Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.

This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.

Okay. The way that you talk to yourself matters.

And if you're like most people, you might find that you're hard on yourself sometimes.

Maybe you call yourself names or you talk yourself out of doing really hard things.

Research shows, though, that self-criticism backfires. The key to feeling good and performing well involves talking to yourself with kindness. So today I'm talking to Kristen Neff, a top researcher

on self-compassion. She's an associate professor of psychology at the

University of Texas and the author of the best-selling book, Self-compassion, the proven power of

being kind to yourself. Today she's talking about her newest book, Fierce Self-compassion.

While her book targets women, I'm sure that anyone can benefit from her knowledge.

Sometimes talking to yourself with kindness isn't enough. In order to alleviate suffering,

you might have to use your inner dialogue to inspire yourself to take action.

On today's show, Kristen shares the difference between tender self-compassion and fierce self-compassion, how self-compassion improves

mental health, and how to start practicing it every single day. Make sure to stick around until the

end of the episode for the therapist take. This is the part of the show where I break down

Kristen's strategies and share how you can start incorporating them into your own life.

So here's Kristen Neff on how self-compassion can help you grow mentally stronger.

Dr. Kristen Neff, welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast.

Oh, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

I was excited to learn that you wrote a second book. Your first book, Self-compassion,

I've referenced in my work many times in articles I write as well wrote a second book. Your first book, self-compassion, I've referenced in my work

many times in articles I write as well as in my book. And then I was excited to see that you wrote

...