Mindful Self-Compassion for Future Sustainability Professionals

Dealing professionally with sustainability-related issues can be stressful in several ways. On the one hand, many of the current sustainability-related problems are highly threatening and increasingly leading to fears about the future especially among young generations (Hickman et al., 2021). At the same time, developing solutions to these problems is highly complex, and their effectiveness is uncertain, which affects the psychological need for certainty and control (Mälkki & Raami, 2019). On the other hand, it is particularly the desire for a more sustainable future that motivates people to engage professionally with sustainability-related issues. However, given the high urgency and overwhelming variety of sustainability-related challenges, this motivation is often accompanied by an inability to recognize one’s own boundaries and needs, resulting in a personal overload (Russell & Victoria, 2022).

Against this background, sustainability scientists have recently looked into skills and practices that can be helpful for professional actors to cope with the aforementioned challenges. Mindfulness practices have received increasing attention in this context (Fischer et al., 2017; Thiermann & Sheate, 2020). Their effectiveness in raising awareness of internal states and processes, cultivating a more benevolent, compassionate attitude, and overall increasing personal well-being has been proven in various professional contexts. In the context of sustainability, however, the empirical findings on the potential of such practices have to date been sparse and contradictory (Frank et al., 2021). In particular, there is a lack of targeted information on the effectiveness of standardized and reproducible programs (e.g. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindful Self-Compassion).

In this course, students have the opportunity to experientially explore if and how participation in a Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) training supports them in their dealing with sustainability-related challenges. For this purpose, students engage in a self-inquiry-based learning process in which they systematically document and analyze their experiences with the training.

This course is open for students across all programs and degree levels. Also Master and PhD students are welcome to join the course.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Explain the rationale underlying the practice of (mindful) self-compassion in an educational context
• Reflect on the effects and usefulness of the offered activities in a differentiated, embodied way
• Engage with, verbalize, and reflect upon the experience of embodied practices delivered throughout the course
• Apply a basic form of thematic analysis to analyze the reported experiences with the course

Assumed Knowledge:

No previous knowledge is required to participate in this course.