Learn To Respond Without Reactivity

This course is designed to help you to reduce the ways that you respond reactively, whether it be with anxiety, anger, sadness, frustration, stress. These emotions can distract you from how you really want to be as a person – in relationships, at work, at play. Together, we will learn to install the “pause button,” allowing us to cutivate greater presence and respond with intention instead of reactivity. Over the next 10 days you will develop a conceptual and practical understanding of the life-changing impact of the ability to pause and will learn how to apply this to the ways you habitually react. This course offers a combination of engaging meditative exercises, conceptual lessons, and insights from Charles' experience as a long-time meditator and practitioner of psychotherapy.

Lección 1: Pressing Play On Life

In today's lesson Charles will explain the concept of the pause and play metaphor and show us two key reasons why pausing is essentially a superpower. Together, we will also explore the concept of “Internal Friction” and undergo an exercise experimenting with empty space.

Lección 2: Curiosity Vs. Interpretation

In today's lesson you will be introduced to a meditation entitled 'Noticing the Train' and we will discuss how words and concepts limit our experience. We will also discuss the difference between curiosity and interpretation and come to understand how pausing can help us to stop dwelling on the past and come back to what’s happening now..the only time we actually ever have.

Lección 3: Allowing The Mind To Settle

In today's lesson Charles will offer a personal example of how this practice has impacted his experience of anxiety. He explains that sometimes you need to press Pause first in order to be able to just press Play. We will also explore the concept of concentration and practice a mental noting exercise.

Lección 4: Doing & Being

In today's lesson we discuss the experiential modes of Doing and Being. We live in a society of constant Doing, making it increasingly easy to forget the Being mode. We will explore how the Being mode creates space between what happens in life and your reaction to it and how we can use this in our favour.

Lección 5: Just Practice - The Power Of Conditioning

Today, we uncover the importance of practice and of your experiential understanding, drawing on Aristotle's words “we are what we repeatedly do.” By installing new programming to replace your old programming you are planting the seeds of intention for positive and lasting change.

Lección 6: Identifying A Pause Anchor

In today's lesson we will practice an exercise designed to help us 'find our feet'. We will look at how to identify a pause anchor, discuss an array of examples, and learn how to use them to extend your practice when you feel most stressed, anxious, or angry, etc. (i.e., reactive).

Lección 7: Pockets Of Experience

Today we will explore the Second Arrow metaphor (a conceptual anchor) and undertake a practical exercise using your identified anchor. We will come to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to fully experience the newness and novelty of what is always around us. This will allow us to open up to more meaningful relationships, enhance our performance at work, and reduce procrastination.

Lección 8: Communication – Matching Meaning

Today we will learn how to apply the pause button to interpersonal relationships and practice a meditation exercise titled Feeling the Connection to Others. We will discuss how to interact with others in a meaningful and productive way and let go of self-consciousness in communication.

Lección 9: Mindfulness Is No-Thing

In today's lesson we will discuss the concept of 'mindfulness', exploring how it has somewhat become a buzzword and how many of us try to be “good at” mindfulness. Charles will offer us a short story from the Zen tradition: Empty Your Cup and we will learn how to use mindfulness practice to gain greater perspective and clarity on our lives.

Lección 10: Letting Go of the Meditator & Maintaining Everyday Practice

In today's lesson we will undergo an intense breathing exercise to ground us into the present moment. Charles will then explore the importance of creating a daily environment and routine that enhances your practice rather than hinders it and how your practice can help you to live more fully. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde

Reviews

Great sound accompaniment and taking care of your surroundings is very important!

Thoroughly enjoyed this learning 🩷 I find myself pausing more throughout my day and slowing down. I loved the quotes, analogies and stories shared. I will definitely revisit this course. So worth while and clearly articulated - wonderful!

Well planned and delivered course with information that helps clarify existing reaction patterns and practices to make lasting conscious changes. A good course to do over and over.

This course is a game changer! I am already seeing the benefits of implementing the train analogy in my life. I am going to take this course again. So many helpful ideas to learn to pause before reacting. Love the concept of putting my best self forward in the world and causing a ripple effect. Thank you 😊

✨Thank you very much for creating and sharing this wonderful course. I truly hope there will be a continuation in the future. Being and living is indeed an art, and your course beautifully captures that.✨

Did your 83 day course of the Tao Te Cheng just prior to this course, this course felt very complementary to the Tao course. Very powerful for me, helping me with quieting my mind and being present. Grateful

This course give step by step guidance on how to reduce reactivity in your life using Zen based strategies. Charles uses a variety of his experiences, other people’s thoughts, and thoughtful techniques to help you create a toolbox if you will, to give yourself a chance to live in the present moment. I have found this course very useful and will use these tools for the rest of my life.

Terrific, helpful, friendly course on installing mental “pause” button.

This has been my favorite course. Your calming voice and guidance are exactly what I need. I have ADHD and anxiety and I am always seeking more ways to just be. Reminding myself to pause is a great way to start.

Relevant and easy to follow along. Just over the last few days I feel a change already and I’m excited about the implementation of these practices in my future.

Helps a lot in giving you the confidence to start pausing

Thank you for this course, Charles. Setting down my cup of water. Pressing play.

Amazing course!! I have struggled with impulsivity for many years. I ysearched for resources to help me manage impulsive tendencies, which have controlled my life in many ways. This course resonated with me and in the short 10 days I have learned the value of pushing the pause button. Redirecting with the use of a train platform has been significant. The breathing exercises, particularly the guided drum excercise cleared my anxious thoughts.

🙏🏽 Thank you 😊

Charles’ approach is reminiscent of trying 100% flax linen sheets for the first time. You immediately sense familiarity, as if you’ve known him your whole life, unrivalled softness, but at the same time a strength that makes you feel safe and cared for, and a voice so cosy that you never want to leave. It actually doesn’t matter what Charles is saying, his meaning comes across every time. His only fault is that he claims to ‘be interested, not interesting’, yet he is so interesting you can’t help but want to know him more. Thank you, as always, Charles.

Another aqesome course from Charles.
This helped me a lot to choose how to react to life

This isn’t the first excellent course of yours I have done, but it has been the most impactful. Your lessons and your thoughtful use of imagery, quotes, and stories have opened my eyes to concepts that have previously remained illusive to me (you have wiped my glasses clean 😉) I have been very reactionary for a long time, and so I have often been just existing. I now have a better understanding of when and how to press pause in those moments. This alone will have a profound effect, and I am already feeling shifts in my responses. Thank you so much.

I'm using the train in the platform technique to help me calm my thoughts.

I had so many insights during these lessons! I will definitely repeat the course. 🍀
Thank you for your gentle guidance, I’m really grateful for all you’ve shared. 🙏 Wishing your journey keeps unfolding beautifully.

Gracias Charles! A steady, calming, insightful voice to listen to each morning and help me get back into a mediation practice. Thank you 🙏

This was an interesting course. It wasn't exactly what I expected. But I learned a great deal and I found very useful insights