Mindfulness Manchester

Delivering empirically researched Mindful Self Compassion Courses

Are you feeling overwhelmed by all you are holding right now and what is happening in our world?

Maybe you have a sense there is more to life, a deeper meaning and purpose?

Maybe you would like to have more satisfying relationships with others and with yourself?

Or maybe you are curious and interested to find out more?

Did you know, research has found:

  • People who are self-compassionate experience greater well-being, less depression, anxiety and stress and more happiness, life satisfaction, self-confidence and physical health.

  • The most effective way to motivate ourselves is with self-kindness

  • Self-compassionate people are no less likely to have high personal standards, they just don’t beat themselves up when they fail. This means they are less afraid of failure and more likely to try again and persist in their efforts

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What is Mindful Self-Compassion?

Mindfulness can be defined as “awareness of present moment experience with acceptance” (Germer 2013).

 Do you usually find you are too swept up in our thoughts to know what is going on within you?

 The practice of mindfulness helps us to be open and curious to what we are experiencing, while we are experiencing it in the moment, with the quality of acceptance. Mindfulness helps us to experience the world directly, not as we usually tend to do, which is through the lens of thought.

 Mindfulness could be described as spacious awareness of our moment to moment experience and with practice it can help us to notice our habitual tendencies to react to how we would like life to be; which can often unintentionally make life harder. It can help us to see we have other choices that bring the possibility of greater well-being and to face our challenges with more ease, calmness and clarity.

 

While Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhism, it is now widely practiced by people from all backgrounds, religions and has become a secular therapeutic practice for stress, anxiety addictions, depression and much more.

 

The benefits of practicing Mindfulness in our daily lives are now known and there is much continued research in this area. Most people find that a practice of Mindfulness brings greater life satisfaction and improved relationships with others and with yourself.

 

Mindfulness’s natural companion is self-compassion.

Mindful Self Compassion, (MSC) has the 3 key components of Mindfulness, a sense of Common Humanity and self-kindness.

 Mindfulness opens us to the present moment so we can accept our experience with greater ease, Common Humanity enables us to understand our essential inter-connectedness and that we are not alone, and Self-Kindness opens our hearts to suffering so we can respond to ourselves with kindness, as we may do to a loved one and give ourselves what we need.

Self-compassion is a courageous attitude that stands up to harm, including the harm that we unwittingly inflict on ourselves through self-criticism, negative self-talk and ‘pushing’ ourselves through times of difficulty. Self-compassion provides emotional strength and resilience, allowing us to admit our shortcomings, motivate ourselves with kindness, forgive ourselves when needed, relate wholeheartedly to others, and be more authentically ourselves.

Research Findings

Randomised, controlled trials demonstrated that MSC significantly increased self-compassion, compassion for others, mindfulness, and life satisfaction, as well as decreased depression, anxiety and stress. It has also been shown to support the maintenance of healthy habits such as diet and exercise and satisfying personal relationships.

The rich and compelling research also shows (amongst many other things):

·      Self-compassionate people are more likely to engage in perspective-taking rather than focusing on their own distress (Neff & Pommier,2013). They are also less likely to ruminate on how bad things are (Odou & Brinker, 2014, 2015; Raes, 2010).

·      Self-compassionate people tend to be more caring and supportive in interpersonal relationships (Neff & Beretvas, 2013; Wayment, West & Craddock, 2016), less jealous (Tandler & Petersen, 2018) are more likely to compromise in relationship conflicts (Yarnell & Neff, 2013), and are more compassionate toward others (Neff & Pommier, 2013).

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·      Self-compassionate people are better able to cope with tough situations like divorce (Sbarra, Smith & Mehl, 2012), trauma (Hiraoka et al., 2015), chronic illness (Sirois, Molnar & Hirsch, 2015) or chronic pain (Wren et al., 2012).

·      Self-compassionate people engage in healthier behaviours (Sirois, 2015) like exercise (Magnus, Kowalski & McHugh, 2010), eating well (Schoenefeld & Webb, 2013), drinking less (Brooks et al., 2012) and going to the doctor more regularly (Terry et al., 2013).

·      Self-compassionate people take greater personal responsibility for their actions (Leary et al., 2007), and are more likely to apologize if they’ve offended someone (Brienes & Chen, 2012).

·      Self-compassionate people are no less likely to have high personal standards; they just don’t beat themselves up when they fail (Hope, Koestner & Milyavskaya, 2014; Neff, 2003b). This means they are less afraid of failure (Kilham et al., 2018; Neff, Hseih, & Dejitthirat, 2007) and are more likely to try again and to persist in their efforts after failing (Breines & Chen, 2012; Kreemers, van Hooft & van Vianen, 2018).

The Mindful Self Compassion Course

The Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) Course

MSC is an empirically supported training programme designed to cultivate the skill of self-compassion. Based on the ground-breaking research of Kristin Neff and the clinical expertise of Christopher Germer, MSC teaches core principles and practices that enable participants to respond to difficult moments in their lives with kindness, care and understanding.

After participating in this programme, you’ll be able to:

Practice self-compassion in daily life 
Understand the empirically supported benefits of self-compassion 
Motivate yourself with kindness rather than criticism 
Handle difficult emotions with greater ease 
Transform challenging relationships, old and new 
Manage caregiver fatigue 
Practice the art of savouring and self-appreciation  

MSC is the antidote to the challenges we face in our modern lives. It is inner resource building and life affirming.

Courses run for 8/9 weekly sessions of 2hrs 30mins/3 hrs, (including a retreat). They can be in person or on Zoom.