Psycho-hygiene values healthy self-compassion. We explain what is behind the term and how you can improve your mental health with psycho-hygiene.
Psycho-hygiene: it brings you
It is often easier to have compassion for others than for yourself. The Psycho-hygiene follows on from this: It is about strengthening compassion for you, as this enables you to master difficulties more easily and with greater motivation.
Loud Spectrum.de there are scientific studies on psycho-hygiene that found the following: older people who have a great self-compassion are more likely to accept support. And HIV-infected people with a high level of self-compassion find it easier to accept their illness. Similar results could also be demonstrated in other groups of people, in summary this means that the fear and depression rate has been shown to decrease in people who have healthy psycho-hygiene. You can handle setbacks better. So healthy psycho-hygiene probably strengthens your own Resilience.
The origins of psycho-hygiene
The term “psycho-hygiene” coined Kristin Neff, a professor of psychology at the University of Austin (USA). The origin of Kristin Neff’s thoughts is in the ** book “Lovingkindness“The meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg. It describes that people who treat themselves kindly can sincerely love other people. This approach made sense to Kristin Neff while reading, so she did Self-compassion wanted to explore deeper. In the meantime, she is offering a multi-week training course entitled “Mindful Self-Compassion” (MSC). She also has her results in her **book “Compassion: How we reconcile with our weaknesses and how we become our best friend” summarized.
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For Kristin Neff, self-compassion is not much different than the compassion you can have for other people. Self-compassion is specifically about having your own humanity, limitation and imperfection appreciates. That is psycho-hygiene.
Psycho-hygiene consists of three elements
There is according to Kristin Neff three elementsthat lead to healthy psycho-hygiene:
- Self-kindness
- Shared humanity
- Mindfulness of how to deal with negative emotions and thoughts (mindfulness)
The first element of psycho-hygiene: self-friendliness
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With this element you should learn to understand your construction sites, your failure and your imperfection accept. Handle yourself well in situations where you reach your limits. Do not be angry with yourself, but show understanding for the result and your limitations. Treat yourself patiently instead of criticizing yourself. Be nice, healthy and comforting with yourself for healthy psycho-hygiene.
- Practical tip: Meet yourself at moments like the one you meet with a loved one: – metaphorically speaking – hug yourself. Have understanding and love for you. Ask yourself what is good for you in this situation.
The second element of psycho-hygiene: shared humanity
The second element relativize you your imperfection or your failure. With healthy psycho-hygiene it becomes clear to you: mistakes belong to us humans. Not only do you make mistakes, everyone makes them and nobody is perfect. By relativizing your situation, you gain distance from a self-centeredness that is only about yourself.
- Practical tip: If you’re annoyed with yourself, make sure that other people make mistakes. You are no exception. In addition, failures are part of our lives and help us move forward.
The third element of psycho-hygiene: mindfulness
The last element of psycho-hygiene deals with mindfulness. Perceive your feelings without suppressing or exaggerating. Find one for healthy psycho-hygiene inner balance about the negative feelings you have in you
- Practical tip: Acknowledge your own emotions by verbalizing them: “It’s not that easy now” or “It really hurts”. The Nonviolent Communication helps you verbalize your own feelings without any value.
More exercises and meditations for your psycho-hygiene
Other exercises and meditations that Kristin Neff suggests to help you empathize improve, you can find on their website for self-compassion. We also have ideas for you guided meditations.
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- Learning to love yourself: Tips and exercises for the loved one