Book Club: An Introduction to Hack 1: Developing Self-Compassion
When Angela and I began discussing compassionate classrooms, we immediately thought of how many of us have a tendency to suffer from "compassion fatigue" -- a common syndrome that many teachers, parents, and other caregivers experience. We all know well the exhaustion we feel when we expend all of our energy taking care of the needs of other people, at the expense of our own.
We often think that it’s selfish to take care of ourselves, and as parents, teachers and caregivers we need to be selfless. But what we know from our experiences, and from mind body science, it’s actually self-full to practice self-compassion. Ironically, when we grow our own self-compassion first, we have the capacity to be even more compassionate with others.
We began our research with the work of Kristin Neff, PhD, a psychologist who has studied and written about self-compassion extensively. Her perspective is that there are three essential components to practicing self-compassion: tuning into ourselves and what we’re feeling, being kind to ourselves, and recognizing that we are not alone. It's comforting to know that we are all in this together.
We hope you will enjoy reading our stories from teachers who have been cultivating their own self-compassion:
Denise Carr's "trifecta" of practices that she feels helps her be more centered as a teacher.
And how Kelly Fildes Murphy found mindfulness in her own life, which has become a practice that she integrates into her classroom.
As you dive into Hack 1 of Hacking School Culture: Designing Compassionate Classrooms, we invite you to think about the following:
How might we build our resilience so we can avoid compassion fatigue? Or reverse its course?
What does practicing self-compassion look like for you?
How might you begin a practice that helps you avoid compassion fatigue?
Looking forward to seeing you again in a couple of days so we can discuss and share thoughts.
Until then, we'd love to hear from you as you read Hack 1. Post your questions, comments on our Compassionate Classrooms Facebook page to join the conversation.
