Mindful Self-Compassion
About
with Inner Development Goals (IDG) and Nature Connection (Awake in the Wild)
"The Way Out is In"
To be more engaged in the world in a way that helps develop love and compassion, we need to transcend our fear, anger and perceived lack of agency. The way out of any difficulty is to look deeply within, gain insights and then put them into practice at the intersection of personal transformation and systems change.
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Our course is built on three roots and will be offered in a special location:
(AITW)
Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically-supported program based on the pioneering research of Prof. Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Chris Germer about the skills of mindfulness and self-compassion to grow our ability for emotional wellbeing. The MSC program has been taught to over 200.000 people worldwide.
This workshop is an opportunity to immerse yourself in some of the key practices and exercises of the full 8-week MSC program in an intensive format. It covers the official MSC Core Skills contents with 4 x 3-hour afternoon MSC sessions and adds a half-day silent retreat. Being an introduction to the full MSC program, it does not qualify for teacher training.
For new practitioners, this course will support you to strengthen your innate human competences of mindfulness, common humanity and kindness. You will learn and practice tools for becoming a compassionate and supportive companion to yourself in challenging times, in order to be there for others and to act in the world, becoming an active participant in times of change. For those who have already taken a MSC program, it is an excellent way to deepen the content in a new group and in an inspiring outer setting.
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Through the Inner Development Goals (IDG) framework we will explore inner growth and find new ways of Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating and Acting, the 5 dimensions of the IDGs. The IDGs is a not for profit and open source initiative that describes and covers the individual and collective inner skills and qualities we need to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our journey will unfold through facilitated practices, playfulness and creativity, body movements, and journaling.
What you will learn:
Practice self-compassion in daily life
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Motivate yourself with kindness rather than criticism
Manage caregiver fatigue
Understand the evidence-based benefits of self-compassion
Handle difficult emotions with greater ease
Increase your happiness with savoring and self-appreciation
You will also develop and deepen your ability to cultivate mindfulness in nature through “Awake in the Wild” mindful nature connection practices. These experiential practises will support you to find ways to stay grounded, resourced and nourished in challenging times and conditions. Paired with contemplative meditation, nature becomes a mentor and a support for wisdom, joy and nourishment. You will practice techniques that open the mind to insight, open the heart to beauty, and open the sensory body to an interconnection with all life. You will learn from nature’s wisdom about the truth of change, inter-connection, and letting go. You will experience how nature evokes beautiful qualities of delight, awe, peace, and open-hearted love – qualities so essential in these times of change.
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What you will learn:
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Deepen your mindfulness-based meditation practice
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Bring deeper insight and compassion into how we relate to the Earth and all beings.
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Draw on Buddhist, indigenous, and wisdom traditions that inspire greater awareness, kindness and understanding.
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Experience practices that you can do sitting in stillness, and those that involve walking and movement, and meditations that allow for an intimate, direct connection with the rich facets of the natural world, so you take them on into your own teaching settings.
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Connect with the location in a more intimate way in this fall season and feel the daily rhythms in an Alpine landscape thanks to a more intimate practise relation.
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Retreat rhythm
Making lasting shifts in our lives and becoming agents for change
Daily rhythm during our 5-day retreat:
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Mornings will be held outdoors around MVI Campus and afternoons in the Centro Culturale "Lou Portoun".
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We will spend four 3-hour sessions with activities and pratices related to o Inner Growth (IDG) and Awake in the Wild (AITW) mindful nature connection practises (12 hours). and four 3-hour in MSC sessions to practice the official MSC Core Skills and add a half-day silent retreat (total of 15 hour scheduled MSC practices).
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Before and after our retreat:
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We will connect as a group in a 60-minute online practice session before the retreat
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As the African proverb says, “It takes a village to raise a child”, which means that it takes many people, “a village”, to be inspired, feel safe and nudged into growing and flourishing, a course like this one is a wonderful start. But to bring new habits like self-compassion and nature-based meditation into our lives, it is what happens afterwards that makes the difference. Therefore, you will be supported after the retreat: We will invite you to re-connect online for three 60-minute sessions for three consecutive months to practice MSC, share about our learnings and challenges and support each other by deep listening and an action-oriented mode to keep up energies towards changing habits and seizing the potential that is at our reach by transforming from inside.
Going beyond MSC
Deepening our connection to Mother Earth and becoming participatory agents of change
Self-compassion
We will learn the science and practices to become our best friend, when things get tough. From a safe space of both gentle and fierce self-compassion, befriending ourselves and our experiences with awareness of our common humanity.
Plant seeds
We will intentionally plant seeds for listening deeper into our and others’ world views and how we relate to our precious planet Earth. Fresh inspiration will be shared from the team at Monviso Institute about science, projects and challenges in regenerative design.
Immerse in nature
We will immerse in nature on a daily basis and sense and savour the great outdoors of Ostana and Valle del Po to nourish our bodies and hearts in a joyful, active way.
Meditation
We will enjoy silence and practice awareness in nature and in our self-compassion course. Our group will offer one hour of daily working meditation on Monviso campus as informal practice.
Inspiration
We will explore our longing and practices for inner growth, inspired and supported by the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) framework. We will experience a real world laboratory for regenerative design, learn with the local team of Monviso Institute and the local projects and communities.