Being kinder to yourself is not just good for your mind. It is good for your body.
What the research on self-compassion and EFT tapping reveals about inflammation, cortisol, and the surprising power of treating yourself gently.
What if the way you sometimes speak to yourself, that quiet, often harsh internal voice, was having a direct and measurable effect on your physical health?
We can relate to the fact that it doesn’t feel good to be criticised by anyone let alone ourselves. But what is interesting is that it has been researched, and the findings are confirming what we have all felt. And once you understand it, the idea of treating yourself with a little more compassion and kindness stops being a nice idea and starts feeling like something genuinely worth prioritising.
Let me walk you through what we know, and what it means for the way you move through your days.
First, what is inflammation, and why does it matter?
Inflammation is the body's natural response to threat, whether that threat is an injury, an infection, or a stressful situation. In short bursts, it is protective and necessary. The body sends inflammatory signals to promote healing and help us respond to danger. But when stress becomes chronic, ie; when the body is living in a state of low-level alert, day after day, that inflammatory response doesn't switch off as it should. And over time, chronic inflammation has been linked to a wide range of conditions such as: cardiovascular disease, autoimmune conditions, digestive issues, chronic pain, and more.
However, the type of stress that drives inflammation is not only the external kind, deadlines, difficult relationships, life circumstances. A big driver of stress-induced inflammation is the internal kind, the way we respond to ourselves when things are hard, the invisible pressure and harsh inner dialogue. You may have heard of the “inner critic” or the ”inner judge”, that voice can sometimes be so subtle and something that we are so used to hearing that we have normalised it… “You’re so stupid’, “You look terrible in that”, “You’re not good/clever/pretty/wealthy/kind …. enough”, sound familiar?
In comparison, what self-compassion does to the body
Here’s the science bit…Researchers at Brandeis University wanted to understand whether the way people relate to themselves, with harshness or with kindness, had any measurable effect on inflammation.
THE RESEARCH
Participants were put through a social stress test, public speaking and mental arithmetic performed in front of an audience, all designed to trigger a stress response. Blood samples were taken before and after. The results showed that people with the highest levels of self-compassion had significantly lower levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a key marker of inflammation, following the stressful activity Those with low self-compassion not only had higher levels on day one, but also arrived on day two with higher baseline levels of IL-6, therefore suggesting they were still carrying the previous day's stress in their bodies.
This helps to confirm that by treating yourself with the same kindness you would offer a good friend (ie; by exercising self-compassion) appears to act positively against stress-induced inflammation. Not by removing the stress or perceived stress, but by changing the internal response to it.
When you can meet yourself with softness, the internal tension of gripping, control and defending is able to soften too.
So, let’s talk about cortisol, the stress hormone too.
Cortisol is released by the body in response to stress. In short bursts it is useful, it helps us to respond to a potential threat. However, in the modern World, these threats can be real, for example, helping us to cross a road safely, or perceived, for example an email from your boss, or even opening your ‘go to app’. You may spend your days bouncing from one spike of cortisol to the next, meaning that if you have been running on high alert for months or years, it is likely that your cortisol level is higher than it should be. Which can be associated with disrupted sleep, weight changes, immune suppression, hormonal imbalance, and anxiety.
This is where EFT tapping comes into play and I quote this research often!
What EFT tapping does to cortisol levels
EFT Emotional Freedom Technique, involves gently tapping on specific acupressure points on the body while focusing on a feeling, a memory, or a belief. It works by sending calming signals to the amygdala, the brain's threat-detection centre, letting the nervous system know it is safe to come out of high alert. By focusing on a concern, emotion, memory, or body sensation while soothing the nervous system, the brain can process triggers so they're no longer seen as immediate threats.Research has shown that cortisol levels in the body can lower by as much as 43% after one hour of tapping.
So, what does this means for you?
You may have spent years believing that being hard on yourself is what keeps you on track, the “no pain, no gain” mentality. But the research suggests something entirely different. That the inner critic is not keeping you sharp, it is in fact keeping you inflamed. It is keeping your cortisol elevated. It is making it harder for your nervous system to return to the settled, regulated baseline from which your best thinking, your clearest decisions, and your deepest rest all come.
Self-compassion is not weakness or self-indulgence, it is a biological necessity, and one that most of us were never taught to practise.
The good news is that it is learnable. And practices like EFT, Root Cause Enquiry, somatic movement, and meditation, done consistently and with intention, are some of the most effective ways to build it. By getting to the root cause of the inner conflict, the primary nervous system response can be rewired, core beliefs can change creating an opportunity to also create real change in your life.
My 1:1 sessions are unique in the sense that they are rooted in bringing you back to your true self to begin re-laying your foundations of self-compassion and self-trust. We explore deeply into your own patterns, learn what has been protecting you, giving space to integrate that allows you to move forward with a deeper understanding of, and connection to yourself. From there, your physical biology can follow, meaning lower cortisol levels and immune response.
Learn more about my 1:1 sessions here.
And if You’re Wanting to Start This Gently
This is exactly why I created Begin With Clarity. A short, morning practice to help you:
reconnect to your body
regulate your nervous system
and meet yourself before the day begins
Nothing complicated. Just a space to arrive… and start from somewhere more grounded.
BEGIN WITH CLARITY
Three mornings a week — Monday, Wednesday, Friday — I hold a live 30-minute session on Zoom combining meditation, somatic movement, EFT tapping, and occasional journaling. Each session is a gentle return to your body and to yourself, before the day begins. Replays are sent the same day. Weekly journal prompts go deeper. And the practice, over time, begins to shift the ground beneath everything else.