Post Conference Workshop
POST CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS: SAT 19 MARCH 2022
MORNING WORKSHOPS 9:00 – 12:00
(choose one of two workshops)
WORKSHOP 1: LOVE OR ATTACHMENT?
with Ven Robina Courtin, inspiring Buddhist nun and founder, Liberation Prison Project, USA
According to the Buddhist model of the mind, attachment is effectively the main source of our suffering in day-to-day life. Attachment is necessarily I-based: dissatisfaction, neediness, expectation, manipulating others to get what I want. Love, however, is other-based: open, kind, clear, the wish that others be happy. “I could tell you about attachment for one whole year,” Lama Yeshe said. “But you won’t begin to understand it until you go deeply into your own mind.”
How do we distinguish them? That’s the key to practice. Through meditation, becoming our own therapists, as Lama says, we can learn to unpack and unravel our emotions and lessen attachment and the other delusions and grow love, compassion and the rest — for our own sake and the sake of others.
WORKSHOP 2: LIVING WITHOUT FEAR THROUGH COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY (CBT)
with Professor Ross Menzies, CBT specialist working with obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress
In recent years our daily news cycle has become dominated by terrorism, the global pandemic and extreme climatic events. How can we live without fear when our world is in so much turmoil? This workshop will explore CBT principles, based on stoic philosophy, that can defeat anxiety, worry and existential dread. All of the core ideas of CBT, the gold-standard approach to treating human distress, will be covered.
The workshop will begin by exploring the basic theory that underpins CBT. Participants will learn that managing anxiety and worry largely rests on: (1) identifying and challenging catastrophic, irrational thoughts, and; (2) learning to let go of things beyond our control. Emphasis will be placed on a range of practical exercises to defeat fear and build an authentic and meaningful existence in difficult times.
AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS 14:00 – 17:00
(choose one of two workshops)
WORKSHOP 3: HOW TO USE GRATITUDE PRACTICES TO RESTORE DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIPS
withDr Kerry Howells, world-leading gratitude researcher, award-winning educator and author of Untangling you: How can I be grateful when I feel so resentful?
Gratitude is a powerful connecting force that is central to flourishing relationships. It also has an illuminating power because it demonstrates where it’s easy to express gratitude and where it’s almost impossible to do so in any authentic way when we are experiencing resentment.
In this highly participatory workshop we will explore research-based gratitude practices that can assist us to build resilience and self-efficacy when dealing with both our own resentment and the resentment we may feel from others. Additionally, through reflective writing exercises, participants will gain strategies to enable them to identify ‘everyday resentment’ as a necessary step towards starting to untangle difficult relationships and gaining greater happiness and harmony.
WORKSHOP 4: THE POSITIVITY PRESCRIPTION – A PROACTIVE APPROACH TO MENTAL HEALTH
with Dr Suzy Green, leader in the fields of Coaching Psychology and Positive Psychology; Founder of The Positivity Institute
Now more than ever, we need to be proactive when it comes to our mental health and wellbeing. In this half-day workshop, Dr Suzy Green, a leading Clinical & Coaching Psychologist, will help you explore six key psychological capabilities, recently published in her book “The Positivity Prescription”, which are essential for a flourishing life.
Suzy will provide you with a toolkit of practical strategies that can be learned and applied to increase your levels of optimism, hope, intrinsic motivation, meaning in life and work, and for your wellbeing more broadly. Investing in a proactive approach to wellbeing will enable you to enhance your own and others’ personal and professional lives.
In this half-day workshop you will:
- Understand more deeply what psychological wellbeing is and the importance of prioritising positivity
- Be introduced to the 6M model of flourishing (mood, motivation, might, meaning, mindfulness and mindset)
- Increase your wellbeing literacy
- Develop skills to create a growth mindset
- Learn and understand your character strengths
- Understand how to set authentic goals to enhance both goal attainment and wellbeing.
- Increase self-awareness and self-management