A Literature Review by Caleb Campbell, M.S.

Introduction

By definition, self-compassion involves the disposition of being touched by and open to one’s own suffering, not avoiding or disconnecting from it, generating the desire to alleviate one’s suffering and to heal oneself with kindness or acknowledging suffering as part of the normal, shared human experience. Self-compassion is a healthy way of approaching one’s suffering, such as failures, perceived inadequacy, or other life difficulties. It allows an individual to accept distress or relate feelings/experiences with a gentler mindset and recuperate or bounce back accordingly.

Do you find it difficult to overcome barriers to regularly engage in physical activity? Perhaps, unintentionally, do you talk yourself out of doing more, either in intensity or duration, during a workout? Before, during, or after your workout sessions, do you notice how you talk to yourself, is it in a negative or positive way? Do you use encouraging and uplifting words to motivate yourself? Or are the words you use judgmental, criticizing, self-defeating, and even hateful?

Negative words and expressions can create resentment and doubt leading to inconsistency or even quitting the activity all together. Positive words and expressions can build up our self-efficacy (confidence in ourselves) and lead to higher intrinsic motivation (joy and happiness), and increased desire, intensity, effort, and consistency in engaging in the activity. If we resent or hate working out we will find every excuse not to do it and building back from a broken routine can be extremely difficult. Whereas on the other hand if we look forward to and enjoy our workouts, we will find every excuse to do it or make sure it still gets done, making it much easier to bounce back when exercise-related setbacks get in the way.

Sample:

569 healthy adults in the UK (Mean age = 41.92 years, SD = 13.70; 47.8% female) completed an online survey with measures for Self-Compassion, Psychological Distress, Barrier Self-Efficacy, and Physical Activity.

Findings:

Moderate-Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA)

• Barrier Self-Efficacy directly related to increased time spent in moderate-vigorous physical activity.
• Self-compassion indirectly positively effects moderate-vigorous physical activity via increased barrier self-efficacy.
• The serial mediation path of self-compassion on MVPA via decreased psychological distress and subsequently increased barrier self-efficacy was marginal and positive.
• These findings suggested that individuals high in self-compassion spent more time in MVPA due to attenuated psychological distress and increased barrier self-efficacy.

Light Physical Activity (LPA)

• Barrier Self-Efficacy directly related to increased time spent engaged in light physical activity.
• Self-compassion demonstrated a marginal, positive indirect effect on LPA via increased barrier self-efficacy.
• The serial mediation path of self-compassion on LPA via decreased psychological distress and subsequently increased barrier self-efficacy was also marginal and positive.
• These findings provide partial support to self-compassion’s indirect effect on increasing LPA via attenuated psychological distress and increased barrier self-efficacy.

Sedentary Behavior (SB)

• Barrier Self-Efficacy was directly related to decreased time spent in Sedentary Behavior.
• Self-compassion demonstrated a marginal, negative indirect effect on SB via increased barrier self-efficacy.
• The serial mediation path of self-compassion on SB via decreased psychological distress and subsequently increased barrier self-efficacy was also marginal and negative.
• These findings provide partial support for self-compassion’s effect on reducing SB.

Barrier Self-Efficacy (BSE)

• Self-compassion was directly related to greater Barrier Self-Efficacy.
• Psychological distress’s direct effect on BSE was negative but marginal.
• The indirect effect of self-compassion on barrier self-efficacy via decreased psychological distress received marginal support.
• These findings reveal that self-compassion manifests meaningful direct and indirect effects contributing to enhanced barrier self-efficacy for physical activity.

Conclusion

As was predicted, self-compassion manifested a strong negative correlation with psychological distress, a moderate positive correlation with barrier self-efficacy, and a small positive correlation with average daily time spent in MVPA.

Psychological distress manifested a moderate negative correlation with barrier self-efficacy and a small negative correlation with MVPA. Barrier self-efficacy manifested a small, negative correlation with average daily sedentary time, a small positive correlation with time spent engaging in light PA, and a moderate-to-large correlation with MVPA.

Individuals high in self-compassion appeared to engage in greater levels of  physical activity, of which the positive association was underpinned by reduced psychological distress and increased barrier self-efficacy.

The observed direct and indirect effects of self-compassion were stronger when examining more vigorous physical activity (i.e., MVPA) in compassion to less vigorous physical activity (i.e., light PA) and sedentary behavior.

Self-compassion appeared to be a source for building barrier self-efficacy, thanks to its emotional benefits and associated lower levels of psychological distress. The findings reveal the usefulness of self-compassion in promoting physical activity, especially in overcoming barriers to engaging in regular physical activity.

A possibly explanation is that self-compassion helps an individual to overcome barriers and recuperate from exercise-related setbacks, and one may be more susceptible to challenges, barriers, or potential setbacks when engaging in more vigorous physical activity (e.g., experiencing fatigue, difficulty in generating motivation, injury). Also, one may be more susceptible to challenges when motivating oneself to start and complete a challenging, vigorous PA episode or session, and adopting a self-compassionate mind may allow one to accept these challenges with a gentler mind, thus enhancing the capacity to overcome them.

Barrier self-efficacy accounted for the most significant proportion of variance in one’s physical activity. Meanwhile, barrier self-efficacy underpinned the positive influence of self-compassion and the negative influence of psychological distress in one’s physical activity. This finding is comparable to existing literature that barrier self-efficacy is a more proximal driver of physical activity and underlies the positive influences of task self-efficacy and perceived enjoyment PA on physical activity levels.

To optimize the use of self-compassion in facilitating adaptation and maintenance of physical activity, researchers and practitioners would do well to design and implement specific compassionate mind training that is tailored to support physical activity (e.g., for enhanced self-regulation of exercise to facilitate overcoming challenges and barriers).

Reference:

Zhang, S.; Roscue, C.; Pringle, A. Self-Compassion and Physical Activity: The Underpinning Role of Psychological Distress and Barrier Self-Efficacy. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 1480. https://doi.org/10.3390