There are so many places within us that need to be comforted, soothed, and validated, even as we are activated by the times. Being able to sit with our feelings and our inner lives, and have a dialogue with the narrative of our personal and cultural lives is central to our journeys of identity, belonging, wellness, and meaning. This Mindful Self Compassion workshop aims to connect and empower participants to create a greater sense of safety and connection within and between.
This 8-week course is particularly aimed at BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ community members and caregivers, and all those who have felt exhaustion, stress, or burnout during the times of COVID-19 and increased calls for racial justice, women’s rights, and human dignity.
The SF Love Dojo and Dr. Ravi Chandra believe in “These 5 Things”: Mindfulness, Compassion, Relatedness, Creativity, and Insight. We will bring all these to bear on the challenge of suffering and being in a world of suffering.
This Mindful Self Compassion series runs on 8 consecutive Saturday mornings from 9:30 am to 12 noon PT starting Saturday, September 24, 2022. Classes will be held online due to uncertainty over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Recordings will be made available in case of absence.
Additional optional half-day retreat as well at the halfway point. Early bird price is $475 thru September 11, 2020, after which price goes to $575. Compassionate sliding scale options possible, write sflovedojo (at) icloud (dot) com.
This Fall 2022 workshop is geared especially towards caregivers (in health care, education, and child care), though others are welcome, and most especially towards people from BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities and allies. My goal is to have brief interviews with all participants before the class starts to make sure it will be a good fit.
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Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically-supported, 8-week, training program designed to cultivate the skill of self-compassion. Based on the groundbreaking research of Kristin Neff and the clinical expertise of Christopher Germer, MSC teaches core principles and practices that enable participants to respond to difficult moments in their lives with kindness, care and understanding. These practices are particularly helpful to those impacted by marginalization and abusive historical, personal, and cultural forces. Creating an “island of belonging” through this workshop has also been highly meaningful and transformative. Past workshops have been deeply connecting, and inflected with humor, fun and cultural insight.
The three key components of self-compassion are self-kindness, a sense of common humanity, and balanced, mindful awareness. Kindness opens our hearts to suffering, so we can give ourselves what we need. Common humanity opens us to our essential interrelatedness, so that we know we aren’t alone. Mindfulness opens us to the present moment, so we can accept our experience with greater ease. Together they comprise a state of warm-hearted, connected presence.
Self-compassion can be learned by anyone, even those who didn’t receive enough affection in childhood or who feel uncomfortable when they are good to themselves. It’s a courageous attitude that stands up to harm, including the harm that we unwittingly inflict on ourselves through self-criticism, self-isolation, or self-absorption. Self-compassion provides emotional strength and resilience, allowing us to admit our shortcomings, motivate ourselves with kindness, forgive ourselves when needed, relate wholeheartedly to others, and be more authentically ourselves.
Rapidly expanding research demonstrates that self-compassion is strongly associated with emotional wellbeing, less anxiety, depression and stress, building resilience, preventing burn-out, maintaining healthy habits such as diet and exercise, and cultivating satisfying personal relationships. And it’s easier than you think.
After participating in this 8-week workshop, you’ll be able to:
- Practice self-compassion in daily life
- Understand the empirically-supported benefits of self-compassion
- Motivate yourself with kindness rather than criticism
- Handle difficult emotions with greater ease
- Transform challenging relationships, old and new
- Manage caregiver fatigue
- Practice the art of savoring and self-appreciation
Buy Tickets Now and Reserve Your Spot!
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