Self-Compassion

Mindfulness based self-compassion

We are living in an era that is complex, fast-paced, competitive and uncertain. The demands placed upon us in the workplace to be able to cope effectively with the realities of this are escalating; the volume of work is on the increase and teams are often under-resourced which adds to the pressure and working longer hours is becoming essential to be able to keep up. In such a climate we can so easily get caught in a stress trap that, paradoxically, can always undermine our personal effectiveness – pressurising ourselves to perform at our best .  With this mindset mistakes or errors are often viewed as “I’ve failed” and when we fail most of us end up beating ourselves up because we think we should have done better. This adds to our stress and erodes our confidence.

Learning the skills of self-compassion is a way out of this stress trap. Self-compassion is essentially this: instead of judging and criticising yourself you are kind and understanding towards your personal challenges and failings as you would be to a good friend; you are able to see things in perspective, take things less personally, motivate yourself through kindness rather than criticism and are able to accept that failure is an essential part in learning and personal growth. As the best-selling author Paolo Coelho says “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure”.

This 90-minute introductory workshop on self-compassion will include a mix of theory and experiential practices covering the following topics:

What exactly is Self-Compassion and why is it becoming increasingly important?

• What the science is revealing about the link between Self-Compassion and well-being

• The importance of developing a growth mindset

• Changing your relationship to failure

Benefits associated with developing the skill of self-compassion include:

• Emotional wellbeing

• Greater self-acceptance and confidence

• Less anxiety, depression and stress

• The maintenance of healthy habits such as diet and exercise

• More likely to achieve personal goals

• Satisfying personal relationships

  This session is taken by Mindfulness practitioner Jane Brendgen.