Please read each statement carefully before answering. To the left of each item, indicate how often you behave in the stated manner, using the following scale:
| Almost Never | Occasionally | About Half Of The Time | Fairly Often | Almost Always |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
To interpret the subscales, we need to understand that self-compassion involves higher levels of positive self-responding in times of struggle and lower levels of negative self-responding. Each positive form of self-responding has a negative counterpart (i.e., self-kindness vs. self-judgment, common humanity vs. isolation, and mindfulness vs. over-identification.) If you score less than 3.0 in an area of positive self-responding, you would benefit from strengthening that skill. Similarly, if you score more than 3.0 in an area of negative self-responding, you can reduce this unhelpful behavior by strengthening its positive counterpart. (These subscales are automatically reverse-coded when your overall score is calculated above to give you a holistic self-compassion score.)
How can you strengthen these skills?
Self-Kindness, Common Humanity and Mindfulness are learnable skills that can get stronger with practice. To learn more about how to develop self-compassion, you can click here and explore many of the free resources on self-compassion.org.
One of the most effective ways to increase your capacity to be kind and supportive to yourself is to join the Self-Compassion Community (SCC). It really helps to learn self-compassion with the support of others, and the SCC offers a variety of resources (live events with me, mentor sessions, videos, guided practices) to suit your own unique style of learning, desire for connection, and schedule. You’ll also receive immediate access to my self-paced Self-Compassion Intro Course, designed to help you learn the basics and deepen your understanding.
Self-compassion isn’t difficult, but it does take intentional practice because it doesn’t come naturally to most of us.
You can check out the Self-Compassion Community with a free two-week trial — available for a limited time only. Simply cancel within two weeks if you decide it’s not for you, and you won’t be charged anything.
With Kindness,
Kristin and the Self-Compassion Team
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