Self-compassion and how this helps student mental health and wellbeing

Self-compassion involves meeting personal suffering or perceived failure with kindness, balanced awareness, and an acceptance of suffering as part of a wider human experience. 

It can improve your mental health and wellbeing. 

Self-compassion is mainly about being kind to ourselves and treating ourselves the same way we would treat our friends. This means being honest without being demeaning or cruel. It is about acknowledging our faults and failings without letting them define or overwhelm us.  

You can incorporate mindfulness into your day-to-day activities by taking notice of your surroundings when out for a walk. What can you hear? What can you see? You can also pay greater attention to the taste, texture and look of your food as you eat.  

Another key component of self-compassion is the ability to recognise suffering affects us all. What this idea represents is the knowledge that suffering, although hard, is something we are built to overcome.  

A greater awareness of this can also lead to a stronger feeling of connection with each other. 

How the University can help 

Student Services offer a range of help including specialist support and resources for your wellbeing and mental health.  

Other places to find help 

• The Centre for Clinical Interventions offers resources and workbooks for developing self-compassion.
• Dr. Kristin Neff, a psychologist who researches self-compassion, offers exercises to develop self-compassion.
• Positive Psychology explains self-compassion and how to develop it.