“Self-compassion and compassion for others interact to predict well-being” discusses the findings that the effects of compassion for the self on one’s well-being may be contingent on one’s compassion for others.
Compassion is generally defined as the motivation and intention to alleviate the suffering of people. Compassion is associated with a number of positive outcomes, including volunteerism, empathy, and enhanced well-being. Compassion can enhance well-being by fostering social connectedness. The capacity to show compassion and offer help to others is associated with a range of positive outcomes, particularly by fostering both the receipt of social support and the development of mutual support systems. Compassionate individuals are more likely to receive social support, which in turn enhances their ability to effectively utilize and benefit from such support during stressful situations.
Higher levels of trait compassion exhibited lower stress reactivity, including reduced blood pressure and cortisol responses, when receiving social support during a stress-inducing task. Compassion for others not only facilitates the receipt of social support but also enhances the ability to derive physiological and emotional benefits from supportive interactions during stressful situations.
It has been found that after engaging in a brief daily exercise of compassionate acts for others (5–15 minutes every day for 7 days), participants showed increased happiness and self-esteem over six months.
Self-compassion has also gained widespread attention in recent decades. It is defined as compassion directed inwardly towards the self. Research has also demonstrated that even short-term training in self-compassion is effective in improving one’s well-being. One study showed that after attending a training session in self-compassion once a week for three weeks, participants demonstrated significantly better improvement in self-compassion, mindfulness, optimism, self-efficacy, and a reduction in rumination compared to the time-management control group
Both self-compassion and other-compassion are linked to well-being, encompassing hedonic well-being (i.e., positive emotions and life satisfaction) and eudaimonic well-being (i.e., realizing human potential).
The association between self-compassion and interpersonal outcomes could be bidirectional, such that self-compassion may predict better social relationships and emotional well-being, and better social relationships may also predict higher self-compassion. In explaining the possible mechanism, is has been suggested that self-compassion may foster motivational changes, such as self-transcendence, which could link self-compassion to other-compassion.
The dualistic view of compassion contradicts Buddhist traditions, where the self is not seen as independent or central, but as interconnected with others. In Buddhism, compassion is not confined to the self or others but stems from the wisdom of recognizing the interconnected nature of all beings. Studies have shown that people who practice Buddhist meditations have lower self-other boundaries and a stronger association between self-compassion and other-compassion than community adults or college students. Buddhist teachings also emphasize that compassion should not be limited to self-centered concerns or exclusive benevolence toward others. Instead, it encourages transcending the ego and recognizing the shared nature of suffering. Loving-kindness meditation, rooted in Buddhist teachings, also emphasizes the cultivation of compassion and positive wishes for both oneself and others.
Self-coldness was the strongest predictor of compassion fatigue, while compassion for others and self-warmth were not significantly associated. This may further suggest that when engaging in compassionate acts toward others, negative outcomes, such as compassion fatigue, may occur when people are critical and not compassionate to themselves.
Self-compassion provides an important mechanism for self-regulation in times of stress and may serve as a buffer against the emotional strain that can arise when offering compassion to others.
Without self-compassion, it is possible that offering compassion for others is associated with compassion fatigue because the person is not addressing their own emotional needs. For individuals high in compassion for others, cultivating self-compassion may be particularly beneficial, serving as a resource to protect against stress and compassion fatigue when caring for others.
Taking compassion for others into account, the positive effect of self-compassion on well-being was contingent on compassion for others. Specifically, the interaction effect showed that baseline self-warmth and baseline self-compassion aggregate score predicted higher levels of subsequent well-being when baseline compassion for others was moderate or high. Taking baseline compassion for others into account, the cultivation of self-compassion was effective in reducing negative affect when baseline compassion for others was also high.
Surtil : 