Seminar 4: Compassion & self-compassion

Question 1

Compassion

Answer 1

A kind and caring emotional response to perceived suffering that acknowledges the shared human experience of imperfection, and that involves an authentic desire to help. Often involves empathy, sympathy and altruism.

Question 2

Self-Compassion

Answer 2

Basically compassion turned inward - a kind, caring response to one’s own suffering coupled with a desire to ease personal distress. People tend to be less kind and compassionate toward themselves than others. self-c < comp.

Question 3

Empathy

Answer 3

Emotional resonance, experiencing a similar affectice state to that of another person.

Question 4

Sympathy

Answer 4

awareness or recognition of the painful feelings experienced by another person and feeling badly about their plight.

Question 5

Altruism

Answer 5

Action that benefits someone else and that may or may not be accompanied by empathy or compassion.

Question 6

LKM

Answer 6

A kind of meditation that focuses on developing feelings of goodwill, kindness and warmth through repetition of phrases that convey the wish for others.

Question 7

Self-esteem

Answer 7

Is often more competitive, you compare yourself towards others and are driven by improving returns.

Question 8

Emotional resilience

Answer 8

Self-compassion may be a source of emotional resilience.

Question 9

Compassion fatigue

Answer 9

A potential area for further research. When a person is experience so much self- compassion and compassion for others when being exposed for much suffering so they must turn off this to do their job properly.

Question 10

Compassion fear

Answer 10

After history of insecure attachments, been let down in compassion. then a fear or giving or receiving a compassion might occur. Often associated with compromised mental health, self-critisism, stress, depression etc.

Question 11

3 main components of self-compassion (Neff)

Answer 11

1. Self-kindness VS self-judgement
2. Sense of common humanity VS feelings of isolation
3. Mindfulness VS Over-identification

Question 12

Three emotional regulation systems (Gilbert)

Answer 12

1. The threat system
   - affects such as fear, anger, contempt leading to aggressive and similar behavior. –> head-aches and cold-sweats.
2. The exploration system
   - affects such as interest, curiosity, lust etc. WOW, explorative etc behavior.
3. The psychological safety system
   - joy, satisfaction, well-being leading to behavior such as seeking intimacy or physical contact.