Yesterday you began to practice self-compassion.
You may have noticed that self-compassion led to feelings of contentment, connection, and well-being, or that it motivated you to be kinder toward others. That’s because self-compassion activates an emotion system in your brain designed for affiliation and caring. Compassion-focused therapy (Gilbert 2014; Kolts 2016) describes humans as having three primary emotion systems with different functions:
The caring system regulates the way we take care of ourselves and others.
The drive system seeks out resources to help us survive and thrive.
The threat system picks up on threats and provokes strong emotions that motivate us to seek safety.
All three are necessary for survival, and ideally you want to find a helpful balance between them. Yet sometimes our threat and drive systems dominate our experience and override our caring system.
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ACT Daily Writing:
Your threat system motivates you to quickly avoid risks. When threatened, your body prepares to fight, flee, or freeze, you focus on danger, and you may feel anger, anxiety, or disgust. But when your threat system is chronically activated you can feel on edge, irritable, or stressed, or you may have difficulty sleeping.
What people, situations, or activities stimulate your threat system?
What happens in your body?
How do you behave?
How dominant is this system now?
What’s activating it?
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Today’s Practice Today, take note of your threat and drive systems. Notice your body sensations, thoughts, and actions related to them.
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