WORKSHOPS AND RETREATS

Healing The Heart With Self Compassion

June 25-July 1, 2012

Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico

Self compassion, the ability to be kind and caretaking towards oneself in times of pain and perceived failure, is at the heart of the spiritual journey.

Yet developing a caring attitude towards oneself is one of the great challenges many of us face, even those who show great compassion toward others. Many of us believe we must constantly judge and evaluate ourselves in order to hold ourselves to "high standards," or to goad ourselves to further achievement. The world around us reinforces this behavior, with its obsession with competition, individual achievement and punishingly high standards in appearance, professional accomplishment, and relationships. We increasingly understand that this unconscious "inner critic" creates great suffering, eroding our capacity to be fully present in our lives, to grow thoughtfully with life's challenges, and to experience deep peace and contentment moment to moment.

In this week-long workshop, experienced retreat leaders Valerie Brown and Kirsten Olson will help you become aware of the internal dialog you carry on with yourself, to listen to your "inner critic," and help recognize the shadow of holding yourself to punishingly high standards. We will practice counteracting self-criticism with kinder responses and loving self care, even when we feel we don't really deserve it. We will also examine the ways in which the internal critic isolates us, and makes us feel all alone--apart from all others--further heightening our suffering and reducing our capacity to take risks. Throughout we will practice mindfulness techniques that help us notice our feelings and negative reactions, and to observe them, neither suppressing, exaggerating or judging them.

Through interactive exercises, large and small group discussions, walking and sitting meditation, and guided hikes in the awe-inspiring desert beauty of Ghost Ranch, this loving and humor-filled workshop will help you to listen to the wise voice that is already inside you: forgiving, compassionate, creative and whole. This course includes a day long trip to Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Spa (some extra charges for spa services), and many other opportunities to experience and connect to nature and the land in one of the most beautiful retreat settings in the United States.

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Based on the principals of the Center for Courage and Renewal©, Valerie Brown and Kirsten Olson are trained Courage and Renewal facilitators.

Kirsten Olson is the author of the bestselling Wounded By School and is Chief Listening Officer of Old Sow Consulting, in Brookline MA, which focuses on mindful, compassionate and creative leadership training for educators and others in the helping professions.

Valerie Brown is an organizational leadership coach and experienced mindfulness and yoga instructor at Mindful Solutions, in New Hope, PA, where she leads corporate, legal and career transition clients in problem-solving grounded in being present to one's life with integrity, attentiveness and respect.

Retreat tuition is $375. For more information on course enrollment, please contact: tracym@ghostranch.org.

Spaces are limited, so please let us hear from you soon.

Or visit the online Ghost Ranch course catalog.

 

 

 

 

Your Wounds Are Your Salvation

Many of us have experienced deep wounding in school, from teachers or institutions who've told us we aren't good enough, or we don't have what it takes to be successful in educational institutions. Often, these messages go further--that somehow, we don't have what it takes to thrive in life in general. Many of us have become discouraged and disengaged from schooling and learning because of these messages--sometimes even "successful" students for whom "everything seems right."
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Understanding and Healing The Wounds of Schooling

Ghosts In The Classroom: A Workshop For Parents

In this interactive workshop parents of all ages are offered an opportunity to reflect on their learning experiences, the steppingstones in our own learning journeys, and to consider how these experiences may influence their ideas and reactions to their children's educational lives.
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