Special Labour Day Weekend Offer: Register before Monday Sept 7th at midnight using code FALL20 for $20 off your registration Taking time for retreat offers us the opportunity to step out of our daily routines to reconnect with and care for our innermost selves. Whether you are curious about silence for the first time or you have a regular practice, this is an opportunity to turn inward and discover the quiet that lives beneath the busyness of daily life. This half-day retreat will be held on the beautiful grounds of Bethlehem Centre on Westwood Lake in Nanaimo, B.C.  Together we will…

Let’s face it, we all make mistakes. We’re fallible human beings. We hurt others and we hurt ourselves. As Lily Tomlin said, “The reason we hurt people is because we are people.” That’s also why self-forgiveness is a necessary skill for daily living. Research shows that self-forgiveness is even more strongly associated with personal wellbeing than forgiveness of others. Why This Matters When people think of self-compassion, they often think of self-forgiveness. However, self-compassion is only one step on the path to self-forgiveness. Self-forgiveness is delicate and complicated. We can create the conditions for self-forgiveness to occur, but when self-forgiveness…

“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”  – William James Shame is everywhere. Whenever we feel bad about ourselves, for whatever reason, there is a touch of shame. Shame can occur when we feel judged by others or when we judge ourselves. It can happen when we do something wrong and when we’re entirely innocent of wrongdoing. Shame strikes at the core of our being but has nothing to do with who we really are. Shame is the most difficult human emotion. What makes shame so challenging is that most of us would rather do anything…

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…