Self-care Through The Practice Of Mindfulness And Self-compassion
Emotional self-care is a complex process that involves using various resources from the world of Psychology.
In this article we will focus on two of them, closely related to each other: Mindfulness (or Full Attention, in Spanish) and self-compassion. How do they help us achieve a state of emotional balance?
Related article: “The 4 types of Mindfulness and their characteristics”
The term “Mindfulness” has two meanings. On the one hand, a state of consciousness characterized by the fact of focus our attention on the present from a perspective free of prejudices and value judgments limiting ourselves to describing and recognizing the existence of the thoughts, emotions and feelings that pass through our mind.
On the other hand, Mindfulness is also the set of exercises used to achieve that state of consciousness deliberately, through exercises inspired by Vipassana meditation, an ancient tradition. These are activities that are easy to adopt as a habit and that in some cases can also be carried out by boys and girls, following very simple instructions.
There are many variants and versions of Mindfulness exercises, some of which can be done in just a few minutes. Therefore, it is a resource that can be easily incorporated into the schedule: after eating, before going to sleep, during work breaks, etc.
But Mindfulness is not only a pleasant experience, but has therapeutic potential; That 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.
Its usefulness stands out for managing excess anxiety or pain, and for enhancing interventions to prevent relapses into depression. The key is in the way in which it allows us to “reset” the mind and not feed psychological rumination, helping us to stop 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 assume that the term “self-compassion” has negative connotations, as if incorporating it into ourselves means living in a bubble based on finding comfort in sadness and regrets 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 that consequently they cannot expect anything from themselves nor can they contribute anything to others (and Therefore he can only ask for, seek the protection of society). But In Psychology, the meaning of the word self-compassion 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 “beat down” ourselves, and on the contrary, showing a degree of understanding with ourselves that we would show to someone we see. He has made a mistake, but he deserves new opportunities. In essence, this form of self-compassion means not asking of ourselves a degree of perfection and moral neatness much higher than what we would expect from others simply for being us.
Thus, self-compassion is one of the psychological elements that They help us “dodge” those trap thoughts that predispose us to fall into self-sabotage It means embracing the mentality that problems and discomfort exist, but that we are not defenseless against 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 in which we are mainly 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 fixing our attention on value judgments, and placing emphasis on being able to understand and describe what is happening at that moment, instead of adopting the role of judge who estimates the moral aspects of the experience. In this way, we perceive problems as what they are, without “inflating” them by feeding our fears.
Are you looking for psychological assistance services based on Mindfulness?
If you are interested in incorporating Mindfulness into your life, contact us; in Psychotools 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 carry out sessions in the online format by video call.
