Self-Compassion and Spirituality Practices

Facing up to the Covid-19 Context

Abstract

Facing up to the COVID-19 crisis has emphasized the importance of taking at how people deal with unexpected and stressful moments, as is characterized in the current pandemic context. In this sense, the present work aimed to verify and analyze the levels of self-compassion and spirituality practices focusing on undergraduate student meditation during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to understand how these constructs may or may not positively affect the way the crisis is faced among university students. The research was developed applying a quantitative approach by gathering answers from surveys. This research was conducted in partnership with Estagiar, which has access to the mailing of students present in its database. 650 participants provided valid answers, mostly living in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, who answered a sociodemographic questionnaire, questions about well-being and meditation, as well as the Scale of Self-Compassion, validated in Brazil through the study by Souza and Hutz (2016). The results indicated that having contact with some meditation technique and practicing it more frequently during the pandemic led to higher rates of self-compassion. The participants who have never had contact with meditation and have less dedication to activities that bring well-being, demonstrated lower rates of self-compassion during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, individuals who remained in social isolation throughout the considered period and accessed information about the disease frequently throughout the week also demonstrated lower rates of self-compassion.