15 Mar What is Compassionate Mind Training?

At the core of Resilient Minds Workshops and psychotherapeutic practice is Compassionate Mind Training. This is a way of training our minds to be at their most helpful by develop certain skills and qualities.  This then helps us to relate to our difficult feelings – such as anxiety, depression, anger and worry – in new and helpful ways.  The work helps us figure out the function of emotions, what they’re trying to tell us and, crucially, helps these to change.

Compassionate Mind Training is like physio for the brain – a mental work out, exploration, building strength and discovering new abilities.  We can change our minds, our brains and the way we react to things by practicing certain exercises.  We can learn to activate certain parts of our brains by cultivating and nurturing them so they are at their most helpful to us.  This is what Compassionate Mind Training does.

The training helps us to develop compassionate feelings towards ourselves and others such as feelings of warmth, kindness, authority, strength, sympathy and empathy.  We can then recall these when we need to, like creating an inner ally.  Powerful stuff!

A gentle reminder….

–          Compassionate – recognising struggles in life and actively working towards alleviating them now and in the future

–          Mind – thoughts, feelings and thinking patterns

–          Training – guiding, educating and learning new skills