How To Transcend The Habits Of Your Mind & Awaken To Your Fullest Life

So many of us are feeling stressed, uneasy, and unsettled amidst all that is going on in the world and in our personal lives. While we can’t always control our external circumstances, what many people are not aware of is that we all experience internal mental habits that play a role in contributing to the unease, stress, and unhappiness that we feel. This is actually good news because as we learn to work with these mental habits, we can bring ease to our emotional challenges and greater joy into our lives. This class will show you how!

Combining modern science and ancient wisdom, heart, mind, and body, you will learn concrete, evidence-based tools to help you strengthen mindful awareness, self-compassion, resilience, perspective, and the ability to show up as your best self. You will learn how to shift from surviving to thriving through the use of three tools that you can bring into your day and life to meet day-to-day challenges, deepen your well-being, and help strengthen inner resources and inner peace.

Whether you are an experienced meditator or have never tried meditating – this course will teach you how to take some of the benefits of meditation off of the cushion and into the very moments of your life.

* NOTE: For those who took my previous course, this could be considered a sequel to that as it offers a deeper dive into some of the material introduced there. However, both classes are very much stand-alone classes and complement one another. This class is appropriate for anyone wanting to work with mental habits and cultivate wellbeing.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that this class and any responses to questions in the classroom are strictly for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical or psychological diagnosis, intervention, or treatment of any kind. If you are in need of such treatment, please seek the advice of your doctor or licensed mental health professional.

What people get out of this class will vary from person to person and there are no guarantees of what your personal experience will be. In using these recordings, you understand that Beth Kurland does not have a professional relationship with you and you agree that Beth Kurland will not be liable or otherwise responsible for any decisions or actions taken due to your use of the information presented.

Leçon 1: Introduction To The Four Mental Habits

Lesson one begins with a short meditation to connect with your intention for the class, and then lays a foundation for the 10-day class. You will learn why your brain is running on some outdated survival programs, and you will be introduced to the four mental habits we will be exploring.

We will also discuss some good news about how these mental habits can become your greatest allies, and why you don’t have to wait for your life circumstances to change to experience greater well-being. The groundwork will be laid to learn how to shift from surviving to thriving.

Leçon 2: Working With The False Alarm: Understanding Our Stress Response

In this lesson, you will learn about the mental habit of the “false alarm.” We will discuss the physiology of the stress response and why our habitual responses are not always so helpful in solving our modern-day challenges. You will have an opportunity to reflect on how the false alarm shows up in your life and gain insight that can help you begin to think about and pay attention to your stress signals in a new way.

Leçon 3: The Stuck Dial & Our Wandering Mind

In lesson three, we will explore our second mental habit called the “stuck dial.” You will gain insight into the nature of your wandering mind and I’ll share some examples of how this commonly shows up. We will also do a mini-experiment for you to observe your mind. You will gain greater insight into both the default setting of “automatic pilot” and the moments of presence that are possible.

Leçon 4: The Noisy Person In The Movie Theater & The Stories We Tell Ourselves

In lesson four, you will be introduced to “The Noisy Person in the Movie Theater” as our third mental habit. You will learn about how the mental narratives that we construct can affect us in ways we often don’t realize, and we will explore the problem of taking our thoughts and stories at face value.

You will have an opportunity to reflect on how the “noisy person” shows up in your life and be encouraged to become increasingly aware of your inner dialogues.

Leçon 5: The Velcro Problem & Our Negativity Traps

In this lesson, we explore the fourth of our mental habits called “the Velcro Problem.” You will learn about the negativity bias of your brain and why it’s easier to remember and hold onto negative experiences rather than positive ones. You will also gain insight into how the Velcro Problem shows up in your life so that you can begin to notice this mental habit in ways you may not have before.

Leçon 6: The Power Of The Flashlight To See Clearly

This lesson offers an introduction to using the tool of “the flashlight.” You will learn about the power of the flashlight (a metaphor for mindful awareness) to help you see clearly when any of the mental habits are arising. You will also learn how, when you are the one observing what is occurring in the light of the flashlight, it shifts your relationship to what is happening and creates possibilities that weren’t there before.

Leçon 7: Deepening Our Practice With The Flashlight

We begin this lesson by exploring how focusing on our breath can help us step out of automatic conditioning. A short meditation practice is offered using an anchor to notice the difference between being lost in thoughts, and noticing when you are lost in thoughts. We also work with another short exercise to help you further experience the power of the flashlight.

Leçon 8: Cultivating Caring Attention & Using The Tool Of The Diet

After reviewing the power of the flashlight to help us step out of our mental habits, we work with a short meditation practice to help cultivate feelings of compassion and caring attention in addition to the mindful awareness that we are deepening.

I then introduce the tool of “the diet” and you will have a chance to discover through a short exercise how powerful our thoughts and words can be. You will also learn about a diet that can help transform how you experience difficulties.

Leçon 9: Deeper Work With The Diet & Bringing The Magnifying Glass Into Our Day

Lesson nine gives you an opportunity to work more with the tool of the diet. You will gain further insight into how the narratives of our minds contribute to our suffering, and you will learn some powerful ways to loosen the grip of the unhelpful narratives and create more nourishing and accurate ones.

I then introduce the tool of the magnifying glass and we start to explore how this tool can help transform ordinary experiences.

Leçon 10: Working With The Magnifying Glass

In this last lesson, you will learn how the magnifying glass can help to face life’s challenges with greater resilience, and how the magnifying glass can help improve relationships by seeing the good in others. We also will work with two short meditation practices to experience the power of the magnifying glass.

The course will wrap up with a summary, circling back to where we began, and end with a poem to help remind you to use your tools.

Reviews

Very helpful! Simple tools explained in an easy way with lots of fun storytelling. Altho you may know all these things, its great to be reminded of them again from time to time so you get quicker at noticing when your mind goes a certain way or an emotion shows up. I especially like the flashlight. It really helped me yesterday as I noticed how a single thought switched my whole mood but after noticing the positives I was able to move it around! Thank you 💚🙏🌱💫

Practical approach t mindful living. Very accessible.

Thank you. I needed this course to help me to hold center and to be mindful of what is available to me to use positively
I appreciated mostly your easy conversational tone and for responding to my comments in the classroom.
I feel more comfortable now, knowing I can be prepared when things go wrong or become difficult.
❤️

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Fantastic Course. So enjoyable and offers so much practical and useful tools and information.

There are many great courses on Insight timer, but this one has been truly life changing. I will definitely listen to it again and make more notes to absorb all the amazing advise given here, but I already feel a great improvement in how I feel day to day. Thank you 🤍

So well thought out, clearly explained, the stories and analogyies work perfectly. Easy to remember and apply. I can’t say enough good things about this course. !!

Really enjoyed Beth’s optimistic personality and story telling thoughout the course. It kept me hooked and I’ve found myself using the flashlight in my day to day!

A wonderful course that provides practical tools to enhance one's well being.

So real and realistic to implement lessons to heighten the quality of our lives! Thank you for this rain puddle gift..

Very helpful, and easily accessible tools! Thank you ❤🙏❤

Excellent!! I took notes for future reference to practice. Truly simple, practical tools layered upon a basic understanding of how our brains are evolutionarily wired and how we can change. Thank you! 🙏🏼

Thankyou for this course. I most liked the 4 metaphors of smoke alarm, stuck dial, noisy theatre goer and the velcro problem. You reminded me to keep developing awareness, through the Flashlight, keeping my thoughts and beliefs as realistic as possible via the Diet and to look for the good and to be grateful via the Magnifying Glass..