Compassion Workshop
Using compassion to heal early attachment wounds and develop healthier relationships
Half-day Online Meditation Workshop- Date: Saturday, 5th Feb 2022
- Instructor: Cedric Reeves
- Cost: Sliding scale
In this workshop, we'll clarify what compassion is, how to cultivate it, and its benefits. More specifically, we'll focus on how to use compassion meditation to help us heal our attachment conditioning and how compassion supports healthy relationships with others.
Moreover, in my view, developing compassion simply helps bring about adult emotional maturation process more quickly.
The technique that we'll use is Tong Len, a Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist Meditation. Compassion is a universal virtue. You don't have to be a Buddhist to do this practice.
Who is this for?
- For anyone who wants to go from insecure to secure attachment.
- Suitable for anyone new to attachment-work, or is already experienced.
- People with Insecure Attachment.
- For anyone who is willing to do the work to get results
Format
- Program: 3 sessions of 60 minutes each.
- Live Online Sessions: The live sessions will be hosted on Zoom. An email with the zoom links will be sent to you after you have registered.
- Q&A: There will be opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A section.
Attendance & Recordings
- Partial attendance is fine - however you get best results if you attend all sessions.
- Late Starts: You can join even after it has started.
- View at your own pace: The event will be recorded and sent out to registered participants for viewing on your own schedule.
Event Date & Time
This workshop will run twice in order to be accessible to people in different time zones. The content is exactly the same. You will get the access details for both after signing up.
5th Feb 2022
workshop Schedule
There will be 3 sessions of 60 minutes each, for 5 hours total.
Each session is like this:
| Duration | Activity |
|---|---|
| 10 mins | Lecture |
| 40 mins | Guided Meditation |
| 5 mins | Q&A |
We will be doing deep work. For that reason please feel free to take a break at any point.
workshop Overview
This program is suitable for beginners to meditation and healing work.
This program explores the benefits of cultivating compassion.
Meditation Technique
Tong Len is said to all include four sublime emotions: Loving Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity. It also is a training in the practice of generosity, ethics, tolerance, effort, concentration and wisdom, all at once.
Incorporation of the Schemas
More specifically, we’ll direct the compassion towards all those who (including ourselves) experience suffering around the five attachment Schemas described by Jeffrey Young (Schema Therapy).
They are:
- Abandonment and Instability
- Mistrust and Abuse
- Emotional Deprivation
- Defectiveness and Shame
- Social Isolation and Alienation
Relating to the Schemas to our lives
We will use the sentence stems to help us understand how these schemas color our view of ourselves and the world and how we then go about responding to these skewed ways of viewing:
- “When I am seeing the world from this schema I see myself like so……. (fill in the blank) and the world is like so…………(fill in the blank).”
- Seeing myself and the world this way I must respond in the following way…….(fill in the blank)
We will use the compassion practice to bring about emotionally corrective experiences that will generate a new more positive view of self, other, and world thereby healing the negative schema.
Mentalization
In addition to healing these schemas, the guided meditations will help us do perspective taking, helping us understand cause and effect. We’ll understand better how we fit in in the world and with others. We’ll see how the negative conditioning that brought on these schemas are common, and how we are not to blame.
Resistance
Resistance is a normal part of the healing process. We will learn to understand and value our own resistance, developing openness, and compassion towards it; not pushing it away.
Second Lecture and Guided Meditation
The second lecture will provide another opportunity for question and answer. Additionally we’ll discuss the motivation to heal in such away to be both personally happier and also to be of greater service to others. Moreover, we will discuss how and why compassion is a natural and necessary outcome of deep and proper spiritual practice.
Tong Len is a safe practice for beginners. But, it can be kinda weird if you aren’t used to it. Metta (loving-kindness) or breath/concentration practice should be used if Tong Len starts to get more difficult.
Miscellaneous Notes
There will be time for Q&A and spot coaching during the live event. The Q&A recording will not be made available thereafter. If you do not attend live, you will not have access to the Q&A.
We will be doing deep work. For that reason please feel free to take a break at any point.
Who is this for?
This program is for those of us who...
- are looking to improve their psychological health, especially those who have tried other healing modalities with disappointing results.
- have problems with exploration and self development, relationships and emotional regulation
- want to optimise their psychological health
Healing Together
Shared interest and social support can make meditation practice, study, and healing much easier.
Make friends in the course on the slack channel and invite friends who you think could benefit to participate in the course.
Benefits
These are some of the benefits you will have by the end of the program
Theoretical Understanding
- The importance of forgiveness and how to cultivate it
- Understanding of how insecure attachment forms an important foundation of adult mental health
Psychological
- A better ability to observe your mind with metacognitive awareness as a result of the mentalization exercises peppered through the guided meditations
- Better able to use forgiveness as an antidote to negative mental states (anger, holding grudges etc)
- Less blame of self or others
For your relationships
- More forgiveness = easier relationships that repair more quickly after the inevitable ruptures that occur
Support Structure
- A sense of camaraderie as a result of seeing how our psychological difficulties are rooted in common experiences that affect us all
- A Slack group to continue discussion going forward
Frequently Asked Questions
About Participation
Payment Questions
Technical Questions
If you are experiencing any technical issues relating to accessing the material or live sessions, please get in touch with us. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
We can be reached with our online contact form.
Testimonials
This is what participants of prior workshops have to say:
Dani
Thank you for continuing to make these classes. When I am able to attend, they make a really positive contribution to my mental health :)
Registration
Registration has closed.
Please note: What is on offer here is meditation coaching, not psychotherapy or counseling.