Our emotions help us respond to the threats and opportunities in our daily lives and profoundly impact our individual and collective well-being. Feeling the joys and pains of our emotions is universal; yet what makes us emotional and how we respond is unique, and we become emotional without our conscious awareness. Developing emotional awareness is like navigating this otherwise invisible inner-landscape by holding the full range of our human experience with compassion and creativity.  

In this experiential workshop, we will draw from the evidence-based Cultivating Emotional Balance training, which integrates the wisdom traditions of modern psychology and emotion research with ancient contemplative practices as a path for transformation.

Each session will balance learning, being, and connecting.

• Learning will include teachings on the scientific and contemplative foundations of emotional awareness.
• We practice Being with guided meditations and reflective practices to develop mindful awareness and compassion for our mental and emotional patterns and habits.
• Connective practices include discussion and small group work to investigate the roots of our emotions through mapping of our emotional episodes, slowing down the reel and seeing the story beneath what triggers us, how we feel, and the ways we respond to our fears, delights, frustrations, enjoyments, feelings of shame, and more.

Throughout this workshop Guest Faculty Teague O’Malley will weave interactive experiences of contemplative art that will encourage an embodied emotional awareness and heart-opening.

The foundation for emotional awareness connects in many ways with our most essential understandings of who we are and who we wish to become. Through learning, being, and doing practices with our emotions, we can remove the “dust from the gold” of our compassionate hearts. Join us for this weekend of transformative exploration and practice.

Recommended reading: atlasofemotions.org; Professional Distress and Meaning in Health Care: Why Professional Empathy Can Help.