Self-Compassion and Shame Core Skills Weekend Retreat

All humans can experience shame – including the most practiced meditators and meditation teachers. It can happen when we’re entirely innocent of wrongdoing, as well as when we make a mistake. Whenever we feel bad about ourselves, for whatever reason, there’s usually a touch of shame in it. It strikes at the core of our being and yet has nothing to do with who we really are.

As meditation teacher Tara Brach says, shame is a “trance of unworthiness” that gets its power from our instinctive avoidance of it. However, when we look at shame through the eyes of self-compassion, we discover something quite surprising – that shame is an innocent emotion arising from the universal wish to be loved. This insight opens the door to compassion and healing. Research shows that self-compassion is the opposite of shame. As self-compassion goes up, shame goes down.

Everyone is welcome to attend this weekend retreat, with the awareness that shame can be a difficult human emotion – and self-compassion itself can be emotionally activating.  The workshop may be emotionally challenging, so some familiarity with practicing self-compassion before joining this workshop will be helpful.  We will explore the nature of shame, it’s causes (including social oppression), and learn simple skills to identify shame in our daily lives and transform it, safely and effectively, through the power of self-compassion.