Virtual Workshop
Registration is closed. Join the waitlist for the next workshop!
Join us for a journey to reconnect with the wisdom of the heart and become your own best friend.
Saturday, October 17, 2020
9 am - 3 pm PT | 11 am - 5 pm CT | 12 pm - 6 pm ET
How can we be our own best friend in these groundless times?
What stands between you and the contribution you seek to make?
If you would grow to your best self
Be patient, not demanding
Accepting, not condemning
Nurturing, not withholding
Self-marveling, not belittling
Gently guiding, not pushing and punishing
For you are more sensitive than you know
... accept, respect, and attend your sensitivity
A flower cannot be opened with a hammer.
From the poem "If You Would Grow - Shine the Light Of Loving Self-Care On Yourself" by Daniel F. Mead
We live in unprecedented and groundless times. The global situation is challenging, anxiety-inducing, and upsetting. Our knee-jerk response may be to give into anxiety and fear, retreating into the small self. To shut down and contract. To get into spirals of self-judgment, loneliness, and feeling powerless. But what if there’s another option?
We can use this moment to learn to be our own best friend. We can treat ourselves with kindness, accept and support ourselves, and wake up to the gifts we have to share with others. We can learn to see our own goodness while acknowledging all the ways we yet have to grow to become our best self and make the contribution we intend.
"If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete." - Jack Kornfield
So how do we free ourselves from the inner critic and cultivate self-compassion and kindness?
We have to start close in. Self-compassion starts with mindfulness. It starts with turning toward and being with whatever difficult emotions or self-judgments we are present to in the moment.
We then widen the lens to recognize our common humanity. We realize that all beings experience struggle and difficulty in their lives. We are never alone or isolated in our experience.
Out of a natural desire to alleviate suffering, we then extend kindness inwardly. We treat ourselves with care, understanding, and support depending on what is most needed.
As we acknowledge and care for what’s happening inside of us, we can become - as research has shown - more motivated, more persistent, more resilient, and less self-focused. We also strengthen our capacity to be with and tend to the difficulty others are experiencing.
The Workshop Experience
During the workshop, we will:
Recognize the Inner Critic: Explore our inner critic / patterns of self-judgment and their impacts;
Shift to the Inner Guide: Reconnect with our essence and goodness below our conditioning and access the inner guide (a calm, wise, and supportive inner voice);
Learn Practices & Tools: Learn personal and interpersonal practices and tools for working with the inner critic, accessing the inner guide, and cultivating self-compassion.
Be in Supportive Community: Connect authentically with other thoughtful, kind, and purpose-driven individuals;
Take Action: Identify and commit to 1-3 actions or practices to apply your learnings to your life and work.
Our time together will be filled with guided mindfulness practices, movement / somatic practices, self-reflection, deep listening, generous questions, movement, and individual and small group activities.
We will return to our families, communities, and workplaces with new ideas, practices, and relationships to extend in the spirit of thriving in this noisy and ever-changing world.
What’s included
Soulful teaching and facilitation via Zoom
Teachings grounded in current research and timeless wisdom
Guided mindfulness practice and instructions
An opportunity to share and connect with others in the group
A period for addressing your questions about your practice and the teachings
Guidance for integrating your learning into your life
Guided meditation recordings to support your practice
A kind, thoughtful, and supportive group
Life is difficult enough right now. You don't have to do this alone. Join us!
Investment
The tuition for this virtual workshop is $175.
If you require more flexibility due to current financial hardship to be able to participate, please get in touch.
Space is limited to ensure an intimate group experience.
Facilitator
Sarah-Marie Hopf, Founder, Thriving in a Noisy World
“Sarah-Marie's wise and loving presence is the perfect vessel for the transmission of time-honored concepts and practices to bring meaning, richness and peace to daily life.” - Joyce, market research professional, Berkeley, CA
I envision a world in which everyone feels a deep sense of belonging, wellbeing, and meaningful contribution. As a driven changemaker, I’ve personally experienced the many benefits of mindfulness and self-compassion for doing well and being well.
For most of my life, I’ve had impossibly high expectations for myself and a relentless inner critic pointing out all the ways I was falling short. I believed that once I became “perfect,” everything would be fine. I’d finally be worthy of love and belonging. I believed being harsh with myself was the way to grow and become my best self. I was my own worst enemy without even realizing it.
Learning to accept myself just as I am and treat myself with kindness has been an ongoing and life-changing journey for me. I've realized that I can see the goodness and accept where I'm at while acknowledging all the ways I yet have to grow. For example, I can be kind with myself as I do the inner and outer work to contribute to dismantling our systems of oppression.
I want to help you free yourself from the inner critic. The world needs you and your contribution now more than ever.
A bit more about my background:
I'm an integral coach, social innovation strategist, mindfulness meditation teacher, and the founder of Thriving in a Noisy World. In an ever-changing and uncertain world, I'm passionate to support purpose-driven, growth-oriented leaders and changemakers in crafting a life of greatest contribution, integrity, and wellbeing.
To my work, I bring experience at the intersections of leadership development and coaching, institutional change, human-centered design, systems change, and social impact. I've been fortunate to work with individuals and organizations globally, including mission-driven startups, top universities, high impact nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies. I also draw on my learnings from my own ongoing inner work and development journey and am grateful for many meditation retreats, programs, books, and teachers along the way.
I'm a Certified Integral Coach through New Ventures West, an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and a graduate of Dartmouth College. A long-time mindfulness meditation practitioner, I’m a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher through the two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (certified by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley and the Awareness Training Institute) with world-renowned mindfulness teachers Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. I’m also a Certified Mindfulness Teacher, Professional Level (CMT-P) through the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. I’m very grateful for the mentorship and guidance of James Baraz, Co-Founder of Spirit Rock.
Testimonials
Cancellations and Refunds
If You Need to Cancel
If you would like to cancel and receive a credit in the amount of tuition paid towards a future Thriving in a Noisy World offering, you must cancel at least 2 business days before the event (by Thursday, October 15 at 12 pm PT).
If you cancel after this deadline, do not show up, or leave the event early, you will not receive a credit.
If We Need to Cancel
In the event that we may need to cancel the event due to unforeseen circumstances, we will offer a full refund and reschedule the event.