Be Your Own Best Friend with Loneliness

Have you felt lonely or struggled to understand someone else who was this year?

Within myself, sometimes I see an image of a turtle wanting to crawl back in its shell. It's often tired of the muchness of the world while also craving to belong. 

What IS IT that someone who feels lonely is really looking for? 

Being with loneliness is not easy as we'll have a variety of protectors happy to distract our attention elsewhere. Loneliness is not comfortable.

This course is a great opportunity to get better at connecting authentically or ‘being with’ uncomfortable aspects of ourself that we tend to avoid. For those who have had Focusing classes, this is acknowledging followed by the invitation to 'sense HOW it would like you to be with it' and then meeting it there for as long as it would like. Our culture certainly does not encourage us to practice this.

'Being with' is a vital Presencing skill for transforming the more challenging emotions like loneliness, shame, and pain of all kinds. Now things that have been uncomfortable are able to shift themselves. The cool thing is we do not need to practice this skill with difficult things; the skill works on the other side of the coin as well for being able to embody more joy, connection and love into our lives as well. Topics are always the Focusers choice. 

This course series is centered around exploring and improving your relationship with yourself from wherever it is now. You will deepen your sense of trust within. This could include getting clearer around ‘who I am’ or ‘where am I going’. We might explore how to deal with self-criticism, doubting oneself, all this about making decisions, or how one stays grounded in the face of constant change. We will explore how our brain works using current neuroscience concepts. We will use various body awareness, mindfulness and Focusing activities to become familiar with our own individual inner processes around what it means for us to be our own best friend.

Each course consists of five weekly 1.5 hour classes. 

Classes will include time for sensing within yourself, mindfulness exercises to adapt into your daily life, opportunities to become more familiar with how to navigate your inner landscape, Presence language exercises, writing, art and body awareness/movement activities and a few Demonstrations of Focusing-in-action. There will be some reading and handouts provided by email. We will not be partnering with others in the class here, only working individually. Focusing experience is not required, although it will certainly add to what you get from this class. You will be able to go deeper on the themes offered here if you already have experience.

The uses of Focusing that apply particularly to the space we create here are: 
• practicing self-care and compassion
• making clear decisions
• knowing what you really feel and want
• releasing emotional and intergenerational burdens
• transforming inner critics to supportive protectors
• nurturing a sense of self-worth
• being an accepting understanding friend
• improve overall communication skills
• increase patience, intentionality, gratitude and body awareness

A goal of this series is to hold space for ourselves in a way that we experience ourselves as living process. We will find it easier to give ourselves space when we need it. 

Be Your Own Best Friend with Loneliness - Two Offerings

Five Tuesdays 7 - 8:30pm Eastern New York Time or your equivalent

Nov 11, Nov 18, Dec 2, Dec 9, Dec 16

Five Wednesdays 12 - 1:30pm Eastern New York Time or your equivalent

Nov 5, Nov 12, Nov 19, (skip Nov 26), Dec 3, Dec 10

Daylight savings time changes Nov 1 - confirm times.