ABSTRACT
Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living (MBCL) is a programme offering participants further training in deepening their mindfulness skills with practice in compassion toward themselves and others. Although compassion is concerned with suffering, it is associated with positive emotions, health and happiness, rather than fatigue and burn-out, as pointed out by M. Ricard. Empirical evidence is so far lacking as to whether compassion training should be offered with or without previous mindfulness training. The overall aim of the MBCL programme is to alleviate suffering and enhance physical, psychological and social well-being by offering a science-based training in compassion, building on already established mindfulness skills. Social comparison and self-evaluation are common strategies for judging and securing our position in rank and status, which can fuel our threat and drive systems. The multi-layered brain and emotion regulation systems can deepen our understanding of why humans are so prone to stress.
