Mindfulness for Mental Health
Remarkable Value of Self-Compassion for Physical and Mental Health
Self-compassion can give us cognitive flexibility and broaden our perspectives by calming the amygdala and empowering the neocortex.
What is Self-Compassion and Why It Matters
It is good to be motivated, work hard, meet deadlines, and produce excellent outcomes and wealth, but when we do these things in constant fight or flight mode, our health can be compromised. Chronic stress is a significant threat to our physical and mental health. When we lose health, nothing means much, including wealth.
I know people with millions of dollars in their bank accounts who live miserable lives. But I also know poor people who are healthy and happy with mindful living using gratitude and self-compassion daily. In addition, many successful people achieve more with less effort by using self-compassion.
We don’t have to be rich or poor to care for ourselves and love each other. Self-compassion is a mindset, health strategy, and critical life skill for all of us. The core of self-compassion is to change the critical inner critic and acknowledge thoughts, sensations, and emotions mindfully at present and in the right perspectives.
Self-compassion is essential for our physical and mental health. It is a powerful coping mechanism for excessive pressure and chronic stress. By being compassionate to ourselves, we also get compassionate to others. Self-love enables us to love others.
Self-compassion is not mumbo-jumbo. This spiritual construct is a scientifically proven mental health strategy. However, sometimes people confuse self-compassion with self-pity.
Self-compassion has nothing to do with feeling regret, sorrow, and sorry about ourselves. Self-compassion does not mean complacency either. And self-love and compassion are not selfishness or narcissism, contrary to some perceptions.
Some people crack under chronic stress caused by toxic emotions such as excessive anger, anxiety, and fear. In addition, passion and ambition are perceived as positive emotions in the business world. However, these concepts may become poisonous and might fail us if we don’t feed them with self-compassion.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with ambition and passion. However, when these strong emotions pass the threshold at a frenetic speed and overwhelm our bodies and minds, we face serious issues. It is time to ask why we are feeling so tired.
I met many people who suffered from chronic stress leading to metabolic syndrome and several mental health conditions. Eliza, Maggie, Alberto, Jennifer, and inspiring Algor were a few whose stories I told in a different context.
Sadly, I was one of those suffering people once upon a time dealing with a dozen of debilitating health conditions. The world looked gloomy, and life was meaningless. Tasting anhedonia and living in a depressed mood were not fun at all.
By using self-compassion, I transformed my anhedonia into euphoria. Anhedonia is an apathetic state depicting a lack of interest, enthusiasm, and concern for enjoyable activities. It is associated with self-harming behavior. Whereas euphoria is a pleasant state of intense excitement, heightened happiness brings inner joy.
I made many mistakes due to my passion and ambition for study and work. I remember the days when my body was crying to get some sleep bringing heavy yawning signals. But to pass my school exams or prepare executive reports for new business proposals, I consumed caffeine to suppress sleep.
The body was obeying the rules to keep me awake with substance stimulation, but it had to produce excessive cortisol to deal with overcapacity stress. Unfortunately, elevated cortisol levels can cause many complications such as high blood sugar, high blood pressure, non-alcoholic fatty liver, and insulin resistance which are symptoms of metabolic syndrome.
When we don’t listen to the signals from the body to slow down, we face burnout. This is because our adrenal glands cannot cope with producing more stress hormones signaled by the hypothalamus. Cortisol Awakening Response is a well-documented condition in the medical literature.
Sadly, I only understood the importance of self-compassion after experiencing severe burnout. Fortunately, it was not too late, so I learned effective ways to deal with chronic stress and get rid of it timely. The most prominent one was to say goodbye to perfection.
In a nutshell, we need to find ways to slow down. We need to listen to the signals from our body and the brain, which offer wisdom. Emotional stress awfully affects our cognitive flexibility by narrowing our perspectives. Self-compassion for our body and mind gives us cognitive flexibility by calming the amygdala and empowering the cortex. We can add self-compassion safely to our mental health first aid kit.
What Science Says About Self-Compassion
There is solid scientific backing for self-compassion in the literature. Moreover, the benefits of self-compassion are well documented by prominent institutes such as Sandford’s The Center for Compassion And Altruism Research And Education.
I came across hundreds of books and more than 1,400 scientific papers recorded in the medical literature on self-compassion. I’d like to highlight a few, especially meta-analyses and comprehensive literature reviews.
This meta-analysis published in Applied Psychology and Health and Well-Being highlights the importance of self-compassion. “The results clearly highlight the importance of self-compassion for individuals’ well-being.”
According to the researchers, “Self-compassion describes a positive and caring attitude of a person toward her- or himself in the face of failures and individual shortcomings. As a result of this caring attitude, individuals high in self-compassion are assumed to experience higher individual well-being. The meta-analysis examined the relationship between self-compassion and different forms of well-being.”
“Drawing upon the Foucauldian concept ‘Care of the Self’, this narrative review explored the literature relating to palliative care professionals’ self-care, self-compassion, and compassion for others.”
This medical literature review informs that “the relationship between mindfulness and self-compassion is explored in the health care literature, with a corollary emphasis on reducing stress in health care workers and providing compassionate patient care. Healthcare professionals are particularly vulnerable to stress overload and compassion fatigue due to an emotionally exhausting environment. Compassion fatigue among caregivers, in turn, has been associated with less effective delivery of care. Having compassion for others entails self-compassion.”
This meta-analysis “synthesizes the existing literature to estimate the magnitude of effect for the association between self-compassion and psychological distress in adolescents.”
According to the meta-analysis, “Research indicates that self-compassion is relevant to adolescents’ psychological well-being and may inform the development of mental health and well-being interventions for youth.”
The researchers conclude that “self-compassion may be an important factor to target in psychological distress and well-being interventions for youth.”
As mentioned in this paper published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, “mindfulness and self-compassion are reported to have preventive effects on depression and anxiety disorders.” In addition, the study indicates that “ mindful self-compassion intervention is effective in preventing postpartum depression and promoting mother and infant well-being.”
This systemic review in Cureus investigated the effects of self-compassion on psycho-social and clinical outcomes in medically ill patients in 2020. The paper points out that “studies about the role of self-compassion have focused primarily on psychological well-being, but there is solid evidence to suggest that self-compassion may have larger and more prominent implications in the medical world.”
Practical Ways to Be Self-Compassionate?
There are practical and proven ways to practice self-compassion in our daily lives. They all revolve around awareness, acceptance, and mindful behavior that can contribute to our mental health and support our physical health. The key point is loving yourself.
All of us are unique and deserve good things in life. Being grateful for our existence, we can reward our body and mind with small gifts each day. For example, we can schedule self-compassion activities. Scheduling fun is not a luxury.
A few examples of self-compassion for physical health are feeding the body with healthy nutrition, moving gently with our favorite workouts, drinking clean water, breathing consciously, sleeping enough, taking a break at work, resting, yoga, dancing, and using cold and heat therapy when needed.
Our brain also needs self-compassion. From my experience, the best gift we can offer to the brain is a meditation and mindful approach. The daily act of kindness for ourselves and others improves our mood. The brain loves rhythms. So, feeding the brain with pleasant melodies can be helpful. In addition to mental benefits, music also can touch our souls.
In a nutshell, speaking kindly to ourselves with loving compassion as we do to our loved ones can be an excellent start to self-compassion in the mindfulness journey. Social interactions can ignite self-compassion. We can add self-compassion as a critical ingredient to our lifestyle choices.
And the most important gift to ourselves can be forgiveness. None of us is perfect. We make mistakes and learn from them. Forgiving ourselves can be invaluable for our mental health.
Conclusions and Takeaways
We can achieve more with less effort using self-compassion.
Work and study are essential. However, they are not as important as our health and well-being. Despite our wealth, we can suffer if we are not self-compassionate. Self-compassion is essential for our physical and mental health.
The core concept of self-compassion is to challenge the critical voice inside by acknowledging our thoughts, sensations, and emotions mindfully at present. By being compassionate to ourselves, we also get compassionate to others.
Self-compassion is a potent coping mechanism with extreme pressure and chronic stress. It is not self-pity, complacency, selfishness, or narcissism.
Passion and ambition are great to thrive, but without self-compassion, these emotions can be toxic. In addition, they may cause suffering from debilitating health conditions when misused.
Self-compassion requires us to listen to the signals from our body and the brain. Ignoring these signals can build stress and cause physical and mental health issues in the long run. Forgiving our mistakes and shortcoming and seeing them as lessons can improve our physical and mental health.
Doing a great job is necessary for growth. However, perfection can be harmful to our health. Self-caring people do not pursue perfection. Instead, they are happy with excellence. Many distinguished leaders in my circles follow this principle.
A practical approach to being a self-compassionate person is to slow down. With this approach, we can enhance our cognitive flexibility and broaden our perspectives. By enhancing our cognitive reserves, we can reduce the adverse impact of dementia.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a mindful and joyful life.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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