ABSTRACT
This chapter opens with the acknowledgement of the difficulties that academics face in higher education (HE) institutions with constant changes reflecting what has been happening in the social, political, and economic world. This new way of working carves a neat pathway for stress in the workplace to develop, with work never feeling it has been complete for many, and often combined with a lack of control over workload. The literature, unsurprisingly, indicates that stress levels are high in academics. There are various tools that those who work in universities can use to try to alleviate suffering but self-compassion, according to its advocates, is likely to form the foundation of many other practices, and indeed encompasses mindfulness as part of its definition. The chapter unpacks exactly what self-compassion is and compares it to other, perhaps similar, concepts, along with looking at the validity of the self-compassion scales. Studies on the positive effects from developing self-compassion are also explored. The chapter then concludes with personal experiences of practicing self-compassion by the members of an action learning set.
