4 Ways Self-Compassion Benefits Your Brain

Science shows how our inner self-talk affects our well-being on all levels

The voice in your mind can be the cause of great joy — or of dark misery. It can be your most powerful ally as well as your greatest critic. It affects every aspect of your life, from your motivation and productivity to your health. It even determines the quality of your interactions with others.

Many people become so critical of themselves that it prevents them from seeing anything that is already good in their lives. They go through each day with a an underlying current of fear and stress, not realizing there is a way out. This results in negative habits and behaviors that have an adverse effect on the body and the brain.

Through mindfulness, we can disidentify our sense of self from the voice of the inner critic.

Understanding that we are not the voice in our head is the first step to taking control of it. Once we realize that we can intervene, we can work to consciously bring more kindness and compassion to our self-talk. With the prevalence of low self-esteem in today’s society, it seems that the adage of “treat others as you would treat yourself” should be flipped around. We often find it easier to treat others kindly than to do the same for ourselves.

Self-compassion is a way of treating ourselves with as much kindness, care, and respect as we would treat our loved ones with. We gain numerous benefits from doing so.

Here are four ways that transforming our inner self-talk with more self-compassion directly improves the quality of our lives:

1) Reduces stress

When we harbor negative feelings towards ourselves or allow the voice of the inner critic to drag us down, our body is flooded with stress chemicals. The release of the associated stress chemicals then triggers the feeling of fear. The feedback loop starts.

Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a real threat or an imagined one. When you are thinking a negative or fearful thought about anything, including yourself, your fight-or-flight system kicks in. When you embrace yourself for who you are, that resistance is released.

Even when we are only dealing with our own thoughts, it feels to our body as if there is something to be afraid of. If this stress isn’t dealt with, it can result in an underlying feeling of anxiety or eventually even lead to depression.

Self-compassion could be the cure to perfectionism and other forms of negative self-talk. One study found that self-compassion could help moderate the link between perfectionism and depression.

Every thought of doubt and fear further propels the body’s release of stress chemicals until one of two things happens:

1) Something distracts us and our attention is redirected away from the perceived “threat.”

This can take the form of something that we must address by taking action or something that inspires us to think differently. This is where inspiration and motivation often come in handy. However, even these serve as a short-term distraction from our default loop of negative thoughts. In order to experience long-term change, we need to learn how to consciously shift our attention at our will. This brings us to point #2.

2) We consciously change our mind and focus on more beneficial and loving thoughts

This is where mindset work and self-compassion comes in. The more we practice the habit of being kind to ourselves, the easier it will be to access kinder thoughts when the inner critic pops up.

2) Increases productivity

Self-compassion is linked to higher productivity because it increases our engagement and motivation. According to a research study from the University of British Columbia, “students who reported higher levels of self-compassion felt more energetic, alive, and optimistic during their first semester of university.”

The reason behind this is that higher self-compassion allows us to embrace ourselves as never-ending students of life rather than beating ourselves up for our mistakes. The way we frame our failures often determines our next actions. If we ruminate on them, we are likely to keep getting stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts that perpetuate stress as explained above.

When we get excited about the opportunity to grow and learn, we’re less afraid to take risks. We feel more competent and independent.

Every time we conquer a new goal, our confidence is boosted. Our brain rewards us with a spike of dopamine which then propels us to take on new and higher goals.

When we beat ourselves up for not yet being where we want to be, we are using up precious mental energy that could have been used to take action towards our goals. Self-love is thus a natural precursor to greater motivation.

3) Synchronizes the body’s systems

Your heart and your brain communicate via electrical signals. The electrical energy that your heart produces creates a magnetic field. Emotions leave an imprint on that magnetic field.

The electromagnetic imprint of your emotions affects the information that is sent from the heart to the brain.

Positive emotions like compassion and love — whether directed at self or others — produce “coherent” heart signals. This means that the energy between the body’s systems flows smoothly. The heart and the brain become synchronized, helping one another function more smoothly.

Negative emotions — like fear, doubt, or anger — produce incoherent heart signals. These signals clog up mental and physical energy that blocks the body’s natural well-being from flowing. Stress chemicals use up energy that could’ve otherwise been used for maintenance and healing.

4) Increases mental clarity

According to the HeartMath Institute, the heart sends signals to the amygdala, the emotional processing center in our brain. From there, the thalamus synchronizes the cortical functions that affect our mental focus.

Coherent signals allow for greater mental clarity and increased focus. When our body doesn’t have to worry about fighting the “threat” of our negative self-talk, it can use its energy in a more beneficial manner — like working on that complex project.

Bring a little more kindness into your life today. Become more aware of your own self-talk. When you recognize the inner critic, make a conscious decision to intervene. Get inspired and become your own source of empowerment. You may be surprised at how quickly your self-compassion can spread to more compassion for everyone around you!

SOURCES:

Don’t be so hard on yourself: Study on first-year student stress, University of British Columbia, 2017 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170130092100.htm

Self-compassion may protect people from the harmful effects of perfectionism, PLOS One Australian Catholic University, 2018

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180221140936.htm

The HeartMath Institute https://www.heartmath.com/