Week One: What Is Self-Compassion?
October 16, 2017
In Session One, we learn what self-compassion is and begin to experience different tools and techniques to bring more self-compassion into our daily lives.
- The Origins and Science Behind Your Training Program
- Three Foundations of Self-Compassion: Mindfulness, Common Humanity, and Self-Kindness
- Exercise: How Do I Treat a Friend?
- Exercise: Hand Gestures
- The Physiology of Self-Compassion
- Misgivings and Facts About Self-Compassion
- Practice: Soothing Touch
- Practice: Self-Compassion Break
Week Two: The Foundation of Mindfulness
October 23, 2017
Mindfulness and self-compassion complement each other powerfully. In Session Two, we learn how mindfulness helps us to identify the thoughts and perceptions that lead to self-criticism and suffering, and how to work with them.
- Meditation: Affectionate Breathing
- What is Mindfulness?
- Mindfulness and Resistance
- Exercise: How Am I Resisting?
- “Backdraft”— How Self-Ccompassion Can Bring Up Difficult Emotions
- How to Work with Backdraft for Emotional Healing
- Practice: Soles of the Feet
Week Three: Lovingkindness
October 30, 2017
In Session Three, we explore the importance of lovingkindness when we or others are suffering. We’ll learn how to create individualized lovingkindness phrases and other strategies to support ourselves.
- Lovingkindness Meditation Fundamentals
- Meditation: Lovingkindness for a Loved One
- Using Phrases to Cultivate Lovingkindness
- Practice: Creating Your Own Lovingkindness Phrases
Week Four: Finding Our Inner Compassionate Voice
November 6, 2017
Session Four explores how to honor, understand, and witness the inner critic. Through a variety of practices, we’ll learn to nurture greater self-acceptance and invite our inner compassionate voice to come forward.
- Meditation: Lovingkindness for Ourselves
- Understanding the Stages of Progress on the Path of Self-Compassion
- Exercise: Where Am I in the Stages of Progress?
- Understanding Self-Criticism and Safety
- Exercise: Motivating Ourselves with Compassion
Week Five: Living a Meaningful Life
November 13, 2017
In this session, we learn to tap into the unlimited reservoir of compassion within us and all around us. We also take a deep dive into the unexpected benefits of suffering, explore our core values, and learn how to fully honor them, to bring more meaning to our lives.
- Meditation: Giving and Receiving Compassion
- Finding Value in Suffering
- Exercise: Silver Linings
- Exploring Your Core Values and Life Purpose
- Exercise: Discovering Our Core Values
- Practice: Living with a Vow to Bring Your Core Values into Daily Life
Week Six: Working with Difficult Emotions
November 20, 2017
In Session Six, we’ll learn to work with difficult emotions, and discover that we can hold all of the good and bad that life has to offer us. We’ll engage many practical tools to work with these feelings in the moment, as they arise.
- Strategies for Working with Difficult Emotions
- Practice: Soften-Soothe-Allow
- Understanding and Working with Shame
- Practice: Compassionate Movement
Week Seven: Self-Compassion in Relationships
November 27, 2017
Relationships can be one of life’s greatest sources of joy, but also of pain. In this session, we’ll learn how to engage self-compassion to transform our connections with others.
- Meditation: Compassionate Friend
- The Pain of Connection
- Practice: Self-Compassion Break in Relationships
- Caregiver Fatigue
- Self-Support for Caregivers
- Practice: Compassion with Equanimity
Week Eight: Embracing Your Life and Yourself
December 4, 2017
To sustain our self-compassion day-to-day, joy and happiness are essential. In this final session of the course, we focus on cultivating these resources, while learning to fully embrace our lives and ourselves in the process.
- Meditation: Compassion for Self and Others
- Cultivating Happiness
- Savoring and Gratitude
- Exercise: Gratitude for the Big and Small Things
- Self-Appreciation
- Exercise: Self-Appreciation
- Exercise: What Would You Like to Remember?
- How to Continue Your Practice in Daily Life
