The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook

This means that other people are partly responsible for our state of mind, but we are also partly responsible for their state of mind. The good news is that emotional contagion gives us more power than we realize to change the emotional tenor of our relationships. Self-compassion can interrupt a downward spiral and start an upward spiral instead.

Guilt refers to feeling bad about a behavior; shame is feeling bad about ourselves. Guilt

next time you’re in a negative interaction with someone, try using the Self-Compassion Break (Chapter 4). You can excuse yourself for a moment, or if you can’t leave, practice the Self-Compassion Break silently: “This is a moment of suffering.” “Suffering is part of any relationship.” “May I be kind to myself.” It helps to use some sort of supporti

course, there is a big difference between simply acknowledging what’s true— that we have good as well as not-so-good qualities—and saying that we’re perfect or better than others. It’s

Gratitude involves recognizing, acknowledging, and being grateful for the good things in our lives. If we just focus on what we want but don’t have, we’ll remain in a negative state of mind. But when we focus on what we do have, and give thanks for it, we radically reframe our experience.

Jillian changed her relationship to herself, her relationship to food also changed. She no longer needed to stuff herself with food to feel full emotionally. She could enjoy her food but stop when her body said enough. And the biggest shift was that Jillian finally started to feel that she was enough, that being human was enough, and could finally

Perhaps there are particular words of kindness and support that you need to hear right now in this difficult situation.

Mindfulness gives us mental space, and with mental space comes the freedom to choose how we might like to respond to a situation. Mindfulness

{“It’s okay to be a compassionate mess, to be imperfect.” {“Wow, I really screwed up. I wish I hadn’t, but I did. It’s really tough to feel this way. There’s nothing I can do to change the fact that I’m an imperfect human being who sometimes gets it wrong. May I try to accept myself with understanding and kindness.”