Title: Experiences Among Women with Shame and Self-Compassion in Cardio-Based Exercise Classes.

Shame is a debilitating inner experience elicited by the negative self-appraisal of one’s entire self, and is characterized by a deep-seated sense of being flawed, defective, and therefore unworthy of acceptance and belonging (Brown, 2006). Although significant research has explored self-conscious emotions, including shame, little has been done to examine shame in specific exercise settings such as cardio-based exercise classes that may actually promote the experience of shame. Using Brown’s (2006) Shame Resilience Theory (SRT) as a guiding framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the experiences among women with shame, and the shame-resistant attribute of self-compassion, in exercise, as well as to identify possible strategies for creating a climate in cardio-based exercise classes that emphasizes self-compassion over shame. An interpretative phenomenological analysis epistemology and methodology was used to analyze, understand, and interpret the meaning and lived experiences of shame and self-compassion among 15 women in cardio-based exercise classes. Three superordinate themes emerged for both shame (“I’m just not enough, ” “There’s something wrong with me; I don’t belong here, ” and “Shame moves in and takes over”) and self-compassio