Body Acceptance Week 2023- Thursday
Self-Compassion & Body Awareness
What is Self-Compassion?
Think of how you respond to a friend who is suffering in some way. Maybe they just went through a breakup, or they failed an exam. Do you ignore their distress? Do you judge them and point out all the ways they messed up? Of course not. You know they are hurting, and you hurt with them. You respond with kindness and understanding.
Self-compassion is essentially extending that kindness and understanding to yourself. Most of us would never subject those we love to the harsh criticism we reserve for ourselves. Yet we don’t think twice about judging ourselves--what we do, what we say, and how we look.
Kristin Neff, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and self-compassion expert explains it like this:
Articles
- Self-Compassion: A Valuable Tool to Improve Body Image
- How Body Positivity Can Lead to Better Health
- Body Image and Self-Compassion
- The Transformative Effects of Mindful Self-Compassion
Podcasts/Interviews
- Brene Brown Podcast: Brene with Sonya Renee Taylor on “The Body Is Not An Apology.”
- The Body Kindness Podcast
Videos
- Northwestern Professor Renee Engeln, Body and Media Lab and Author of Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women, talks about body acceptance and self-compassion:
- An epidemic of beauty sickness | Renee Engeln | TEDxUConn 2013
Websites
Books
- Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance
- Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women
- Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina
- The Body Is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love