In the midst of social distancing and a pandemic, social injustice and inequality, and political polarization and threats to democracy, so many are suffering. If you haven’t lost a dear one to COVID, or become unemployed and un-housed, or attacked by tear gas during a peaceful protest, it might be all too easy to minimize your own suffering even during these difficult times. This may lead to a complete denial or minimization of the real difficulties in our lives.
Or maybe one of the above mentioned events – or something else devastating – has happened to you. Perhaps the impact of these times threatens to overwhelm and you hesitant to burden those around you. These times, and these events, can lead even seasoned practitioners to not show up fully and acknowledge your own suffering.
These “hierarchies of pain” show up often and present a barrier to living our lives fully and with meaning. The truth is that there is no hierarchy of pain. Pain is pain, and painful experiences need to be acknowledged and felt to live fully and with grace.
In this series, we will explore our patterns of managing these painful experiences and the impact on our sense of well-being. We will use mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion practices to find new ways to hold and experience our own pain and the pain of others, individually and collectively.
This is not a class for people new to mindfulness. We expect that you are familiar with basic mindfulness meditation skills and emotion regulation tools through mindfulness practice.
Schedule
October 8th
October 15th
October 22nd