Excerpt from mindful.org

Resilience expert Linda Graham presents two ways you can ease anxiety and fear with the research-backed benefits of self-compassion. See the full article on mindful.org entitled “Self-compassion Practices to Deepen Your Resilience,” in the 04-15-2020 issue. The author outlines two self-compassion practices that help the brain shift out of negativity:

1. Take a Self-Compassion break every day. Any moment you notice a surge of a difficult emotion—boredom, contempt, remorse, shame—pause, put your hand on your heart (this activates the release of oxytocin, the hormone of safety and trust). Empathize with your experience—recognize the suffering—and say to yourself, “this is upsetting” or “this is hard!” or “this is scary!” or “this is painful” or “ouch! This hurts” or something similar, to acknowledge and care about yourself as the experiencer of something distressing. Repeat these phrases to yourself (or some variation of words that work better for you)

2. Explore Self-Compassion as an on-going way of being. She includes these mantras to repeat as a daily practice: May I be kind to myself in this moment, in any moment, in every moment. May I accept this moment exactly as it is, any moment, every moment. May I accept myself exactly as I am in this moment, in any moment, in every moment. May I give myself all the compassion and courageous action that I need.