A study from the University of Virginia discovered that a majority of healthy people would rather administer electric shocks to themselves rather than be left alone with their own thoughts!  The percentage was much higher in men than women. This response went against all data and expectations from the researchers.
When you don’t have a task to focus on, brain areas activaterelated to processing emotions, recalling memory, monitoring the environment, thinking about the intentions of others, thinking about the future, and so on--all things that we often do when we find ourselves just "thinking" without any explicit goal in mind.  Marcus Raichle  University of Washing neurologist discovered that “the brain is actually just as busy when we relax as when we focus on difficult tasks.”  He discovered it involves a particular network in the brain and named it the default mode network.  
 
According to research by Matt Killingsworth, human beings spend almost half their wakeful hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing! His Harvard study confirmed that there's a clear connection between mind wandering and unhappiness.By studying thousands of people he found mind-wandering precedes unhappiness but unhappiness does not precede mind-wandering. In other words, mind-wandering is likely to be a cause, and not merely a consequence, of unhappiness.
 
Those experiencing depression have shown increased activity in the default mode network and a direct correlation to the severity of their negative thinking impacting the severity of depression as well as in increased risk of suicide.  
Default-mode content involves an image of self, one that’s easy to become attached to. “We constantly think that it’s not just another thought, that [the image of self] is something real, not just a mental image.” Says Scott Barry Kaufman a psychologist at Barnard College, Columbia University who writes for Psychology Today and Harvard Review.
When the DMN (default mode network) “predominates, especially out of unawareness, it can very much limit our understanding of ourselves and of what might be possible,” Jon Kabat-Zinn argues.
“Prospection can lead to suffering if it hinders executive attention, the ability to have awe, attention to the present moment,” Kaufman says, emphasizing that, as with so many others ways that our minds get into trouble, the problem is rigidity; research indicates that a disturbed DMN is a mechanism in depression. “Our greatest source of suffering isn’t the default mode,” Kaufman says, “but when we get stuck in the default mode.”
Many studies indicate that meditation reduces activity in the DMN. Judson Brewer, psychiatrist and director of research at the UMass Medical School Center for Mindfulness founded by Kabat-Zinn, has found that extended meditation practice reforms the DMN, so that the default mode itself shifts: The resting state of the brain becomes more like the meditative state, producing “a more present-centered default mode.” 
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Life in the present moment means we are no longer chained to past experiences or future worries; life can be lived continually in the present moment.
If you are looking for an effortless practice that can change your default mode, or just want to live more of your life in the present moment, the Ishaya Foundation offers beginner to advanced courses in a practice called The Art of Ascension. Ascension simply means to rise beyond our limited thinking.  It requires no belief to work.  You can sign up for a free webinar to learn more about how the Art of Ascension and how to learn this practice.

​Self-compassion and self-love are largely used interchangeably in specialized literature. Researchshows that having more self-compassion builds resilience when times get rough helping people to recover more quickly from traumas or romantic separation. Self-compassion is great for coping with failure or embarrassment.
The subject of narcissism has received much attention in part due to psychological literature and recent studies showing that the path to self-esteem from the last several decades actually has led to narcissism and has not created resilience.  Self-esteem relies more on positive self-evaluations and often is based on comparing oneself with others in order to increase one’s perceived self-worth. Self-esteem requires that I feel better than others or even better than most.  Self-esteem is contingent on success.  
By comparison, self-compassion works in quite the opposite way. It is not strictly based on self-evaluations and comparing oneself with others, but is rather based on the realization that we are all connected and part of mankind, as well as on the awareness that failure and setbacks are part of normal life.
A common myth says that in order to be motivated you must be self-critical. However, a more encouraging stance actually helps us to learn from failure.
"Self-kindness entails being warm and understanding toward ourselves when we suffer, fail, or feel inadequate, rather than flagellating ourselves with self-criticism," write Profs. Neff and Germer who have studied and written extensively on compassion.  As Neff said in an interview with The Atlantic in 2016: "When we fail, it's not 'poor me,' it's 'well, everyone fails.' Everyone struggles. This is what it means to be human."  
There's some work on physical health, showing that self-compassion is linked to better immune function. Studies show that it stabilizes glucose levels and improves depression in diabetes patients, another study says it's associated with longer telomeres, which has shown to add to longevity.  (also from the Atlantic article) Self-compassion helps you be motivated, it helps you take responsibility. It's not self-indulgent, it's not selfish, and it leads to better relationships. I find it's quite remarkable how much research there is supporting these ideas.
According to the researchers, practicing self-compassion techniques for 40 minutes every day for 8 weeks raised the participants' levels of self-compassion by 43 percent.
Let’s talk a little bit about what elements are active in True Compassion.
3 German Scientists published their work in 2015 studying 16,000 volunteers globe-wide showing that those with higher levels of self-compassion had higher levels of well-being. Their definition of self-compassion had 3 components 

1. An understanding behavior toward oneself in the face of suffering.
2. The balanced awareness of negative thoughts and feelings rather than their over identification.
3. The perception and classification of one’s experiences as part of mankind rather than an interpretation that is separate from others.”

 
Another study just published in May 2018 from the University of Wisconsin states that compassion is connecting with the suffering (of others and oneself) and a genuine wish for freedom of suffering.  The connection requires the courage to see the suffering rather than avoidance or denial. "Compassion meditation may shift habits of becoming overly distressed when we encounter another's pain," says Helen Weng, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds and senior author of the study said, "The pattern of these findings -- an increase in looking at suffering while simultaneously down-regulating neural circuits associated with negative emotion -- is a winning combination.”
This is put in perspective by another statement from Davidson.  He says that training your brain to pay attention to compassion would be a giant step toward a better, more enjoyable life.  When you aren’t doing anything in particular, but are just at rest, your brains’ so-called default mode kicks in. This baseline mental state often leads to negative rumination that tends to be, as Davidson puts it, “all about my, me, and mine”.  
In the practice of the Art of Ascension, the Compassion technique is taught in the beginner’s workshop. A great aspect of this tool is that it can be used all day long when you are going about your active life. So, Compassion can be cultivated whenever and wherever you are.