Self-care through the practice of Mindfulness and Self-compassion

Mindfulness and self-compassion are resources with an important therapeutic potential.

Emotional self-care is a complex process that involves making use of various resources from the world of psychology.

In this article we will focus on two of them, which are closely related: Mindfulness and self-compassion. How do they help us to reach a state of emotional balance?

What is Mindfulness?

The term "Mindfulness" has two meanings. On the one hand, a state of consciousness characterized by the fact of focusing our attention on the present from the present. focusing our attention on the present from a perspective free of prejudices and value judgments.The Mindfulness of the mind is a way to describe and recognize the existence of thoughts, emotions and feelings that are passing through our mind.

On the other hand, Mindfulness is also the set of exercises used to reach this state of consciousness in a deliberate way, through exercises inspired by Vipassana meditation.The exercises are inspired by Vipassana meditation, an ancient tradition. These activities are easy to adopt as a habit and in some cases can also be done by children, following very simple instructions.

There are many variants and versions of Mindfulness exercises, some of which can be done in a few minutes. Therefore, it is a resource that can be easily incorporated into the schedule: after lunch, before going to sleep, during a break from work, etc.

But Mindfulness is not only an enjoyable experience, it also has therapeutic potentialThis is why many psychology centers use it to help our patients, and even professionals who participate in workshops and courses in the field of training programs promoted by companies.

It highlights its usefulness to manage excessive anxiety or pain, and to enhance interventions to prevent relapses in depression. The key lies in the way it allows us to "reset" the mind and not feed the psychological rumination, helping us to stop in our tracks the loops of negative thoughts associated with our worries, our fears and our obsessions.

What is self-compassion and how does it influence self-care?

Many people take it for granted that the term "self-pity" has negative connotations, as if incorporating it into ourselves means living in a bubble based on finding comfort in sadness and lamentations about how little we are worth. However, this is a biased view of this phenomenon.

It is true that in popular culture this term is often used to refer to the immobility of those who assume that they are worth much less than others and therefore cannot expect anything from themselves nor can they contribute anything to others (and therefore can only ask for protection from society). But in psychology, the meaning of the word self-pity changes, and in fact, it becomes an emotionally beneficial element..

From this point of view, self-compassion means the mentality of not using problems and crises as a crisis to "crush" ourselves, and on the contrary, to show a degree of understanding with ourselves that we would demonstrate before someone we see who has made a mistake, but who deserves new opportunities. In essence, this form of self-pity means not asking of ourselves a degree of perfection and moral neatness far superior to what we would expect of others simply because they are us.

Thus, self-pity is one of the psychological elements that help us to "dodge help us to "avoid" those trap thoughts that predispose us to fall into self-sabotage.. It involves embracing the mindset that problems and discomfort exist, but that we are not helpless in the face of them, nor are we predestined to suffer them simply because of who we are.

It also means assuming that it is normal to go through moments of crisis throughout life, and that even in cases where we are primarily responsible for the bad things that happen to us, we should not let guilt paralyze us, because although it may seem contradictory, guilt can become a refuge that we use as an excuse not to move forward.

This fits perfectly with the principles of Mindfulness; Mindfulness leads us to focus on the here and now, avoiding to fix our attention on value judgments, and placing emphasis on being able to understand and describe what is happening in that momentinstead of adopting the role of a judge who estimates the moral aspects of the experience. In this way, we perceive the problems for what they are, without "inflating" them by feeding on our fears.

Are you looking for psychological assistance services based on Mindfulness?

If you are interested in incorporating Mindfulness into your life, please contact us; at Psicotools we have experts who use Mindfulness both in therapy and in training sessions for individuals and professionals. You will find us in Barcelona, and we also offer online sessions by video call.