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Showing posts with the label compassion

COMPASSION TRAINING: HOW TO BUILD RESILIENCE, EMPATHY, AND EMOTIONAL STRENGTH

  Discover what compassion training is, how it rewires the brain, and explore proven techniques to boost empathy, emotional resilience, and mental well-being daily. What is Compassion Training? Compassion is an ever-growing area of interest within psychology and psychotherapy. Definitions of compassion within psychology are varied and divergent, with some researchers considering it to be an emotion, a biologically based characteristic, or a multidimensional construct. There is, however, a broad agreement that compassion is comprised of a combination of affective, cognitive, and motivational components. A simple statement is that compassion  is a concern for the wellbeing of others . A panel of researchers in 2012 defined compassion as a complex multidimensional construct comprised of four components: Differentiating Compassion From Related Emotions Compassion is often misunderstood and easily confused with other related but distinct constructs. While it is important t...

THE REFLECTIVE MIND: UNDERSTANDING THE MECHANICS OF SELF-REFLECTION

  Being present with oneself, in the moment, being mindful, mentalizing, reflective function— all of these constructs point toward a crucial recognition of one’s own experience that takes place repeatedly on short time scales , as much as it is an overarching way of seeing that spans a lifetime. Practicing curiosity fosters open-mindedness. There is a firm but gentle way to be intently aware, where one almost sees oneself as a beloved stranger. Being a stranger to oneself can represent alienation and nihilism, but it can also be the beginning of a love affair as we meet ourselves anew. Closeness to oneself, however, can pose a variety of real and imagined threats. It is important to respect our own boundaries, self-consent to all major decisions, and equip ourselves well. Self-Absorption vs. Self-Reflection In the journey of self-discovery and personal growth, two seemingly similar yet fundamentally different concepts often arise: self-absorption and self-reflection. W...

WHY DO WE DO WHAT WE DO?

How do we differentiate between needs and motives or motivations. ? How not to be ruled by feelings, habits, impulses, and thoughts.? Varieties of Motivation   One of the fundamental premises of the practice of Nonviolent Communication is that everything we do is an attempt to meet core human needs . Much can be said about what exactly counts as a need, and the difference between needs and the many strategies we employ in our attempts to meet them. There is no claim within this practice that we are all the same; only that we share the same core needs, and they serve as the only reason for us to do anything. If everything is motivated by one or more human needs, then why are we even talking about varieties of motivations? It’s because what varies is the degree of awareness we bring to the relationship between our needs and our actions. Our various cultures don’t generally cultivate in us the practice of knowing what we want . On the contrary, much of socialization is fo...

FEAR OF MISSING OUT (FOMO)

What Is FOMO? This is a social  anxiety stemmed from the belief that others might be having fun while the person experiencing the anxiety is not present. It is characterized by a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing.   FOMO is also defined as a fear of regret, which may lead to concerns that one might miss an opportunity for  social interaction , a novel experience or a profitable investment.  It is the fear that deciding not to participate is the wrong choice. Social networking  creates many opportunities for FOMO. While it provides opportunities for social engagement, it offers an endless stream of activities in which any given person is not involved. Psychological dependence on social networks can result in anxiety and can lead to FOMO or even  pathological Internet use . FOMO could result from not knowing about a conversation, missing a TV show, not attending a wedding or party, or hearing that others have d...