COURSE

Building Resilience & Lasting Happiness

As human beings our lives include joys and difficulties. Given the changing nature of experience what kind of happiness is possible for us? Can we discover sources of wellbeing and resilience that are available to us regardless of the current circumstances of our life? Happiness, resilience and wellbeing are our birthright. They are what we all wish for and deserve. We will develop insight into how these wholesome states arise, and learn how to grow our capacity to nurture and enjoy them. Through teachings and meditation practices we will expand our sense of possibility and cultivate a range of resources to sustain us. Our explorations will be informed by contemporary psychology and Buddhist wisdom. Through this course we will bring our head and heart together nourishing a deep and stable sense of wellbeing.

Stress Stress & Anxiety Happiness Health & Happiness Mindfulness Traditional Buddhism Religion Insight Meditation Buddhism Resilience Spirituality Spirituality Freedom from Suffering

Meet your Teacher

Zohar Lavie

Bridport, United Kingdom

Zohar has been practicing meditation since 1995 and has been facilitating meditation retreats around the world since 2006. In 2004 she co-founded SanghaSeva.org whom offer retreats that combine service and positive action with formal meditation. Zohar teaches regularly at Gaia House in the UK, with Tovana in Israel and with other Insight meditation groups. She is co-founder and trustee of UK charity Spring Up Foundation. Aside from the richness of teachings and practices her heart and practice feel deeply nourished by nature, silence and service. For Zohar, meditation is a space of love, compassion and clarity. When she has the privilege to lead retreats her wish is to share what she has found useful and nourishing. Which is to awaken to a life which attunes with, and is for the benefit of, all living beings everywhere. May our lives and our practice be a nourishment for the freedom of all beings everywhere. "I hope that our paths may meet sometime on this wondrous journey."

10 Days

7.7k students

4.6 stars

13 min / day

Stress

English

Lesson 1

Wellbeing, resilience and supportive attitudes for practice

In this opening session, we'll define wellbeing and resilience. We will also introduce attitudes of paying attention that support both learning, and the nourishment of wellbeing and resilience in our lives. The guided meditation will explore applying these attitudes to your direct experience. We will also utilise body and breath awareness to cultivate wellbeing in the moment

Lesson 2

Re-wiring the mind; from the negativity bias to deep wellbeing

This session will highlight the impact of the negativity bias and how we can transform it. We will explore the neuroplasticity of the mind and the possibilities it opens. In meditation we will play with re-balancing the negativity bias and deepening wellbeing by inclining our attention toward the positive events and feelings we already experience.

Lesson 3

The gift of gratitude

Building on the understanding and practice from previous sessions we will open to the practice of gratitude as another tool we can apply and enjoy. This is another way of re-wiring the mind towards wellbeing. In the meditation practice we will get to know the power of gratitude to deepen wellbeing and resilience.

Lesson 4

Savouring

Savouring is the capacity to be mindfully engaged and aware of our feelings during positive experiences. It has been shown to increase happiness in the short term and in the long run. This is because the more time we spend with something pleasant, and the more attentiveness we give to wellbeing, the deeper it nourishes us. In this session we will turn up the volume of wellbeing and resilience through including savouring and enjoying in the ways we intentionally pay attention.

Lesson 5

New ways of attending to unpleasant aspects of experience

When the unpleasant aspects of life arise we habitually find ourselves entangled and overwhelmed. It doesn’t have to be this way, in this session we will begin learning new skilful ways of opening to the unpleasant and being with it calmly. We’ll develop our capacity for having a pleasant, expansive awareness - within which we can more easefully pay attention to any sensation or occurrence, nourishing both perspective and a sense of flow.

Lesson 6

Recognising contraction and inviting relaxation

The degree of unhappiness we experience in relation to a particular appearance or event isn’t fixed, rather it is affected by how we view and relate to that appearance. Habitually we relate to unpleasant phenomena with aversion and rejection. This aversion or resistance in the mind manifests as contraction such as a narrowing down in the body space. This is directly unpleasant and increases unhappiness. In this session we will practice attending directly to this habit of rejection by recognising contraction in the body and inviting expansion and relaxation.

Lesson 7

Friendliness and welcoming

In this session we will continue to open our ways of relating to experience by introducing practices that bring welcoming and friendliness to the fore. We will taste for ourselves how this impacts our sense of wellbeing. Then we will investigate our capacity to meet the full range of human experience, from the pleasant to the unpleasant, within the expansive openness of kindness.

Lesson 8

Connection and interconnection

We are never alone. As living beings we exist in relationship with others, whether we know them or not. Life cannot exist in separation, it is dynamic and interrelated. Opening to our interconnection can be a great resource for us. In this session we will cultivate attitudes of goodwill and friendliness towards ourselves and others. The practice today opens us up to the relational and interconnected nature of our existence in wholesome and healing ways.

Lesson 9

Compassion, joy and the wellbeing of others

This session will further explore the ways in which interconnection supports wellbeing and resilience. This can sound counter to our logic but when we attend to the difficult in life with compassion and care we feel less overwhelmed. And when we take joy in the happiness and wellbeing of others we find more joy in ourselves. Let’s see what happens when we apply that to our own joys and sorrows.

Lesson 10

A heart as wide as the world; nourishing balance and poise

Over the course we’ve practiced different ways of relating to experience. These have prioritised attending to the full range of human nature in ways that nurture wellbeing and resilience. In this session we will explore widening our expansive awareness further than before, finding ways of living that support balance amidst the changing circumstances of life. The culmination of this course is how we practice now, in the midst of life, with an open heart resonating with resilient wellbeing. This session also includes a review of the various practices we have developed, and how to best take what has been of value and interest to us forward.

Ask your teacher

This course includes 80 community questions and 71 audio replies from Zohar Lavie. The community classroom and teacher audio replies are only available via the app.

4.6 (374)

Recent Reviews

Chuck

November 29, 2023

My third time through the program. I get more insight into compassion and well-being each time. Thank you!

Laurine

April 16, 2023

Such a beautiful course 🙏 Thank you Zohar 🙏 I found the teaching about welcoming and friendliness towards my body’s discomforts the most helpful 💜 and how that practice helps me with difficult people in my life. “Welcoming, Allowing, Peace and At Ease” have become my new mantra. Such deep peace arises with this practice. Om Shanti Om to all ��

Eric

February 23, 2023

Such a unique and wonderful series. I will need to walk this path again as there where so many beautiful lessons packed into each session. Thank you so very much.

Christopher

October 5, 2022

A true treasure store. There is so much in this course! The best teaching of the Four Immeasurables I've found in 40 years. It's only downside is there are too many words in too short a time, so the experience is noisy and there's not enough time for it to sink in. But the words and her voice are truly wonderful. So don't be put off. I solved this by re-recording from my phone speaker to my computer and editing pauses in at regular intervals. Expanding each session to a more comfortable 10 minute talk and 30 minute meditation. The result is a resource I am looking forward to using for years to come. (I'm a slow learner.)

March 4, 2022

This course is really wonderful. The voice is calm and soothing, the words are concise and clear, and the skills are helpful. It takes a lot of elements of practice, explains them, and weaves them all together—very easy to integrate.

Albert

December 7, 2021

A wonderful 10 day course. Beautifully spoken, clear and precise. Do yourself a favour and try it out for yourself. It will improve your day.

Maria

August 25, 2021

An open mind curse. Thanks a lot

Yahbah

June 16, 2021

Well delivered, great insight on resilience for daily living. Enjoyed tremendously, be safe and happy, thank you.

Raffy

May 19, 2021

Very interesting to touch on pain and negative feelings toward pain and expanding it out to make it less noticeable. Amazing what the mind can do.

Whitney

May 19, 2021

Wonderful! All new perspectives for me which was truly beneficial!

Andre

April 23, 2021

What an AMAZING course, thank you so much!!!

Susan

March 26, 2021

This course is something I could listen to over and over again.

Sat

March 1, 2021

🙏🏼 🙏🏼

Nastassja

February 17, 2021

So beautiful

Carol

February 8, 2021

This a wonderful course

Amandine

January 25, 2021

Great information that can be applied in all situations and in a daily basis. Love how the course builds on each principle to create a full picture at the end. The tools really compliment each other and make an excellent toolkit.

Caroline

January 11, 2021

Feeling more content and at ease. Very much enjoyed and benefited from this 10 day course. Thank you

Pama

January 10, 2021

Fantastic! I’m going to do this again. Thank you Zorar for sharing your wisdom with kindness 🙏🏻❤️

Rob

January 6, 2021

I loved this course.

Roxanne

December 2, 2020

Wonderful course ! Beautifully done ✨🙏🦋

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