Cultivating Compassion & Care for Self and the World
A common obstacle to practicing self compassion is that it can feel self indulgent. There are so many urgent problems in the world right now. How is going on a mindful self compassion retreat actually helping others?
In fact, when we work on softening our own inner patterns of judgement and inferiority, others benefit too. We don't live in a vacuum and how we relate towards ourselves has a big impact on how we relate to others and the world. On this retreat we will also deliberately practice widening the circle of compassion to include all people, not just our immediate friends and family.
The weekend will be a mixture of teaching, meditation and group work. You will be introduced to a variety of practices and everyone attending will be invited to practice at their own pace. Allowing ourselves to be a slow learner is important so there is no rush or pressure to “get it”. There is a saying which you will hear us repeat now and again: “If it feels like hard work, it’s not self-compassion.”
We will also look at why practising self-compassion can be so challenging… the blocks, the inner critic, the attitudes that we have absorbed that can inhibit our innate qualities of kindness, courage, understanding and compassion. So often we find it much easier to offer these qualities to others than to ourselves.
We will be practising mindful self-compassion (MSC) based on the work of Chris Germer and Kristen Neff and also weaving in aspects of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Mindfulness Based Compassionate Living (MBCL). There is a lot of research that shows that practising mindful self compassion makes us not only happier with ourselves but actually more considerate and compassionate towards others.
This weekend is suitable for people who have had at least some experience practising mindfulness.
The food will be vegetarian. We ask you to fill out an application form when you apply. This gives us a little more information about you. We will then contact you if we feel a chat might be helpful.
Please fill out the application form here
There are a number of payment options. We all know that incomes and circumstances vary hugely, often very much outside our control and we wish to reflect this is the price structure.
Standard payment of €430
Supporter payment of €490. Please consider this to allow others to attend.
A limited number of supported payments of €195 are available. These are for people who are living on low incomes and could not attend otherwise. Please email us if you would like to avail of this, outlining your reasons.
If you would like to speak to one of the organisers feel free to email Josephine [email protected] 087 237 2130 or Barry [email protected] 087 202 7030