New research at the University of Arizona has examined the effects of kindness and self compassion on 67 female and 38 male divorcees who had previously been married for more than 13 years. It was reported that at between three and four months after the divorce, the participants who showed greater levels of self-compassion were able to overcome the stress and emotional harm associated with divorce.
In the study due to be published in the journal of Psychological Science, the researchers examined a number of human characteristics including self-esteem, positive thinking, and relationship difficulty in relation to coping with divorce. It was reported that self-compassion was the quality most predictive of future positive emotional wellbeing.
Self-compassion is the feelings of kindness, empathy and caring for one’s self without judgement and self-loathing. It was concluded in the study that this could be the factor deciding how negatively affected a person is by stress and how overwhelmed with regret and anxiety they become as a result of divorce.
The authors commented that in light of these results, if a divorced person is able to accept their circumstances as simply a part of the human experience, they may not be subjected to the feelings of anxiety, depression, loneliness and stress normally associated with divorce.
