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The Observatory
Exercise12 minEmotionalCompassion

What you hide

Shame grows in the dark and shrinks in the light. A careful exercise about what you never tell.

The path

How it works

  1. The logic of shameWrite
  2. The reviewChoose
  3. One person, one partWrite
Guilt says I DID something wrong. It can be mended with an apology or a change. Shame says I AM wrong, and it is not mended by performance, however hard we try. The only thing that touches shame is being seen and accepte …

Exercise in 3 steps, about 12 minutes. Doing it is part of Premium, which you try free for 7 days with no card. With Premium your answers are saved so you can pick up where you left off and look back at what you wrote.

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The evidence

Why does it work?

The difference between guilt and shame, and shame's connection to concealment, is well documented (Tangney & Dearing 2002). Sharing shame-laden content with accepting others reduces its charge, the mechanism behind both expressive writing (Pennebaker) and Brown's shame research. The exercise's format is clinically informed rather than outcome-tested in itself.

Account, your first assessment with the hexagon and one new measurement every quarter are free. The rest is part of Premium: SEK 99 a month or SEK 699 a year, VAT included.

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