This week Nicola and Di chat with the wise and encouraging Dr. Kristin Neff. Kristin is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas and is one of the world’s leading experts in self-compassion. Kristin was the first person to conduct research on self-compassion more than 20 years ago and she created a scale to measure it, which is used by thousands of practitioners all over the world. She’s written numerous academic articles as well as several books on the topic and has been recognised as one of the most influential scholars in the field of psychology. Well over 5000 studies have been conducted on self-compassion by various scholars since her ground-breaking articles were first published in 2003. She really is a trailblazer in this field. 

In this conversation, Kristin describes what self-compassion actually is, the benefits of practising it in your life, and she shares some simple yet powerful tools which you can use to build your self-compassion. 

She talks about the important difference between self-pity and self-compassion, and why self-compassion is actually a gift that benefits everyone. Despite being known as self-compassion, as Kristin explains, it’s not all about the self, it’s actually a powerful force that connects us to other people and acknowledges our common humanity. 

Kristin gives some really practical tips for how you can get started and the good news is - the benefits can be felt immediately. Our producer Sam also shares with Kristin how her work on self-compassion changed her life. There were tears in the studio that day. We are so grateful to Kristin for this conversation and we hope you love this episode as much as we did. 

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Find out more about Kristin’s work and access free self-compassion tools here

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