A V’s Reviews > The Power of Self-Compassion > Status Update

Uplifting the mind
-Positive Neuroplasticity: Using our mind to change our brain to uplift our mind
-Four components of well being
□ Attention
□ Outlook
□ Generosity
□ Reliance
-What you practice grows stronger

Cultivating compassion for yourself
-Growing the capacity to meet emotional or physical pain with kindness
-Compassion literally means, suffering with
-Compassion can be described as: A mental state endowed with a sense of concerns for the suffering of others and an aspiration to see that suffering relived
-Give yourself permission to be imperfect

Self-inquiry and radical acceptance
-Fully allowing and embracing whatever is happening in the present without judging it as good or bad.
-Everything belongs
-RAIN:
□ Recognize
□ Allow
□ Investigate
□ Nurture

Emotions: strengthening interception and self-awareness
-Developing self-awareness is about developing clarity within one's-self
-An emotion is a physiological response to relevant stimuli in the body and the brain.
-Emotions activate us physiologically in response to something in our external environment that seems like a threat or an opportunity.

Befriending your inner critic
-Meta awareness, the ability to see your experience.
-"Through being present with mindfulness, you learn to suspend the inner voices in your head that block being open, the voice of judgement, the voice of cynicism and the voice of concern."
-Give the inner critic a name (Hermione Granger) Her goal is to be helpful, but she is not very tactful.

The power of mindfulness
-Awareness, openness, acceptance, inclusion
-How do we relate to what is happening (not focusing on the what is happening)
-"Mindfulness, which frees us up from the grip of aversive feeling, gives us flexibility of attention, buoyancy and spaciousness."

Wired for survival
-We can deliberately activate the physiology of compassion. Polyvagal theory claims that human facial expressions are associated with, or reflect, physical reactions, such as cardiac and digestive changes. Porges argues this theory with observations from both evolutionary biology and neurology.

The science and benefits of self-compassion
-What gets in the way of me being self-compassionate is… the sense that I am being selfish.
-Given the benefits of self-compassion, I would like to reduce my tendencies to... criticize myself and others.
-With the practice of self-compassion, I would like to increase or amplify… the happiness of myself and those around me.
-What would most support me