“Self Compassion” Could Be The Key to Weight Loss

♥Violette♥4Ever♥

One of the most difficult things to do is being kind to yourself. It’s so easy to show kindness towards others like your family and friends; and for many, towards complete strangers. I see that everyday here on MFP, everyone showing kindness to people who are basically complete strangers.

There is a new kind of psychology called “self-compassion” and the basis of this is being kind to yourself; giving yourself a break and learning to accept your imperfections. This could be the first step to better health. We live in a culture where many people believe that self-criticism is the best course of action for keeping ourselves in line. But is it?

To the surprise of many researchers, they discovered that those who find it easy to be supportive and understanding to others usually scored very low on self-compassion tests and more than likely considered themselves as “failures.” The University of Texas performed studies that found that people who score high on tests of self-compassion tend to be less depressed and anxious. They also showed a tendency to being more optimistic and happy. If your child is struggling in school would you sit there and watch him/her struggle? Of course not, you’d most likely hire a tutor for your child. When you’re the one struggling, or overeating, you’re more than likely to fall into a rut of harsh self-criticism and negativity. As we are all aware, this attitude can leave us all feeling unmotivated to take the steps to make the necessary changes we need to right ourselves again. How can the cycle of negativity be broken?

First, sit down and make a list of your best traits. It’s easy to list all the things you don’t like about yourself and could probably do that in your sleep. However, to take the time and think about all your positive traits takes time and thought which will allow you to appreciate and feel better about yourself. Hence, leading you on a path to a healthier you.

Finally, give yourself “compassion breaks.” DO NOT feel like a failure of you fall off the diet wagon or make a mistake. Instead, tell yourself that you are human and humans are not perfect. Remind yourself that you WILL NOT beat yourself up over your blunder and that tomorrow is another day; a day when you will do better.

I realize all this just sounds so warm and fuzzy but believe it or not, there is science to back this up. Self-compassion can help you lose weight. Participants in a study were asked to sample candy. Researchers conducting the study told half the participants that everyone in the study was eating junk food, so they should not feel bad about eating it. The results were surprising. It was found that the participants who were reassured had given themselves permission to eat, and actually ate less. The participants who received no reassurance ended up eating more. Why is this? They ate more because they felt guilty about eating the junk food causing them to eat more in order to try to make themselves feel better inside.

shellyxxxxx

agreed i am one of those people thanks for posting x

AmandaGuhh

great post... something I most definitely need to try... i am by far my worst enemy, in every way. Its wild how we've become so self destructive.

mfiggs

I am slowly learning about "self compassion" myself. After years of beating myself up and being in a vicious cycle with eating and weight loss I finally realized that all that guilt and down talking myself only made me do nothing about it! If that makes sense. I continued to stay fat and unhealthy until I realized that is ok to make a mistake and that tomorrow is a new day. This website and the support from people like you V, have really showed me to not be so hard on myself! Thanks great post:flowerforyou:

SpartanHard

This is very good

shirtswiththumbholes

I definitely agree with this! It can be so hard to give ourselves a break, but I really do try to stay positive and "go easy" on myself. If I was too hard on myself and felt awful pressure every day, I know I would have quit this program a month ago. That's just how I am. I would have gotten frustrated and given up. With this positive attitude, I am able to say "Tomorrow is another day." And if that makes me lose the weight a little slower? Fine. But it's better than not losing any weight at all.

1southernchick

Great post and I so agree! I'm very hard on myself. Well I guess as my boss said to me the other week, "you're an over achiever". I thought about it and all my friends were like oh yeah, how could you not see that. So, I have high expectations for myself. I don't usually give me a break!