In The Codebreaker, Jennifer Doudna often places a lot of pressure on herself to achieve her goals. At times, she gets frustrated and breaks down when she doesn’t accomplish what she wants. But while she often puts her work first (like when she recognized that her first husband wasn’t a good match because he wasn’t as dedicated to the field as she was), she knows when to care for herself. For example, when she tried to leave academia to work at Genentech, she realized it wasn’t best for her and returned to her lab at Berkeley. As much work as she pours into her research, Doudna knows it cannot be accomplished if she doesn’t first have compassion for herself.
In the field of psychology, the expert on self compassion is Dr. Kristin Neff. She received her doctorate at the University of California Berkeley (where Doudna had her lab) in moral development. Currently a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Neff has traveled the world teaching her findings on the art of self compassion, a topic for which she is credited to have been the first to academically study.
Dr. Neff created the self-compassion scale, which is free to do yourself on her website:
(https://self-compassion.org/self-compassion-test/). It offers feedback and opportunities for reflection in an accessible and free manner. She has free guided practices on her website too. She clearly believes in sharing the fruits of her work and creativity with the public so they can reap the benefits of a more self-compassionate mindset. She describes three main components to self-compassion: mindfulness (vs. over-identification), a feeling of common humanity (vs. isolation), and self-kindness (vs. self-judgement).
*a preview of her self-compassion scale
Her articles, books, practices, scales, and accessible resources have fostered more creativity and intention into the field of studying self-compassion. She is definitely someone you can learn a lot from.
Hi Maddie!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed learning about the work of Dr. Kristin Neff. The parallels that you draw on between Doudna focusing on herself, and Neff also dedicating her life to self compassion is very interesting. Dounda realizing her needs within herself and finding that self compassion that Neff outlines as important. Both of these two intelligent people understand how self love and care is just as important as science and research. I think this comparison is very interesting!
This was an extremely insightful look into how essential self care can be when trying to achieve a goal. It is incredibly tempting to pour oneself into a project entirely, as Doudna tried to do, but the result will often damage both the individual and their work. The assessment you linked looks very interesting, and I intend to complete it to reflect on my own habits of self care!
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