may associate with self affirmation, you will roll your eyes way too much to enjoy this. While it even strikes me (one who is open to more touchy junk and focus practice) as very touchy-feely, we should keep in mind that research has been quite conclusive that affirming phrases (and even the act of smiling) do make a positive difference in our outlook and can lift our spirits (even if only little-by-little), so why not? Those who are more open to affirming type actions will really appreciate this recording. It provides good insights to ways of appreciating people, including oneself, sans the harsh judgements that we driven people often impose on ourselves. Cameron does a great job with this. I felt that it should have been separated into the first level of mindfulness (which I see as basic focus, e.g. on breath) and then adding the aspects that are closer to affirmation and gratitude (on which this recording focuses). If someone hasn't done any focusing practice (a.k.a. meditation that is not associated with religious aspects) then it's a bigger jump to merge it with gratitude and self-affirmation type exercises. But she is good at it, so I still appreciated this, even for a beginner. MY REACTION: Some will take to this fairly quickly, and some should brace for internal eyerolls and open up to these mindfulness practices. Give it a go without judgement for a month.

[Olivia Chapé · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry, I couldn't finish this!

This audiobook made me feel angry listening to her voice! If your passport ran out, then where was the rush to visit your passport office? It's not like you have to wait a few months to send it off!

There was no explanation of how long it had been since her last holiday. I was thinking maybe 5 yrs or even 10 yrs of planning went into waiting for the perfect trip? Perhaps she was completely isolated and needed a holiday for social interaction? No, she just went home to her seemingly grand house, where she had dinner with friends at a restaurant near a lake, I'm guessing!

I was trying to connect the dots of some research into the psychology in this topic, but she fails to mention. "The Science of Mindfulness" uses some meditation, but the professor speaks with a lot more enthusiasm and tenacity.

If you want a book to boost you up, listen to other motivational speakers, such as, Mel Robbins and Brian Tracey. Mr.Tracey speaks calmly, but not like this! His books and video clips are always well thought out, again, not like this.

Perhaps if I'm high, this audiobook may seem appropriate. Some prescription drugs turn patients into zombies, and I feel like she's still high herself!