Scroll down for a transcription of this episode.
Treating yourself with kindness reduces anxiety and improves coping skills. Spring Washam encourages us to be more self-compassionate through a short guided meditation.
Link to episode transcript: https://tinyurl.com/mrx8t9st
How to Do This Practice:
Today’s Happiness Break host:
Find a comfortable position and begin to focus on your breath.
This is a practice to use when you are struggling in some way. Allow your attention to turn toward your suffering and notice how you feel, and where those emotions are held in your body. Close your eyes and imagine that you are literally breathing in compassion and care for yourself.
Hold your left hand in your right, or place your hands on your heart, holding yourself with care.
Continue to direct compassionate energy to yourself using the mantra “May I care about this suffering. May I care about these difficulties.”
Spring Washam is a meditation teacher whose practices draw on themes of loving-kindness, well-being and compassion.
Learn More About Spring’s work: https://www.springwasham.com/about/
Listen to Spring’s podcast, The Spirit Underground: https://tinyurl.com/y87mxrw2
Follow Spring on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/springwasham/?hl=en
Follow Spring on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teacher.springwasham
More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:
How to Feel Better About Yourself (The Science of Happiness Podcast): https://tinyurl.com/3jh5rheb
How to Bring Self-Compassion to Work with You: https://tinyurl.com/45zkrkam
The Five Myths of Self-Compassion: https://tinyurl.com/2p88vass
How Self-Compassion Can Help You Through a Breakup: https://tinyurl.com/222scejz
Can Self-Compassion Overcome Procrastination? https://tinyurl.com/mrfmvyj
The Three Components of Self-Compassion: https://tinyurl.com/mwa2zddp
We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience practicing self compassion. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
Find us on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yrv47mh7
Help us share Happiness Break! Rate us on Spotify and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/yrv47mh7
We’re living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — we all could use a break to feel better. That’s where Happiness Break comes in. In each biweekly podcast episode, instructors guide you through research-backed practices and meditations that you can do in real-time. These relaxing and uplifting practices have been shown in a lab to help you cultivate calm, compassion, connection, mindfulness, and more — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.
Transcription
Dacher Keltner: I’m Dacher Keltner. Welcome to Happiness Break, a series by The Science of Happiness where we take a short break to try a practice designed to bring ourselves more peace, contentment, gratitude or in this case, compassion.
Today we’re continuing our discussion from last week’s episode of The Science of Happiness on self-compassion.
When we’re kinder to ourselves, studies show we strengthen our coping skills, feel more motivated and resilient, and we also feel less stress and anxiety.
Feeling self-compassion can be healing.
But when we’re faced with intense emotions like fear, grief and shame, it can be hard to tap into self-kindness.
Today, meditation teacher and author Spring Washam is guiding a practice that leans into that very struggle — caring for ourselves, by turning towards our struggles with kindness.
Here’s Spring.
Spring Washam: Compassion means care. Caring about the suffering of others. But most importantly, when it comes to self compassion is caring about our own suffering. Can I care about the places in me that are sad? Can I learn to care about my difficulties and my struggle? Compassion is love. It’s an expression of love. I often do these practices myself when I’m in my hardest moment. When I feel strong emotion.
Let’s find a place where you can sit and be comfortable for a few moments here. And begin by closing your eyes and taking a big breath in and a big breath out and just grounding in your body. Grounding in your breath. Becoming still. Which is often challenging when we’re feeling pain. The mind wants to do everything and anything it can to escape the moment. But the revolutionary practice of self-compassion is we turn toward the suffering. We don’t move away. We turn toward it. So as you feel your body, you may begin to feel emotion in your body. And this is very important to notice where the epicenter is. Often we felt grief. But it’s, you know, might be the chest or the throat. We feel it in our shoulders. The weight of grief we carry it literally in our energy body.
So however, you’re feeling in this moment, bringing your attention inward and beginning just to find your rhythm of your breath. Compassion means care. Can I care about myself in this moment? For so many of us, it’s easy to care about the pain of another. But difficult when we are the ones struggling. So as you sit, I want you to focus just on your own mind, body, heart. And on the in breath, I want you to imagine that you’re breathing in compassion and breathing it out on the out breath.
I’d also like to invite you in for these few moments to take your left hand and to very gently place it in your right hand. Or you can put your hand on your heart. Touching your body with kindness. As a practice, we are directing the energy of compassion. So we can hold our hand almost as if there’s the kindest grandmother holding our hand, being with us, in our most challenging moment, in our sorrow and our fear, in our rage, in our confusion. We bring compassion into the moment. We surround ourselves with this kind, loving energy so you can put your hand on your heart and imagine that this compassion, you’re breathing it into your heart. This compassionate energy. Caring energy. And we begin to say the great compassion mantra. May I care about this suffering? May I care about these difficulties?
Maybe you’re holding your hand or your heart or you’re just sitting in a natural way. But we’re invoking this quality. Toward ourselves. Breathing in, breathing out present as best you can. May I care about this suffering? I care about these difficulties. And you’re visualizing yourself sometimes that’s very helpful to visualize yourself maybe in a young age. That’s also helpful. We’re far less judgmental of our five year old self than we are 35 year old self. So visualize yourself offering this care. I care about this pain. I care about these feelings. And we’re surrounding ourselves in the in breath, in the out breath. We’re breathing it in. And we’re breathing it out. And that’s how we begin to practice. And knowing that it’s a practice. It’s a practice that develops over time, moment by moment. We’re learning how to turn toward ourselves, not to abandon ourselves, but turn toward our difficult moments with love, with care. So thank you for joining me for this self-compassion meditation practice.
Dacher Keltner: That was author and mediation teacher Spring Washam.
I’m Dacher Keltner, thanks for joining us on this Happiness Break and taking time to give yourself some kindness.
Share this episode with someone who could use some more self-compassion in their lives. And if you’d like to learn more about Spring’s work be sure to check out our show notes.
Comments