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Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by everything that you’re supposed to do for your health?

Aerobic exercise, strength training, meditation, breathwork, mobility exercises, … The list is long, and it creates a problem for busy people: When should you do all this stuff? I definitely disagree with the notion that “everyone has the same 24 hours in a day.”

During my most “extreme” times, I was juggling two school-aged kids, a household, a full-time job, and building my business on the side. I know what it feels like to have no time or energy left to do something for yourself, even though you’re aware of the potential benefits.

And this is where micropractices come in: brief exercises (less than 30 seconds) that capture key elements, or the “essence,” of practices that normally take longer.

I just came across research on a self-compassion micropractice that only takes ~20 seconds daily and can improve mental health, so I wanted to share this with you today.

Self-compassion means reacting with kindness and understanding toward yourself instead of harsh self-criticism. More specifically, it entails recognizing when you’re suffering, understanding that it’s part of being human, connecting with your suffering and tolerating that it exists, and doing things to alleviate it.

A meta-analysis of 27 randomized trials found that self-compassion interventions reduced stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms, rumination, and self-criticism.

The problem with these interventions is that they take a lot of time, with repeated training sessions (often in-person) plus self-practice at home. So only people who have both the time and access to these interventions can benefit from them.

Psychologist Eli Susman at Berkeley specializes in investigating micropractices and transforming them into automatic habits.

Susman’s team developed a self-compassion micropractice: It involves a brief video instruction about the practice, and then people commit to practicing it daily for ~20 seconds, and they also define a daily cue to prompt the practice (e.g., “after brushing my teeth in the morning” or “after getting into bed in the evening”).

Instructions for the 20-second practice:

Make yourself comfortable, close your eyes, and place one hand over your chest and the other over your belly, or choose another form of self-touch that feels comfortable, such as gently holding your upper arms or giving yourself a hug.

Focus on the feelings that arise and on responding to yourself with kindness and understanding. Try being a friend to yourself.

If you want to watch the actual video instruction from the study, click here.

The study involved 135 college students. They were randomly assigned to one of two groups: (1) the self-compassion group (that practiced the self-compassion microhabit) and (2) the active control group (that practiced a finger-tapping habit instead).

The central question in this study was whether there would be any difference between the two groups after one month of daily practice.

The primary measures included:

This was an online study, so the students could participate from home or wherever they were.

Regarding the full 135-person sample, there were no significant group differences after one month.

Differences emerged only when the researchers analyzed the 45 participants who had followed the daily practice for more than 28 days: relative to the control group, self-compassion scores had increased and perceived stress and psychopathology had decreased in the self-compassion group. The groups didn’t significantly differ on the other measures.

These results are promising because they show that a daily self-compassion micropractice can improve mental health with minimal time investment.

But the fact that only 45 participants had practiced daily also shows that it’s difficult to make new behaviors stick, even if they demand very little time. So the question is: how do you turn the practice into a habit so you execute it (almost) automatically and don’t forget it?

That was the follow-up study question.

The researchers tested a larger sample of 497 people and again assigned them to two groups.

The differences from the first study were as follows:

The habit formation group learned that:

…habits take time and many repetitions before they become automatic, so the key ingredient is to repeat, repeat, and repeat them.

…they needed to find a cue for their micropractice and attach it to something they do daily (e.g., brushing teeth in the morning).

…they should focus on the positive feelings the practice triggers, because rewards make habit formation easier.

The habit formation group also had to write and upload a detailed plan that involved their planned daily practice times, setting daily phone alerts as reminders, planning where they would practice, which cue they would use, how they would overcome potential barriers to practicing, and how they would identify the rewards of the self-compassion micropractice.

The main result was that the habit formation group showed more frequent practice both at the 3-month and 6-month follow-ups, and the level of automaticity (performing it without having to think about it) was also higher in that group.

Apart from this result, the habit formation group also showed stronger increases in self-compassion at the 3-month and 6-month follow-ups, and stronger decreases in psychopathology after 6 months than the other group. There were no group differences in perceived stress levels.

The results show that the additional habit-formation training was effective in helping people stick to a daily micropractice.

Both studies show that a daily self-compassion micropractice of only ~20 seconds can benefit your mental health. So this is your prompt to try such a daily practice if you want to (I will do it!).

As you can see from study 2, establishing this practice as a daily habit becomes easier if you follow these tips:

Over time, your new micropractice will become automatic. You just need some patience, because new habits can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to establish.

What else I’ve been up to:

The internet is full of “brain-boosting” products, & it’s hard to distinguish marketing claims from actual scientific evidence.

I’ve analyzed 5 of them in my new Medium article.

Read it here:

Not a Medium member? Read it for free here.

That’s it for today!

And now?

Until next time!

Best wishes,

Patricia (Dr. Patricia Schmidt) from creatorschmidt.com

P.S.:

Disclaimer:
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