Leçon 1
Breaking The S.P.E.L.
In this first lesson, we will explore cultivating well-being in the same way we can train our bodies to be healthier and more resilient, so when life throws challenges our way we are more ready to face them. Each lesson is structured with a short teaching and a meditation or reflection exercise. We begin with understanding resilience, how we can easily fall under a S.P.E.L. as our bodies react to stress, and how practicing kindfulness is an antidote.
Leçon 2
Emotional Courage
In lesson 2, we begin to cultivate an awareness of how our emotions can influence our motivations, our actions, and our reactions. Emotions serve as important signals. The trick is to learn to manage our emotions, the positive and the negative, in a balanced way so we don’t avoid emotions or get hijacked by them. The skill is to befriend ourselves and our emotional lives with curiosity, compassion, wisdom, and humor.
Leçon 3
Softening Into Difficult Emotions
In lesson 3, you are invited to come along for a guided meditation to lean into your emotional life with courage. Understanding the contextual nature of emotions means turning toward our emotions with curiosity and care, even when it’s hard. This exercise brings in compassion for ourselves and entails recruiting both your physiology and your imagination as a way to embrace your imperfect, vulnerable being with kindfulness.
Leçon 4
Cultivating Presence & Perspective
This lesson expands our detective work on emotion regulation by tending to the power of being present and the capacity to take perspective. Learning how and when to zoom in and out of our daily experiences can redirect our attention to making beneficial choices. Both presence and perspective contribute to psychological flexibility, an important ingredient for resilience.
Leçon 5
Tending & Befriending Yourself
This lesson offers a reflection exercise and invites you to consider the stressors or challenges that lead to distress while allowing yourself a little slack. It’s no wonder most human beings become overwhelmed with the tensions of daily living. But somehow, it’s easier to blame oneself, fall into rumination, or create mental mind movies that cause even more suffering. Here, we learn to befriend our inner life just like we might tend to a loved one in need.
Leçon 6
Growing Inner Strengths
Cultivating inner strengths and positive emotions helps you to ward off falling under the S.P.E.L. that interferes with taking good care of yourself. This lesson describes a simple kindfulness recipe, P.E.P.P.I.E., to build resilience and give you the energy you need to meet life’s challenges. Have a journal handy or make mental notes on the ingredients you would like to strengthen.
Leçon 7
Kindfulness As A Prescription
In this final lesson, we consider that we can’t do it alone. Kindfulness is inclusive and recognizes that resilience involves not only practice but people. We conclude with an integration exercise that pulls in the ingredients of P.E.P.P.I.E. Presence, emotion regulation, taking perspective, finding purpose, integrating healthy habits of mind, body, and spirit, and putting in joyful effort — these ingredients blend together in a great elixir for love and kindness.
