"I'm tired of feeling stressed out every day." "I can't stand having so little impact, despite caring so much and working so hard." "I just don't have anything left to give." Over years of developing and teaching their renowned Mindful Self-Compassion program, Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer have found MSC to be uniquely helpful for people struggling with the soul-draining depletion of burnout--from health care professionals, teachers, and caregivers, to tapped-out business owners and employees. Each chapter in this engaging book offers an empathic story of someone stretched to their limits and an easily digestible bite of self-compassion that culminates in a simple anti-burnout tool based on MSC practices. Learn quick and powerful ways to recharge your batteries, de-stress, and, above all, be kind to yourself--so you can be there for others.

This interactive guide is designed to help preservice early childhood educators use self-compassion to mitigate the stress of teaching. Barry argues that learning healthy stress-management strategies while enrolled in teacher education programs will equip students with the resilience needed to manage stress when they enter their own classrooms. The goal is to beat the odds of attrition with higher levels of job satisfaction and fewer instances of burnout. This book includes research findings on the benefits of practicing self-compassion for preservice early childhood teachers, some of the common stressors and challenges teachers experience, and how they have addressed each challenge with self-compassion. Readers are encouraged to respond to writing prompts that address these common challenges and then rate their self-compassion score throughout the text. This is important reading for early care and education students, teacher educators, administrators, and other stakeholders who can make changes to mitigate stressors in their programs and schools. Book Features: An interactive text that offers opportunities for readers to engage in specific self-compassionate exercises designed to increase their capacity to manage stress. Research findings from a study that explores interventions aimed at decreasing stress for students in preservice early childhood education programs. Inspiration in the form of actual self-compassionate letters written by research participants. Theoretical and practical applications for self-compassion practice to address the stressors preservice teachers often experience. Experiences and vignettes from the author's student-teaching journal from his time working as a kindergarten teacher.

Provides nurses with the tools, practices, and strategies to enhance their well-being and protect against burnout. Exhausting schedules and a tumultuous work environment have left many nurses feeling burned out. The COVID-19 pandemic only compounded problems that have been plaguing nurses for decades. How can you take care of others when you don't have the time or energy to take care of yourself? In Courageous Well-Being for Nurses, Advanced Practice Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse, psychotherapist, and educator Donna Gaffney and National Board-certified health and wellness coach Nicole Foster provide essential strategies and resources. Learn about the research underpinning the science of well-being and discover practices that can reduce stress, rejuvenate your capacity for caring, and improve the quality of your own life. Informed by inspirational stories and real-life guidance from nurses around the world, this book provides you with the steps to thrive personally and professionally. Gaffney and Foster research and describe • How to cope with stress, burnout, grief, and empathic distress • The power of self-compassion and mindfulness • Current findings on eating, sleeping, and exercising well • Science-based practices for alleviating stress through nature • The benefits of professional mental health support • The profoundly healing effects of advocacy and activism • How to use the arts and creativity as sources of respite and joy Hundreds of suggested resources, including recommended books, websites, podcasts, videos, and webinars, round out this essential guide. Courageous Well-Being for Nurses is the ultimate journey to well-being: one that is essential, inclusive, deep-rooted, individual, and above all, courageous.

This textbook is an evidenced-based course for interdisciplinary healthcare professionals for improving resilience and reducing stress and burnout. This curriculum improves patient-centered care by providing training in compassion and attention. It is a structured skills-based manual complete with resources for full implementation and dissemination of this evidence-based course. This textbook addresses the gaps existing in other mindfulness-based interventions. It is a unique manual that can be followed in a linear fashion or can be used modularly to suit the needs of specific settings. The curriculum contains didactic content and specific examples of practices; hence, it is easily adaptable for use by groups and classes of various sizes and structure. The authors have conducted several research studies with findings to support its use to prevent and treat burnout. Results demonstrate the curriculum’s feasibility and acceptability in healthcare professionals and students as well as efficacy in stress and burnout reduction with increases in dispositional mindfulness.

Higher education today faces challenges from all sides, but college can provide young people with an opportunity to explore what it means to live a meaningful life. Increasingly, undergraduate education encourages students to reflect on their many callings in life, but this does not need to be a purely individual pursuit. This volume provides an argument for helping students to think about the interconnectedness of individual and communal life as they reflect on their various vocations.

This handbook examines contemporary issues in self-compassion science and practice. It describes advances in the conceptualization and measurement of self-compassion as well as current evidence from cross-sectional and experimental research. The volume addresses the foundational issues of self-compassion, including its relationship to self-esteem and mindfulness. In addition, it considers the developmental origins of self-compassion and its relevance across the life course, including among adolescents and older adults. The handbook explores the role of self-compassion in promoting well-being and resilience and addresses new frontiers in self-compassion research, such as the neural underpinnings and psychophysiology of compassionate self-regulation Key areas of coverage include: The meaning of self-compassion for gender and sexuality minority groups. The cultivation of self-compassion among young people. The use of interventions to promote self-compassion. The role of compassion-based interventions in clinical contexts. Important insights for using self-compassion-based interventions in practice. The Handbook of Self Compassion is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, therapists, and other practitioners in psychology, complementary and alternative medicine, and social work as well as all interrelated research disciplines and clinical practices.

This is the authoritative guide to conducting the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program, which provides powerful tools for coping with life challenges and enhancing emotional well-being. MSC codevelopers Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff review relevant theory and research and describe the program's unique pedagogy. Readers are taken step by step through facilitating each of the eight sessions and the accompanying full-day retreat. Detailed vignettes illustrate not only how to teach the course's didactic and experiential content, but also how to engage with participants, manage group processes, and overcome common obstacles. The final section of the book describes how to integrate self-compassion into psychotherapy. Purchasers get access to a companion website with downloadable audio recordings of the guided meditations. Note: This book is not intended to replace formal training for teaching the MSC program. See also two related resources for MSC participants and general readers, The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook, by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer, and The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, by Christopher Germer.

What is (R)Evolutionary Leadership? Why Does it Matter? How can contemporary school district administrators, specifically superintendents, contend with so many difficult, and almost impossible competing commitments? Building on the definitions of revolution, revolutionary, evolution, and evolutionary, the notion of (R)Evolutionary Leadership emerged while discussing the need for school district leaders to push back against the status quo while improving teacher and leadership practices, improving student learning outcomes, engaging with the community, and ensuring decision making processes that include check and balance systems that are just, fair, and equitable for all. The chapters in this book introduce superintendents or research on superintendents in which these tenants were practiced; both in their ability to enact radical change by “overthrowing” the status quo – as well as evolutionary in their deliberate approach to viewing change as a process they can control over time. These leaders were willing to confront and defy practices and policies that were counter to student well-being and achievement while concurrently knowing how to reach their desired results. The chapters chosen for inclusion in this volume are those that offered a glimpse of these revolutionary tenants in practice. We ask that you consider this emerging concept as you explore the chapters of our book. You will find the (R)evolutionary Leaders you meet in the chapters know how to evolve, not just to stay alive, but to ensure the organization (school) remains relevant and vital to society. These leaders use their positional power, social capital, and expertise to advocate for policies and practices that are in the best interest of the school community and they innovate in ways that challenge the status quo. You will also find practices that are (R)Evolutionary and provide ways for leaders to innovate, collaborate, and simply take care of themselves and those around them. Our description does not seek to support or define or delineate the characteristics of a (R)Evolutionary Leader or how one might enact (R)Evolutionary Leadership–but serves as a way to (re)think the way we view the vastly complex work of school district administrators, specifically the superintendent. (R)Evolutionary leadership may change our ways of thinking about the significant advocacy role a superintendent can play in influencing both practice and policy to enact the change necessary to move forward issues of justice, equity, and quality in PK-12 schools and further to improve educational and social outcomes for those served.