Speak Your Truth, Listen Deeply

When interacting with others, we often find ourselves triggered and then communicate in ways that hurt or harm – ourselves, the other, or the relationship between us. We have not learnt how to use mindful and authentic communication.

 “When you are busy judging people, you have no time to love them.” Marshall Rosenberg 

We will practice both intra-personal and inter-personal mindfulness in order to cultivate skills of empathy, compassion and a better understanding of self and other. Contemplative dyads are a way to promote social connectedness, something that we are often lacking in daily life where our time is dominated by digital devices. We will practice deep listening in this safe online setting, in order to learn skills that can increase feelings of closeness and strengthen relationships with our friends and partners.

Together, these practices will help us communicate more consciously so that we learn to be aware of our feelings and needs, make requests and stay open to the feelings and needs of others.

 

Mindful Communication Practices 

We will draw on the principles and practices from Non-Violent Communication, and base these within a framework of mindfulness. These practices help us to increase awareness, compassion and ease with ourselves and others.

Although, we want to communicate honestly, but haven’t been taught to do so. Very often, we desire to share our feelings and needs, but fear that they won’t be heard or that our needs will remain unmet.

The workshop will show us a way of being very honest, without any criticism, insults or put-downs. We learn to be aware of our feelings and needs, make requests and stay open and respond to the feelings and needs of others.

The principles and practices you will learn during this workshop, will help you communicate consciously and with compassion. We learn to increase our capacity to communicate in a way that helps us to connect, find what is alive in ourselves and others in order to create relationships built on authenticity and understanding.

 

Who Can Attend? 

If you resonate with any of the sentences below, this afternoon mini-retreat may be especially helpful for you. I…

* was taught to think and communicate in ways that involved judgment * am not aware of my own feelings and needs and those of others * am afraid that speaking honestly could be unskillful, leading to harm and hurt within my relationships * have been afraid to express anger, or other difficult emotions, without causing harm or feeling ashamed of my own feelings * fear connecting and being curious about what is alive in myself, without judgement.

 

Facilitators 

Lucy Draper-Clarke has a PhD in mindfulness and has practised yoga for 20 years. Her light-hearted approach to teaching allows participants to learn through a joyful, yet transformative practice.

Felicity Hart is a life coach, yoga teacher and mindfulness facilitator. She has a PGC in Mindfulness-Based Interventions from Stellenbosch and offers life coaching that is mindful of you as a whole person, facilitating a deep and integrative process.

 

Bookings 

To book, please register on this Zoom link. Lucy will send you the pre-retreat pack, and the Zoom meeting ID.

 

Costs 

R450 per person.

We will donate a percentage of the income to the Buddhist Retreat Centre, to support them at this unprecedented time.

If you would like to attend, but cannot afford to do so, please get in touch for our bursary places.