Befriending Our Whole Self

In this 4-week virtual experience, we will actively cultivate our innate capacities for clarity, curiosity, compassion and courage to work with the inner and outer constraints that shape our lives. It is easy to accept the parts of ourselves that we view as “good.” Some of these parts may include the caretaker, the achiever, the creator. However, it is not as easy to acknowledge and accept parts of ourselves that we do not like, such as the critic, the worrier, the saboteur. By understanding the role of our parts, we can release judgement and move into curiosity, tolerance, and eventually acceptance. Through self-compassion and mindfulness practice, we will build comfort and awareness as we courageously shed light on parts of our inner selves that long for attention, connection, and compassion. 

Together we will: 

• Revisit the power of your practice in grounding your attention and choosing how to attend to challenging moments.
• Learn about the different parts of yourself. 

Become more aware and responsive to the parts that respond to challenges in habitual and perhaps unskilled ways. 

• Access your “Self”; become more familiar with your resources of compassion, equanimity and courage in the face of challenges and open up to the possibility of healing hurt parts of yourself (including working with shame). 

This course will include guided self-compassion and mindfulness practices, journaling, movement, and discussion. This course is open to anyone but prior mindfulness and/or self-compassion practice is beneficial.