Brian JohnsonChairman & Philosopher in Residence at Heroic

The power of self compassion

8 Jun 2023 · 1 min

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Brian Johnson explains that self-compassion comprises three elements: self-kindness, recognizing common humanity, and mindfulness. He contrasts self-compassion with self-shame (which makes failures feel like personal defects), urges treating oneself with the same kindness others show, and recommends using mindfulness to notice self-critical voices, reconnect to one’s best self, and take directed action.

Chapters

So self compassion has three elements. When you shame yourself, which is the opposite of compassion, what you and I and everyone here does is first and foremost we make it about us. We are messed up, something is wrong with us. But that's not true. We all experience these things. 2 We forget to be nice to ourselves. And even you know the compassion that that we have for one another and that everyone has for you. What if we treated ourselves like that in the moments in which we are not? That's a lot easier said than done. But we need to be kind to ourselves as we remind ourselves that we're not alone. So we embracing common humanity. We have self kindness and we need to be mindful. So use your deep experience and mindfulness training to practice this philosophy where when you hear the voice, rather than be a cue or a trigger or a prompt for you to indulge in all the vicious demonic thoughts and then behaviors. When you have a glitch, can you turn it around? Can you reconnect to your best self? And that requires mindfulness, then it requires directed action.