Mindful Self-Compassion talk, St Louis, Missouri

Presenter: Kristy Arbon

Mindful Self-compassion is the emotional attitude of mindfulness and self-compassion when we contact suffering. While mindful awareness is typically directed toward moment-to-moment experience, self-compassion focuses on the experiencer. Mindfulness says, “Open to your suffering with spacious awareness and it will change.” Self-compassion adds, “Be kind to yourself in the midst of suffering and it will change.” Mindfulness asks, “What do I know?” and self-compassion asks, “What do I need?”

Mindful Self-compassion can be learned by anyone, even those who didn’t receive enough affection in childhood or who find it embarrassing to be kind to oneself. Mindful Self-compassion training teaches skills and resources designed to develop and cultivate a compassionate attitude towards ourself. This is done through learning meditation and mindfulness techniques, coming together in a group to share our common human experiences, learning how to incline towards ourselves kindly and gently, connecting with our core values, and learning to cultivate gratitude and appreciation.

This talk will explore some of the central themes in the 8-week Mindful Self-Compassion training program.