MORNING SESSION: CENTERING AND INSIGHT FEB. 21, 2016 CLAIRE VILLARREAL, PH.D. Authentic Kung-fu Meditation Workshop

Making friends with your mind ● Cause and effect ○ Busy lives create busy minds ○ Quiet time helps your mind settle ● Thoughts are not the enemy! ○ Step one: focus ○ Step two: insight ● This morning’s theme: curiosity > judgment

Mind and body Center of gravity for body, “home” for mind Come back to center Image from design.tutsplus.com

Meditation: come home to center ● Spine straight ● Body as relaxed as possible ● Mind settled in center of abdomen ● Options ○ Focus on inhalation, exhalation, gaps ○ Count breaths ○ Imagery ○ Body scan ● Opportunity to practice a warm heart toward yourself ● Real practice is recognizing when you’re distracted and coming back

Qi gong: move hands like clouds ● Spine stays straight ● Body as relaxed as possible ● Turn to your own furthest point (and not beyond) ● Mind stays at center of abdomen ● Raised hand stays in front of heart

Insight ● Dis-identifying from thoughts ● Ways to create a gap between thoughts and sense of self ○ Label senses plus “talk” ○ Label past, present, future ○ “How long does it last?” ● This is key component of meditation practice, and for it you need to be aware of your own thoughts

Takeaways ● Making friends with your mind ● Curiosity > judgment

AFTERNOON SESSION: THE OPEN HEART FEB. 21, 2016 CLAIRE VILLARREAL, PH.D. Authentic Kung-fu Meditation Workshop

Making friends with your mind ● Cause and effect ○ Busy lives create busy minds ○ Quiet time helps your mind settle ● Thoughts are not the enemy! ○ Step one: focus ○ Step two: kindness ● This afternoon’s theme: compassion > judgment

Cultivating your warm heart ● This afternoon's theme is compassion > judgment ● It's easier to toughen up and not feel your own discomfort than to feel fear, anxiety, weakness ● But all of those thrive on the half-attention of denial ● Real ability to overcome challenges comes from connection--with ourselves and with others

The open heart ● Four boundless states ○ Loving-kindness: may I and others be well ○ Compassion: may I and others be free from suffering ○ Joy: may I rejoice in my own good fortune and that of others ○ Equanimity: may I engage with pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral with an open heart ● “Boundless” means open to all of yourself, working toward being open to everyone ● This is true in meditation; in daily life, you draw appropriate boundaries.

Self-compassion ● From self-compassion.org (Dr. Kristin Neff’s site), components of self-compassion: ○ Self-kindness ○ Common humanity ○ Mindfulness ● Practices to grow tender heart toward ourselves: words, body scan with light, taking and giving, imagery

Boundless Compassion ● Boundless toward ourselves: any opportunity for judgment is an opportunity for compassion ● Boundless toward others: share compassion and kindness with larger circles ● "Compassion" does not equal enabling bad behavior

Joy ● Joy as counter to jealousy ● Joy as rejoicing in your good fortune and that of others ● Joy as recognizing and permitting our own delight

Equanimity ● Even engagement ● Spaciousness of mind

Takeaways ● Making friends with your mind ● Compassion > judgment