The compassionate mind approach to difficult emotions

Title
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
	Why are emotions important?
	What are emotional difficulties?
	Difficult emotions: A personal story
	How can compassion help with difficult emotions?
	How to use this book
	Practice
	Case examples used in the book
Section One Learning about emotions
	1 What are emotions?
		Definition of emotion
		Beyond definitions – emotions organise the body and mind
		Tracking the ‘story’ of emotions
		What’s the difference between emotions and feelings?
		What’s the difference between emotions and moods?
		Are there some emotions that are healthy or good, and some that are unhealthy or bad?
		Key reflections
	2 Why do we have emotions?
		Emotions evolved to help us
		Emotions serve our motives
		What are the functions of our different emotions?
		The three system model of emotion
			Exercise: Anxiety vs anger
		Built for us, not by us
		Key reflections
Section Two How and why we struggle with our emotions
	3 Evolution and our tricky brain
		Our brain has inbuilt glitches
		Loops in the mind – when new and old collide
		Loops in the mind – not our fault
		Key reflections
	4 Emotions are shaped by life experiences
		Difficult emotions – shaped for us, not by us
		How have your emotions been shaped?
		Caring, attachment and distress regulation
			Exercise: How have your relationships shaped your three systems?
		What can compassion, and CFT, do to help?
		Key reflections
	5 Emotion regulation problems
		What is emotion regulation?
		What is emotion dysregulation?
		Difficulties in regulating emotions – the emotion regulation model (ERM)
Section Three What is compassion, and how might it help with my difficult emotions?
	6 What is compassion, and how can it help with difficult emotions?
		What is compassion?
		First psychology of compassion – engagement with distress
		Second psychology of compassion – alleviation of distress
		Bringing the two psychologies together
		Compassion, shadow and difficult emotions
		The benefits of cultivating a compassionate mind
		The three flows of compassion
		Key reflections
	7 How to develop a compassionate mind
		Starting the process – motivation
			Exercise: Compassion-based motivation – why do I want things to be different?
		Is it possible to ‘feed’ our brains?
		Getting the ball rolling – practice
		Key reflections
	8 Compassionate mind training – attention and mindfulness
		Foundations of a compassionate mind: Attention, mindfulness and mind awareness
		The power of attention
			Exercise: The nature of attention
		A restless mind
			Exercise: Our restless mind
		Strengthening attention: Mind awareness and stability through mindfulness
		Ways to be mindful
		Before you start – five steps of preparation
		Core mindfulness practices
			Exercise: Mindfulness of sound
			Exercise: Mindful body scan
			Exercise: Mindfulness of breathing
		Difficulties with mindfulness
		Mindfulness in daily life
			Exercise: Mindful walking
			Exercise: Mindful eating
		Key reflections
	9 Compassionate mind training – building the soothing system
		Body posture
			Exercise: Developing a grounded, stable body posture
		Soothing rhythm breathing
			Exercise: Soothing rhythm breathing
			Exercise: Learning to slow down – how to slow your breathing
		Facial expression
			Exercise: SRB with friendly facial expression
		Voice tone and inner talk
			Exercise: Soothing rhythm breathing with inner speech and caring inner voice tone
		Memory and imagery
			Exercise: Soothing memory
			Exercise: Soothing system imagery – creating a safe place
		Key reflections
	10 Compassionate mind training – developing your compassionate self
		Creating a compassionate mind
		Core qualities of the compassionate self
		Cultivating the compassionate self
			Exercise: Compassionate memory
		Developing your compassionate self – acting techniques
			Exercise: Compassionate self
		Embodying your compassionate self – bringing the virtual into reality
			Exercise: Bringing your compassionate self into daily life
		Ideal compassionate other
			Exercise: Creating your ideal compassionate other
		Key reflections
	11 Fears, blocks and resistances to compassion
		Misunderstandings about compassion
		The compassionate ladder
		Key reflectioms
Section Four Using your compassionate mind to manage your emotions – compassion-focused emotion regulation
	Example: Helpful emotion regulation
	12 Compassion-focused emotion regulation skills (CERS) – awareness of emotion triggers
		1. Developing attention and awareness of triggers of difficult emotions
			Exercise: Learning from the past
			Exercise: Increasing awareness of external triggers
			Exercise: Noticing internal triggers to difficult emotions
		2. Modifying triggers/emotionally stimulating situations
			Exercise: Using your compassionate mind to modify trigger situations
		3. Wise selection of situations
			Exercise: Wise selection of situations
			Key reflections
	13 Compassion-focused emotion regulation skills (CERS) – awareness of emotions
		Emotion patterns
		Awareness of emotion
		Mindfulness of emotion
			Exercise: Mindfulness of emotions – noticing their shape and pattern
		Key reflections
	14 Compassion-focused emotion regulation skills (CERS) – labelling emotions
		Present moment labelling
			Exercise: Present moment emotion labelling
			Exercise: Emotion daily review
		Range of emotional experience
		How often do you experience different emotions?
		Memory and emotion labelling
			Exercise: Labelling emotional memories
		Discriminating between emotions
		Recognising mixed feelings
			Exercise: Labelling mixed emotions
		Key reflections
	15 Compassion-focused emotion regulation skills (CERS) – understanding emotions
		1. Validate
			Exercise: Using the compassionate self to validate emotions
		Receiving validation from someone else
			Exercise: Using memory and imagination to validate your feelings
			Exercise: Validation of emotion from the image of your compassionate other
		2. Mentalising and understanding our emotions
			Exercise: Mentalising from the compassionate self
		3. Listening to what our emotions are telling us – the wisdom of emotions
			Exercise: Listening to the wisdom of emotions
		4. Recognition of, and working with, what maintains difficult emotions
		Key reflections
	16 Compassion-focused emotion regulation skills (CERS) – coping with and using emotions
	16a: Coping with emotions – tolerating and accepting
		Tolerating difficult emotions
		Mindfulness
			Exercise: Mindfulness of emotion – distress tolerance
		Stability of mind and body
			Exercise: Distress tolerance – soothing breathing
		Compassionate intention
			Exercise: Compassionate self – supporting distress tolerance
		Accepting difficult emotions
			Exercise: Compassionate acceptance of difficult emotions
		Working with ‘emotions about emotion’
		Key reflections
	16b: Modifying the intensity of emotions
		Modifying the intensity of emotions
		Decreasing the intensity of emotions
		Increasing the intensity of emotions
			Exercise: Turning up the volume of emotional intensity
			Exercise: Using writing to increase emotional intensity
		Developing your skills further – online material
		Key reflections
	16c: Coping with emotions – expressing emotions and assertiveness
		Exercise: Exploring difficulties with emotional expression
		Exercise: Managing fears about expressing emotions
		Three steps to emotion expression
		Emotional expression – learning to be assertive
		Key reflections
	16d: Working with multiple emotional ‘selves’
		Exercise: Multiple selves
		Step 1: Listening to the angry part of you
		Step 2: Listening to the anxious part of you
		Step 3: Listening to the sad part of you
		Step 4: How do the different parts relate to each other? Emotions about emotions
		Step 5: Bringing compassion to the party
			Exercise: Bringing compassion to the situation
		Compassion for my angry self
			Exercise: Compassion for your angry self
		Compassion for the anxious part of me
			Exercise: Compassion for your anxious self
		Compassion for the sad part of me
			Exercise: Compassion for your sad self
		Key reflections
	16e: Managing shame and self-criticism
		What is shame?
		Why do we experience shame?
		The shape of shame
		What impact does shame have on our other emotions?
		Shame can disconnect us
		Compassion – an antidote for shame?
			Exercise: Bringing compassion to shame
		Self-criticism – shame’s best friend
		Why do we become self-critical?
		Self-criticism and feared emotions
		Bringing your compassionate mind to help your self-critic
			Exercise: Using our compassionate self to work with self-criticism
		Key reflections
Section Five Deepening your emotion regulation skills
	17 ‘Turning up for yourself’ – the compassion PDA (Pre, During and After)
		Exercise: Your compassion PDA
		Key reflections
	18 Cultivating positive emotions
		Pay attention to positive emotions
		Recalling positive emotions
			Exercise: Connecting with positive memories
			Exercise: Memory writing
		Gratitude and appreciation
			Exercise: Three good things
		Key reflections
	19 Compassionate letter writing
		Before writing – engage your compassionate mind
			Exercise: Compassionate letter writing
		After writing – compassionate reading
		Key reflections
	20 Using compassionate thinking to manage your emotions
		Understanding the way we think
		Taking perspective – not your fault
		The relationship between threat emotions and thinking patterns
		Thought monitoring
		Threat system thinking vs compassionate thinking
		Developing compassionate, balanced thinking
			Exercise: Thought-emotion form
		Key reflections
Section Six Compassionate futures – sustaining your compassionate mind
	21 Sustaining healthy emotion regulation
		Continue to work out!
		Deepening emotion regulation skills – online chapters
Conclusion
References
Index