Here are the Major Health Benefits of Being Kinder to Yourself

 

Here Are the Major Health Benefits of Being Kinder to YourselfA key part of meditation is practicing the act of compassion—not only to others, but also to yourself. The Dalai Lama himself once said, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

You sit in an upright position, close your eyes, focus on your breath, imagine a loved one standing before you, and wish them love, light, and health. If you want to level-up, you do the same thing with someone you dislike, by trying to empathize with why they may act the way they do, or by thanking them for helping you practice patience and understanding. Oftentimes, the hardest thing to do is to practice this compassion exercise with yourself, to replace those thoughts of “I’m a failure” and “I’m not good enough” with “I love myself” and “I’m doing the best I can.”

All of this might sound kind of, well, hokey, but a new study published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science shows it really works. Researchers divided 135 University of Exeter students into five groups who were given 11-minute audio recordings that either encouraged them to be critical of themselves and others or instructed them to be kind to themselves. Researchers then monitored their heart rates and sweat responses to the exercises, and asked them questions related to how calm, safe, and connected to others they felt.

The results showed that not only did the compassion groups feel more of a connection to others, their bodily responses indicated an increase in relaxation through a drop in heart rate, reduced sweat response, and an increase in heart rate variability—the time interval between heartbeats—which indicates better health, a younger biological age, and the ability to handle and adapt to stressful situations. Participants in the critical group, however, reacted in a way that indicated feelings of threat and distress.

“Previous research has found that self-compassion was related to higher levels of wellbeing and better mental health, but we didn’t know why,” Dr Anke Karl, the leader of the Clinical Psychology Research Group and the Mood Disorders Centre at the University of Exeter and lead author of the study, said in a university newsletter. “Our study is helping us understand the mechanism of how being kind to yourself when things go wrong could be beneficial in psychological treatments. By switching off our threat response, we boost our immune systems and give ourselves the best chance of healing. We hope future research can use our method to investigate this in people with mental health problems such as recurrent depression.”

Indeed, while practicing compassion meditation is useful for everyone, it can be especially life-changing for those who are prone to negative thinking, as it helps you become more aware of your thoughts and better able to control them. The practice doesn’t mean you won’t still sometimes think, “Wow, I really hate that guy on the bus” or periodically ask yourself “Why am I so unlovable?” but it will enable you to catch yourself when you’re having these thoughts, realize that they are thoughts rather than facts, and direct your mind to a more positive place.

To find out more on this study click the link and read the full story.