Lea Seigen Shinraku on Self-Compassion

The Bridge: w/ Jared Michaels & Chris Searles

According to Lea Seigen Shinraku, psychotherapist and founder of the San Francisco Center for Self-Compassion, negative self-talk is like wearing a virtual-reality headset. It can be crippling and derail us from doing what really matters, like helping to make the world a better place. In this episode, she offers wise and cutting-edge guidance for transforming negative self-talk and becoming optimal agents of positive change. Usually we think the way forward is external. Lea helps us see otherwise.

About Lea
Lea Seigen Shinraku is founder of the San Francisco Center for Self Compassion. Visit sfcenterforselfcompassion.com for meditations, newsletters, and more of her work. Visit SF Center for Self Compassion on Instagram or Facebook.

Noted

• Dr. Kristen Neff, self-compassion pioneer https://self-compassion.org/
• Chris Germer, Founder of Mindful Self-Compassion https://chrisgermer.com/
• Adrienne Maree Brown, author of Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism http://adriennemareebrown.net/
• Diagram of a cell https://gaelmcgill.artstation.com/projects/Pm0JL1, and this: https://www.digizyme.com/cst_landscapes.html, and on Lea's "More David Bowies!" statement, this is fun: https://www.thinkpositiveprints.com/2014/04/psychedelic-cells

Lea's Bridge solution
"We need to be super creative and we all need to do it so we can meet today’s challenges. We need our full selves to be brought to bear."

Select quotes

The reality is everybody feels shame sometimes... To transform it, you have to notice it... Coping with negative self-talk through self-compassion is a resource for dealing with all kinds of difficult truths about being alive right now.

To get people involved, i think, there has to be some spirit of aliveness and creativity and a desire to want to do things, not from a place of shame and fear, but from a place of wanting to support life and co-create with other humans the world that we want.

We need to be super creative and we all need to do it so we can meet today’s challenges. We need our full selves to be brought to bear.

Learning is trying, making a mistake, reflecting, and trying again. Pay Attention. Assess. Try Again.

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Thanks for listening!
Check out more episodes of The Bridge here.

Music
Thanks so much to Alice Spencer for her song, "I Wanna Be a Buddhist," our theme. Enjoy Alice's full performance of the song here.