#139 - Kristin Neff, Ph.D.: The power of self-compassion

The Peter Attia Drive

Peter Attia, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.7 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2020

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kristin Neff is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas, author, and a leading expert on mindful self-compassion. In this episode, she shares how developing a self-compassion and mindfulness practice was the most effective tool for relieving her own suffering, and provides strategies and tactics to improve self-compassion and well-being.

We discuss:

The life crisis that turned Kristin to mindfulness and self-compassion (3:30);
How mindful self-compassion relieved Kristin’s feelings of self-judgement, and the psychology that says we all have the capacity for self-compassion (9:45);
Peter’s history of self-criticism and his personal practice of self-compassion (17:15);
The problem with prioritizing self-esteem over self-compassion, and how self-compassion produces a more stable version of self-worth (20:15);
An argument for self-compassion over self-criticism for optimizing performance (26:15);
How and when to introduce self-compassion to children (31:45);
Learning her son had autism—a personal story of how Kristin used mindfulness and self-compassion (36:45);
Self-compassion for cases of childhood trauma, PTSD, and overcoming a “fear of compassion” (44:00);
The relationship between self-compassion and physical health (49:30);
Distinguishing between self-compassion and self-pity, and the three necessary components self-compassion (52:30);
Why self-criticism comes from a desire to be safe, the circular pattern of self-judgment, and self-compassion as the ultimate motivator (55:45);
Potential role of a self-compassion practice for addiction and other maladaptive behaviors (58:45);
Clinical applications and practical uses of self-compassion (1:01:30);
Why you don’t need to meditate to learn mindfulness and self-compassion (1:04:45);
Kristin’s personal meditation practice (1:08:40);
Resources for learning self-compassion (1:11:45); and
More.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome to the Drive Podcast.
0:13.0	I'm your host, Peter Atia.
0:14.8	This podcast, my website, and my weekly newsletter, all focus on the goal of translating
0:18.7	the science of longevity into something accessible for everyone.
0:22.4	Our goal is to provide the best content in health and wellness, full stop, and we've assembled
0:27.0	a great team of analysts to make this happen.
0:29.4	If you enjoy this podcast, we've created a membership program that brings you far more
0:33.2	in-depth content if you want to take your knowledge of this space to the next level.
0:37.3	At the end of this episode, I'll explain what those benefits are, or if you want to learn
0:41.0	more now, head over to peteratiamd.com forward slash subscribe.
0:46.3	Now without further delay, here's today's episode.
0:49.0	I guess this week is Kristen Neff.
0:54.5	She's an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas here
0:58.7	in Austin.
1:00.0	She's the author of the book Self-Compassion, the proven power of being kind to yourself.
1:06.1	She's widely regarded as one of the world's leading experts on self-compassion, being the
1:10.8	first one to truly operationally define and measure this construct basically over the past
1:16.6	decade.
1:17.6	Now, in addition to her research into self-compassion, she's also developed an eight-week program
1:22.8	to teach self-compassion skills in daily life.
1:25.4	She co-created this with her colleague, Dr. Chris Germer.
1:29.2	It's called the Mindfulness Self-compassion, MSC.
	...

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