Kristin Neff, PhD (#7)

The Shannon Harvey Podcast

In this episode I’m talking with the self-compassion pioneer and researcher, Associate Professor Kirstin Neff from the University of Texas. Although this interview was only briefly used in the documentary film that resulted from the year I spent delving into mindfulness (there was just so much ground to cover in just 96 minutes) it was nevertheless hugely influential on me, and I’m so pleased to be able to share it with you now. You may have heard me explain before that I’ve come to realise that learning mindfulness – or training to be more aware – is actually a life skill, in the same way as something like reading is a skill. By learning to read, a whole universe of possibility has opened up to me. But what I choose to do with that life-changing skill – what books or websites I read, which writers I trust or enjoy, what topics I choose, how I invest my time reading – for good or bad, for better or worse – that really matters. Now, just as reading teaches me to understand words on a page, mindfulness teaches me to know how my mind works. And, like reading, the skill of mindful awareness isn’t actually good or bad. But, what I choose to do with that awareness… that is crucial. Now for me, like so many other people who have started mindfulness training, one of the first things I became aware of was an incessant mean voice in my head, which took up residence at some point in my childhood. My inner experience was actually awful. And I really needed to understand the function and purpose of this constant bombardment of self-criticism. So I turned to Kristen, who, fortunately, was the first person to be brave enough to put all this under a psychological microscope.