What the evidence looks like, including its limits
This is the one thing in the course with randomised support behind it, and we are printing the weaknesses next to the numbers rather than after them. There is also a report that gives both states a place, the good day and the hard one, rather than only the grateful one.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Suhaib reported that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said:Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it
Sahih Muslim 2999graded sound, sahihaynfull report
What the research says
Neff KD (2003). Self-Compassion: An Alternative Conceptualization of a Healthy Attitude Toward Oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85 to 101 doi
Sets out self compassion deliberately as an alternative to self esteem. The argument is that self esteem requires a favourable evaluation of yourself and therefore requires a comparison with other people, while self compassion requires no evaluation at all. It has three components, and the one about shared human experience is the one that speaks to comparison.
MacBeth A, Gumley A (2012). Exploring compassion: a meta-analysis of the association between self-compassion and psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(6), 545 to 552 doi
Twenty samples, just over four thousand people. Higher self compassion went with substantially lower anxiety, depression and stress, a pooled correlation of minus 0.54. The authors own limits, which belong next to the number: every study used the same self report questionnaire, so this is self report about self report, more than seven in ten participants were women, and the design cannot tell you which way the causation runs.
Ferrari M, Hunt C, Harrysunker A, Abbott MJ, Beath AP, Einstein DA (2019). Self-Compassion Interventions and Psychosocial Outcomes: a Meta-Analysis of RCTs. Mindfulness, 10(8), 1455 to 1473 doi
This one pools randomised trials rather than correlations, which is the stronger design, and self compassion interventions improved psychological outcomes across them. We are not printing the pooled figures, because they were not read off the paper in the research behind this course, and we would rather give you the direction of the result than a number we have not checked.