Abstract
Self-compassion and its cultivation in psychological interventions are associated with improved mental health and well-being. However, the underlying processes for this are not well understood. We randomly assigned 135 participants to study the effect of two short-term self-compassion exercises on self-reported-state mood and psychophysiological responses compared to three control conditions of negative (rumination), neutral, and positive (excitement) valence. Increased self-reported-state self-compassion, affiliative affect, and decreased self-criticism were found after both self-compassion exercises and the positive-excitement condition. However, a psychophysiological response pattern of reduced arousal (reduced heart rate and skin conductance) and increased parasympathetic activation (increased heart rate variability) were unique to the self-compassion conditions. This pattern is associated with effective emotion regulation in times of adversity. As predicted, rumination triggered the opposite pattern across self-report and physiological responses. Furthermore, we found partial evidence that physiological arousal reduction and parasympathetic activation precede the experience of feeling safe and connected.
Highlights
IntroductionSelf-compassion has been defined as being kind to one’s self (Neff, 2003b) and being able to use selfreassurance and soothing in times of adversity (Gilbert, 2009; Neff, 2003b)
The different groups were comparable in terms of their self-reported state levels of self-compassion (F(4,130) = 0.64, p = .637, ηp2 = .02), self-criticism (F(4,130) = 0.35, p = .845, ηp2 = .01), positive affiliative affect (F(4,130) < .40, p = .809, ηp2 = .01), and feeling energized (F(4,130) = 1.06, p = .380, ηp2 = .03)
The results were largely in line with our expectations and lead us to suggest that self-compassion may exert its beneficial effects on mental and physical health in two possible ways, first, by temporarily activating a low-arousal parasympathetic positive affective system that has been associated with stress reduction, social affiliation, and effective emotion regulation, and second, by temporarily increasing positive self and reducing negative self, addressing cognitive vulnerabilities for mental health problems such as depression
Summary
Self-compassion has been defined as being kind to one’s self (Neff, 2003b) and being able to use selfreassurance and soothing in times of adversity (Gilbert, 2009; Neff, 2003b). MBCT uses mindfulness practices such as the body scan and breath awareness to teach mindfulness skills Even though it is not an explicit skill taught in MBCT, self-compassion is implicitly interwoven into the mindfulness instructions (e.g., “Whenever you notice that the mind has wandered off, bring it back with gentleness and kindness.”). The few studies that did (Kearney et al, 2013; Neff & Germer, 2013) relied on trait-level measures that may not be sensitive to transient state changes and, like all self-report measures, may be biased by demand characteristics (Orne, 1962) These studies do not allow conclusions about the underlying mechanisms of the beneficial effects of self-compassion. This system is suggested to promote interpersonal approach and social affiliation (Depue & MorroneStrupinsky, 2005) mediated by activations in the central oxytocin-opiate system (Carter, 1998; Depue & MorroneStrupinsky, 2005; Insel, 2010; Porges, 2007)
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