The compassionate mind

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1. reifyMay 2024
   Read:

   The Compassionate mind by Paul Gilbert

   Gilbert is a British clinical psychologist.

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2. reifyDec 2023
   The Compassionate Mind - Gilbert, Paul - 2009

   I had forgottten about this book until an old psychotherapist friend mentioned it.

   Excellent book for these stressful and chaotic times when we just want to be and feel like we are human beings and not human doings and automotons.

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3. guitarlimeoMar 2026
   I'm reading The Compassionate Mind by Paul Gilbert and I find it shares many similar ideas. Also I've been interested by Buddhist concepts like impermanency for a while.

   While I think rationally what you said is good and makes sense, at the same time it feels like it says you should forget your roots and be this impermanent being existing in the present and only the present. I value everything about my life, the past, my role models when I was a kid, my past and current skills, all friends from all ages, my whole path essentially. When considering current choices I have to make, I feel more drawn to think "What has been my path and values previously, and what makes sense now?" instead of forgetting the past and my ego and just hustling with the $CURRENT technology.

   At least that's how I have thought about my ego when I have tried to approach it with topics like these. It might allow me to make more money in the present if I just disidentified with it, but that thought legitimately feels horrifying because it would mean devaluing my roots.

   Interested to hear your take on this.

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4. ljmJun 2021
   Under my own understanding, a compassionate person is acting in the interest of your resilience and isn't merely providing a well-disguised form of sympathy, or enablement, that stops you from growing. Compassion in that form may not feel like it until sometime later on.

   I think it's largely a subjective concept and we all take different meaning from it, but I developed some of this thinking after reading The Compassionate Mind.[1]

   [1] https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-compassionate-mind

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