Date: Monday, December 10, 3:00pm – Sunday, December 16, 11:30am; 6 nights
Sliding Scale: $1505 – $685, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 220R18.
16 CE credits available for $160, for psychologists and California licensed MFTs, LCSWs, LEPs, LPCCs, nurses, and chiropractors.

This retreat is currently in progress.

Retreat Description:
This silent retreat will focus on cultivating the quality of loving kindness (metta in Pali), infusing our hearts, minds and bodies with a strong caring wisdom. Mindful presence and loving kindness are essential to living a spiritual life. Awareness as developed through mindfulness practice leads to clarity, insight and understanding. Loving kindness practices open the heart, allow a kind embrace of ourselves, and connects us intimately with all of life. The fusion of these qualities helps us to respond more compassionately to the challenges that we encounter in ourselves and in the world.

Qigong is a practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and meditation. With roots in Chinese medicine, martial arts, and philosophy, qigong is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance (chi) or what has been translated as ‘intrinsic life energy.’ It recognizes, cultivates and nourishes the ‘energy’ aspect of our being. Qigong perfectly complements traditional sitting meditation practice and has a long and well-established history connected to contemplative traditions.

On this retreat the loving kindness practices will be supported by periods of guided instruction as well as Qigong meditation, and regular meetings with the teachers. All are welcome to attend!

Teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public. Health care professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or patients. Continuing Education (CE) credit available. See below for attendance requirements and more information.

Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
Based on the content of this program, you will be able to:

• Describe a heart-based practice for meeting stress, pain and burnout with kindness and wisdom;
• Utilize a loving kindness practice for working with difficult clients/patients or co-workers;
• Incorporate self-compassion practices in ways that may reduce stress and anxiety and improve patient care;
• Demonstrate loving kindness with self-compassion meditation, in ways that may reduce emotional distress and improve job satisfaction;
• Describe how to use a self-compassion break, in ways that improve patient care and prevent compassion fatigue or emotional exhaustion;
• Describe how mindfulness and heart-based practices function to protect clear-seeing and emotional-regulation and how this supports being a more effective care-provider;
• Describe how mindfulness and heart-based practices incline one’s mind away from limiting, harsh self-narratives and increases curiosity and empathy, thereby improving one’s ability to listen and communicate effectively as a care-provider;
• Utilize specific mindfulness and heart-based practices to decrease stress and improve presence and emotional-regulation thereby allowing one to be a more effective care-provider;
• Incorporate mindfulness and heart-based practices into daily life and work routines for increased empathy, improved balance, and greater self-care and sustainability in one’s care-provider role;
• Utilize mindfulness practices in stressful environments to move from habitual reactivity to appropriate responses, in ways that improve patient care;
• Incorporate mindfulness practices in preparation, for and when working with clients, to regulate energy.