In my work with consumers, professionals, and organizations, I always stress the importance of individuals being kind to themselves – using self-compassion – when faced with setbacks and challenges in self-care as a key ingredient for creating sustainable behavior change. So I was excited to read a recent online, cross-sectional study by Drs. Semenchuk, Strachan, and Fortier in Canada (printed in The Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology) that aligns with what I’ve seen in my own clients since 1997: becoming self-compassionate in the face of disappointments facilitates re-engaging with the behavior and ongoing self-regulation.
As the authors state, “The results of this study indicate that self-compassion may assist with self-regulating exercise after an exercise setback. Specifically, self-compassion may provide a strategy to deal with negative emotions, decrease rumination, and extrinsic regulation for an exercise goal reengage in an exercise goal after an exercise setback.”
In everyday terms, this means that when you miss a planned workout, or fail to meet your hoped-for exercise goals, self-compassion can stop you from blaming yourself, feeling bad about yourself, comparing yourself with others, or even giving up on exercise altogether. Simply being kind to yourself can help you course correct and formulate a strategy for dealing with the next (inevitable!) setback. These ideas can also be easily integrated for use in apps, behavior change counseling protocols, and corporate wellness messaging.
When we unconditionally support ourselves to move forward through the ups and downs of our ongoing fitness journey, we are much more likely stick with it. You can see more details of this hot-off-the-press study here.
