8 WEEK COURSE: THURSDAY NIGHTS, 5.30-8.30 STARTING 12 SEPT TO 31 OCT.
WE ALL HAVE STRUGGLES AND CHALLENGES IN OUR LIVES, AND SOMETIMES THESE
LEAD TO FEELINGS OF OVERWHELM, STRESS AND EMOTIONAL PAIN. IN FACT,
RECENT RESEARCH SHOWS THAT MORE THAN 70% OF US IN THE WESTERN WORLD
FEEL THAT OUR LIVES ARE VERY CHALLENGING AND MOST OF US FEEL THAT WE
HAVEN’T GOT ADEQUATE SKILLS TO DEAL WITH MANY OF LIFE’S
CHALLENGES.
RESEARCH ALSO SHOWS THAT WE CAN BETTER DEAL WITH MOST OF LIFE’S
STRESSORS AND CHALLENGES BY LEARNING TO BE KINDER, GENTLER AND MORE
COMPASSIONATE TOWARDS OURSELVES; IT’S LEARNING TO TREAT OURSELVES IN
A SIMILAR KIND WAY THAT WE’D TREAT A FRIEND OR SOMEONE ELSE WHO IS
STRUGGLING. TRAINING IN MINDFUL SELF-COMPASSION OFFERS THE OPPORTUNITY
TO LEARN LIFELONG SKILLS TO DO THIS FOR OURSELVES.
_
_
_ FOR SOMEONE TO DEVELOP GENUINE
COMPASSION TOWARDS OTHERS, FIRST
HE OR SHE MUST HAVE A BASIS UPON
WHICH TO CULTIVATE COMPASSION, AND
THAT BASIS IS THE ABILITY TO
CONNECT
WITH ONE'S OWN FEELINGS AND TO
CARE FOR
ONE'S OWN WELFARE...CARING FOR
OTHERS
REQUIRES CARING FOR ONESELF._
Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama
The Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) program, is a well-researched and
empirically-supported, training course designed by Kristen Neff, PhD
and Christopher Germer, PhD. The course has rapidly gained acceptance
internationally as a profound way to learn to use the skills of
mindfulness and compassion to cultivate emotional resilience in
ourselves, so we can respond to difficult moments and emotions in our
personal and/or professional life with kindness, care and
understanding.
In particular, the course has been shown to have a profoundly positive
impact on our capacity to deal with stress.
Other key findings from extensive research of the efficacy of this
program show training in self-compassion can:
*
reduce levels of anxiety, depression and stress,
*
boost happiness,
*
increase ease and wellbeing in daily life, and
*
maintain healthy habits such as diet and exercise.
_ “LOVE IT. LOVE TAKING TIME FOR
MYSELF. FEEL LIKE __I’M
__SLOWLY LEARNING SOME SELF-COMPASSION. AND
JUST SOME
MORE AWARENESS. YOU GUYS ARE LOVELY TEACHERS.”_
_Feedback from previous participant_
So if you want to feel happier and better about yourself, act gentler
and more kindly towards yourself and learn skilful ways for
confidently dealing with life’s challenges, whether at home or at
work, then consider attending our upcoming training course in Mindful
Self-Compassion.
WHAT EXACTLY IS MSC?
The emphasis of Mindful Self-Compassion training is on learning
mindfulness and self-compassion practices to build emotional
resources.
The learning environment is fun, supportive and safe, and encourages
you to be your own teacher and treat the MSC experience like an
adventure.
You learn skills and tools to soothe your own stress, anxiety,
depression and pain while promoting calm, strength and vitality.
Mindfulness is the ability to be more aware, to be present so we can
stand back to develop more perspective. When we add compassion to
mindfulness, we greatly increase the power of transformation and our
capacity for resilience. Compassion contains what we all yearn for –
feelings of acceptance, comfort, care, happiness, kindness and love.
Mindful self-compassion also means learning to hold difficult
emotions, such as fear, anger, sadness, shame and self-doubt, in
loving awareness, leading to greater ease and well-being in our daily
lives.
MSC is an outstanding self-experiential program where you learn the
skills of self-compassion from the inside out. The end result is we
become stronger as we develop the capacity to be with our difficulties
and with ourselves, in a mindful compassionate way, enabling us to
deal more effectively with challenges. During the Mindful
Self-Compassion classes, the goal is to directly experience and learn
practices that evoke mindfulness and self-compassion and can be
practiced in daily activities to transform our lives.
Simply put, self-compassion means becoming a friend to ourselves. The
blend of mindfulness and self-compassion allows us insight into our
emotions, together with the resources to maintain balance, build
resilience and decrease our suffering. As a springboard to learning to
treat oneself with warmth and kindness rather than harshness and
self-criticism, there are few more powerful programs than MSC.
WHO IS MSC TRAINING FOR?
MSC training is suitable for anyone who wishes to cultivate the
skills.
This training is designed for all adults, from all walks of life,
young or old, who want to live a more easeful, happy life, through
developing strategies to support themselves in their personal and/or
professional life, to cope with stress and to learn new skills to
support themselves and others in times of difficulties and suffering.
The program has been very popular among parents as well as
professionals such as psychologists, social workers, nurses, medical
practitioners, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, counsellors,
school teachers and other educators at all levels, coaches,
mindfulness/yoga teachers, as well as public servants and business
professionals. Professionals from health, education and business often
attend MSC courses, as this training is helpful for dealing with and
preventing burnout and enhancing wellbeing, as well as dealing with
challenging work settings.
PLEASE NOTE THAT PREVIOUS MEDITATION OR MINDFULNESS EXPERIENCE IS NOT
NECESSARY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE COURSE.
EVERYONE IS WELCOME!
WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU DO IN MINDFUL SELF-COMPASSION TRAINING SESSIONS?
The MSC training program is delivered over 8 consecutive weeks. You
will attend a 3 hour training session each week, allowing time between
each session to put the new skills and practices into use in your
everyday life. On a Saturday morning, midway through the program,
there is a very relaxing, beneficial 4-hour silent retreat session
focused entirely on your own individual practice.
Each session brings new topics and themes and thoughtfully builds on
the previous one/s. Some of the specific themes you will explore
include …
* Slowing down, self-awareness and savouring the present moment
* How to become more confident, resilient, joyful and motivated
* Exploring the science of self-compassion and why most of us ignore
this vital skill
* Simple practices to transform moments of suffering into moments of
love
* How to befriend ourselves and nourish our needs
* Relating to ourselves and others authentically and wholeheartedly
* Moments of connection and shared common humanity
* Building courage and appreciating our values and strengths
* How to transform our inner critic into an inner coach
We will define Self-Compassion and explore new research and practices
in Mindfulness, Loving-Kindness, compassionate voice, reduction of
inner criticisms, core values, ways to manage difficult emotions,
challenging relationships, forgiveness and self-forgiveness, self-care
and how to re-wire the brain for greater happiness and flourishing.
The program is continually updated and based on the latest
neuroscience research findings.
Each class includes mindfulness and self-compassion related activities
such as guided meditations, visualizations, short talks, experiential
exercises, small and larger group discussion, self-reflective writing,
strategies, and suggested home practices. The emphasis is on your
learning as an individual. Even through there are sometimes group
discussions, this is not group therapy. The purpose of these
discussions is to explore how the practices work, not for discussing
personal difficulties or situations.
In fact, MSC is not therapy in any form. Even though the gained
benefits are therapeutic, this course is strictly skill development
training. The idea is to learn with minimal struggle, because that
wouldn’t be being kind to ourselves!
Each week you will learn both informal and formal practices. Informal
practices include learning tools to practice mindfulness and
self-compassion throughout your daily life for just a minute or so at
a time, and in ways that are obvious only go yourself. The more formal
practices include guided mindfulness meditations which can take 15-20
minutes of dedicated time for yourself away from others.
_ “I THINK THE ACTIVITIES ARE
WONDERFUL. MANY HAVE
BEEN VERY ENLIGHTENING FOR ME. I’VE FOUND THE
INFORMAL PRACTICES REALLY HELPFUL AND USE THEN ALL
THE TIME. WHEN I FOUND
ONE OF THE FORMAL PRACTICES
DIFFICULT, I REALLY LIKED THAT I COULD JUST FOCUS ON
MY BREATH.
THAT IS REALLY FREEING.”_
_ “I ENJOY HOW THE STRUCTURE IS
BROKEN UP WITH DIFFERENT
ACTIVITIES”._
_ “I FOUND IT VERY USEFUL TO BE PART
OF A GROUP.”_
_ “I’VE HAD LOTS OF BEAUTIFUL AHA
MOMENTS.”_
_Feedback from previous participants_
The practices are all learned in a gentle, easy way and the emphasis
is on finding what is comfortable for you and fits into your life and
exploring adapting practices to suit your particular personal and life
needs. Many of the discussions revolve around how to apply practices
in our daily lives.
To assist in your learning, each course participant is provided with a
manual and access to mp3 downloads of the meditations to support your
home practices. The manual handout includes all the tools that you
learn. The MP3 downloads include 11 guided meditations and informal
practices, to aid in formal practicing of the meditations.
WHAT HAPPENS ONCE THE COURSE IS FINISHED? WHAT LONG TERM BENEFITS CAN
I EXPECT?
In summary, at the end of the course, you will have learned skills to
be able to:
* stop being so hard on yourself
* practice mindfulness, self-compassion and lovingkindness in daily
life
* respond to feelings of failure or inadequacy with self-kindness
* cultivate feelings of goodwill, kindness and warmth towards
yourself and others
* motivate yourself with encouragement and kindness rather than
harsh self-criticism
* handle difficult emotions with greater ease
* cultivate happiness and positive emotions
* manage stress, anxiety, anger, guilt and shame with more grace and
find creative ways of resolving challenges
* begin to transform difficult relationships, old and new
* manage burnout, caregiver fatigue and vicarious trauma
* become more aware and able to attend skilfully to your own needs,
as well as others’ needs.
* practice the art of savouring and self-appreciation
* understand the theory and research behind Mindful Self-Compassion.
* be your own best teacher
“_IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO TAKE
CARE OF YOURSELF,
AND THE VIOLENCE IN YOU, THEN YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE
TO
TAKE CARE OF OTHERS.” _
Thich Nhat Hanh
WHO IS DELIVERING THE TRAINING?
This delivery of the Mindful Self-Compassion program is co-facilitated
by trained MSC Teachers, Carmel Herington and Lyndi Smith, thus
ensuring an optimal safe and rich learning environment.
Carmel is a highly experienced educator and mindfulness practitioner,
based in the Ballina shire. She has taught at universities for 2
decades, frequently incorporating mindfulness and compassion practices
into her work and teaching.
As well as MSC, Lyndi is also a meditation teacher, qi gong teacher
and a MINDFULNESS FACILITATOR WITH _Mind With Heart, Mindfulness Works
_and _Conscious Beginnings_. Lyndi lives in Brisbane and has been
training in mindfulness and compassion for 11 years.
We have both personally experienced the wellbeing and life enhancing
benefits of learning MSC and continually witness the value of MSC for
the wellbeing of participants in our courses.
_ “THE FACILITATORS ARE REALLY
THOROUGH, WELL ORGANISED
AND EXHIBIT ALL ASPECTS OF PATIENCE AND
COMPASSION.
BEING INCLUDED AND INVOLVED HAS MADE ME FEEL MUCH
BETTER AND MORE
VALUED/APPRECIATED.”_
_ “HELPFUL IS THE WAY THE
FACILITATORS DELIVER THE CONTENT
AND THE OBVIOUS RAPPORT THEY HAVE WITH EACH
OTHER.
CREATES THE PERFECT ‘CLIMATE’ FOR LEARNING AND EXPLORING
MINDFULNESS AND
SELF-COMPASSION.” _
_ “THE TEACHERS NEED TO KNOW HOW
ADMIRABLE THEIR SKILLS
AND CARING ATTITUDES ARE. GREAT MODELLING OF BEHAVIOUR
EVERYONE SHOULD
ASPIRE TO.”_
_Feedback from previous participants_
MSC COURSE FEES:
Early Bird until 22 August: $460
After 22 August: $490
(25% discount available for people who have previously attended an MSC
course)
Concession: $400
Bring a friend: $400 each (Share the experience with a friend or loved
one).
For more information contact Carmel Herington; email:
carmelherington@hotmail.com or phone 0423053250
KEY REFERENCES:
Germer, C.K. (2009), The MINDFUL PATH TO SELF-COMPASSION, Guilford,
New York.
Neff, K. (2009), Self-COMPASSION: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave
Insecurity Behind. HarperCollins, New York.
Neff, K. & Germer, C.K. (2018), The MINDFUL SELF-COMPASSION WORKBOOK.
Guilford, New York
Neff, K. & Germer, C. K. (2013), A pilot study and randomized
controlled trial of the Mindful Self-Compassion program. Journal of
Clinical Psychology, 69, 28-44.
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01/11/2019 Last update