(12-03-11) Lighten Up to Lose Weight!

guest article by Craig Weatherby

Rather than self-esteem, ?self-compassion? may enhance health and ability to
limit food intake.
We were intrigued by the implications of a new body of research summarized by
New York Times health correspondent Tara Parker-Pope in her ?Well? blog.

As she wrote, ?? giving ourselves a break and accepting our imperfections may
be the first step toward better health ? self-compassion can even influence how
much we eat ??

Her article focused on research by Kristin Neff, Ph.D., of the University of
Texas, and summarized a controlled trial from Wake Forest University, which
found that planting self-forgiving notions in the minds of female college
students reduced their junk-food consumption.

Prompted by Parker-Pope?s blog post, we searched the literature, and uncovered
additional relevant research published four years ago by Duke University
researchers (Leary MR et al. 2007).

The Duke team investigated the thinking and emotional processes by which
people with self-compassionate attitudes deal with unpleasant life events.

(The term ?self-compassion? refers to people who forgive their own
shortcomings, and tend not to beat up on themselves.)

The five Duke studies grouped participants? according to their attitudes
toward themselves, then evaluated their behavior in various contexts:

Reports on negative events in their daily lives
Responses to hypothetical scenarios
Reactions to interpersonal feedback
Rating their or others? videotaped performances in an awkward situation
Reflecting on negative personal experiences
The results showed that people with self-compassionate attitudes had resilient
reactions to negative events that buffered them against negative self-feelings
when imagining distressing social events.

When notions of self-compassion were planted in the minds of participants who
ranked low in self-esteem, this intervention seemed to moderate negative
emotions in response to ambivalent feedback from other people.

People who ranked low in self-compassion undervalued their videotaped
performances, compared with the perceptions of those performances by objective
observers.

Finally, when people were unknowingly nudged toward having a more self-
compassionate perspective, they were more likely to acknowledge their role in
negative events without feeling overwhelmed with negative emotions.

The Duke team concluded that feeling kindly toward yourself is more
psychologically beneficial than holding yourself in high regard:

?In general, these studies suggest that self-compassion attenuates people?s
reactions to negative events in ways that are distinct from and, in some cases,
more beneficial than self-esteem.?

Source: johnnybowden.com

News

---

In evidenza

"L'informazione presente nel sito serve a migliorare, e non a sostituire, il rapporto medico-paziente."

Per coloro che hanno problemi di salute si consiglia di consultare sempre il proprio medico curante.