Class 1 begins with a brief orientation to acquaint you with the practice of Mindful Self-Compassion as taught in the official MSC curriculum. You will learn about the groundbreaking science behind the program, discover the many health benefits and how it can positively affect the quality of your everyday life. We will explore the three components of Mindful Self-Compassion and you’ll have the opportunity to reflect on your goals and intentions for the course. You will discover how to approach MSC by learning about the obstacles to Self-Compassion, the zones of tolerance in monitoring your own emotional safety, and adjusting your ability to open and close in response to your emotional needs. Through a reflective exercise, you’ll have the opportunity to compare how you speak to a friend in need of emotional support with how you speak to yourself during a difficult time, in order to establish a foundation for the Self-Compassion training ahead.

In the second class we learn that Mindfulness is foundational to Self-Compassion and necessary in identifying, and turning towards, our difficulties before we can respond with self-kindness. We explore the wandering mind and what Mindfulness is, and how to apply it in everyday life. We begin to take a deeper dive into what practicing Self-Compassion entails and what to expect. You will learn the informal practice of “Soles of the Feet”, and the first core meditation of “Affectionate Breathing.” You’ll engage in a reflective exercise to explore the impact of resistance on your own suffering, and how to work with it when difficult emotions arise while practicing Self-Compassion. Each week includes classroom discussion about your experiences with the core practices and informal activities engaged in during the home practice.

In class 3 you’ll learn the distinction between compassion and loving-kindness, while exploring the four facets of goodwill: loving-kindness, self-kindness, compassion, and self-compassion. We introduce the practice of loving-kindness through discussion, meditation, and other exercises that involve developing kind phrases for yourself that you may typically say to a friend. To find meaningful phrases we ask ourselves the core question in self-compassion: “What do I need right now?” Discussion centers on differentiating between needs and wants by identifying examples of universal human needs.

In this class you begin to refine the loving-kindness phrases you were working with throughout the previous week to begin developing your compassionate voice. Through experiential exercises you’ll reflect on your experience of MSC so far and explore the stages of progress, investigate your own inner critic, and continue to cultivate your compassionate voice through the second core practice of “Loving-Kindness for Ourselves.” We look at the relationship between self-criticism and the desire for safety, and explore what it feels like to motivate a behavioral change from both the self-critical and self-compassionate perspective.

Class 5 begins with the third and final core meditation practice of “Giving and Receiving Compassion.” The theme of living deeply includes identifying your core values, exploring how you may be out of balance with these values, and investigating both internal and external obstacles that might be getting in the way. You are invited to turn a core value into an aspiration for yourself, discover a positive message in a past struggle, and learn to listen to others deeply and compassionately through an experiential exercise.

The Retreat Day is a wonderful opportunity for you to deepen your understanding of Mindful Self-Compassion and put into practice the skills that you have been learning, including cultivating a sense of presence, common humanity, and self-kindness. Your instructor will guide you through a variety of the core practices, soles of the feet walking meditation, savoring a snack exercise, gentle movement, poems, and more.

In this class we take a deep dive into understanding difficult emotions and you’ll discover new strategies to handle them with greater ease. You’ll learn to approach difficult emotions in the five stages of acceptance and how to apply three simple techniques of labeling and validating them, locating them in the body, and using the “Soften, Soothe & Allow” practice to meet them more effectively. Class time is devoted to understanding the extremely challenging emotion of shame, and how to move from a maladaptive to an adaptive view of this troubling emotion. Through an experiential practice you’ll learn how Self-Compassion helps us meet shame in a kinder, healthier way.

Class 7 focuses on the pain of challenging relationships, whether we feel hurt, disconnected, or emotionally exhausted. You’ll explore the emotion of anger and how, upon closer inspection, it usually involves softer feelings underneath that point to unmet needs. By engaging in a reflective practice we investigate when anger serves to protect us and when it is harmful to us, and others. You’ll learn how to use the “Self-Compassion Break” in relationships as a way to diffuse or reset a difficult conversation that has gone off track.

In this final class you’ll learn to practice savoring, gratitude and self-appreciation as a way to cultivate positive feelings in support of Self-Compassion training, and to encourage an ongoing practice after the conclusion of the program. Several reflective exercises reinforce the concepts presented in this class to create an upward spiral of positive emotions. You’re given tips for maintaining a practice and encouraged to identify what you’d like to remember from this course. It is important to acknowledge endings and beginnings by bringing mindful awareness and compassion to the experience, and appreciating or savoring it in some way. We mark the ending of the program with a special activity in which we take time to honor you and your classmates for completing the 8-Week Course.