Compassion is often ridiculed in Western culture. Is compassion only for "softies"? In this course, you will learn why it takes courage to feel and show compassion. In fact, compassion is an essential skill in our social life in order to experience social health within ourselves and with others. This course is scientifically grounded and combines Western and Eastern psychology as well as modern and ancient knowledge into contemplative practices in kindness and compassion (e.g. metta and tonglen). The course focuses on practical exercises. The four qualities of the heart (kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity) are particularly encouraged. Would you like to live and feel your heart quality more intensively? Are you looking for ways to make your life even more nourishing, healthy and happy? Would you like to have more social harmony?

This course encourages you to develop more compassion for yourself and others.

The course includes the following elements:

• Working with the breathing rhythm
• body awareness
• guided meditations
• visualizations
• Recognizing destructive patterns
• Exercises to cultivate compassion, kindness, joy and equanimity

Is this course for you?
This course was originally embedded in the context of psychiatry to help people compassionately cope with suffering . However, it has been found that therapists, coaches and mentors also benefit from the course content when they learn to enrich their own lives with compassion. The course is therefore not only intended for professionals or people with mental health problems, but is open to anyone who is interested, because it is important that people are given the opportunity to learn how to deal with themselves without aggression and violence. The course invites all people who are willing to deepen their compassion and are interested in getting to know themselves better. This also includes getting to know yourself in a way that allows you to recognize where you are suffering within yourself. For example, where you are harsh with yourself, criticize yourself too strongly, give too much of yourself or demand too much of yourself.

This course helps you to develop a kind, caring and forgiving attitude towards yourself and others.

Duration

• 2.5 hours per week for 8x (weekly or every two weeks)
• 1x Silent Day: additional silent session of 2.5h up to a whole day after the 6th or 7th meeting
• Exercises for self-study at home

Pre-requisites

If you have already learned about mindfulness in a course (f.i. MBSR), this is cleraly an advantage. However, the course is open to everyone if they are genuinely interested in deepening compassion.

Included

• Course materials

The first 8-week course is supervised by the co-founder of the course outside the course hours.

Online

Prerequisites to participate online:

• Laptop / computer with a current version of the Zoom software
• well adjusted camera with good sound and good video quality
• stable internet access
• reserve your own room where you can attend the seminar undisturbed (organize childcare, dog-sitting etc. in advance). You will not get the best experience if you are on the road (car, public transport) or among a group of people. It is like participating a seminar in person, you must be able to dedicate your full attention to the seminar and participate in the exercises, i.e. be able to speak and listen without being disturbed.
• Important: be ready online on time at the beginning of the seminar and after the breaks, as the seminar is not recorded.
• Technical tests in advance: test all functions early before the seminar starts (zoom, internet quality, camera, sound, light)
• Participation via laptop / computer is highly recommended, as participation via smartphone is not optimal. If you still need to use your smartphone, then a tripod or an alternative, suitable way of fixing the smartphone is required.