Learning to be kind to yourself has remarkable benefits | Aeon Essays

‘You never stop grieving…’ Laurent Fignon lost the 1989 Tour de France by eight seconds after more than 3000 km of racing. Photo by Jean-Yves Ruszniewski/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images by Mark Leary + BIO ‘You never stop grieving…’ Laurent Fignon lost the 1989 Tour de France by eight seconds after more than 3000 km of racing. Photo by Jean-Yves Ruszniewski/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images is professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina. He is the author of The Curse of the Self (2004). Edited byPam Weintraub Brought to you by Curio, an Aeon partner Listen to more Aeon Essays here Human beings are the only creatures who can make themselves miserable. Other animals certainly suffer when they experience negative events, but only humans can induce negative emotions through self-views, judgments, expectations, regrets and comparisons with others. Because self-thought plays such a central role in human happiness and wellbeing, psychologists have devoted a good deal o

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