To learn more about the presenters, click the "Faculty" tab above. You can also download this PDF listing all breakout descriptions and breakout leader bios.
Friday, May 3rd
Emotion Mapping, led by Eve Ekman, Ph.D.
In this session, you will navigate the terrain of your emotional experiences from trigger to response with a simple mapping tool you can bring back to your daily life. This emotional mapping emerges from the Atlas of Emotion project funded by the Dalai Lama and created by Eve and her father, emotion expert Paul Ekman, to develop our emotion vocabulary and steer us away from difficult emotion responses and towards a calm mind. The session will include teaching on the science of emotion from western psychological and eastern contemplative approaches, mapping and reflecting, and brief guided meditations to work with our emotions.
Self-Compassion: Science and Hands-on Practice, led by Serena Chen, Ph.D.
In this breakout session, we will briefly review what self-compassion is and why it's important, then dive into the science that supports it before walking through a series of experiential practices. Understanding the broader scientific context of self-compassion should help provide insight into why and how self-compassion confers psychological and other benefits. Throughout, we'll keep an eye on how the research informs the actual practice of self-compassion. The session will include hands-on practice with the key facets of self-compassion, both individually and in pairs or small groups, encouraging participants to practice the self-compassionate way of thinking and viewing the self and the world. Reflection and sharing will be facilitated.
Awe Walk: Intentionally Seeking Awe and Incorporating It Into Your Everyday Experience, led by Stacy Bare
Come join National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and US Army veteran Stacy Bare to explore both the emotion of awe and the 1440 Multiversity Campus. You may have read some of the recent press about the power of the outdoors to support physical and mental health. Most of that research is based on studies focused on the emotion of awe as a key trigger to unlocking significant health benefits. The foundational study was done in partnership with Stacy and the Greater Good Science Center, involving military veterans and youth who had been exposed to environments likely to induce trauma. In this breakout, Stacy will build on that work by leading an “awe walk” that fosters a sense of wonder, presence, connection, and well-being while taking in the beauty of the 1440 campus. Get curious, get rested, and get connected to the world and those around you.
Self-Love & Beauty Embodied, led by Connie Sobczak
Transform your fears into love and your “flaws” into beauty in this workshop with Connie Sobczak, author of embody and co-founder of The Body Positive. Through experiential process and storytelling, we will explore what it means to be boldly embodied. You will engage in activities to deepen a compassionate connection with your body and to find love, forgiveness, and even humor when your critical voice come for a visit. By turning toward your fears with kindness, you can learn to relate to your inner critic in a way that transforms it from an oppressor to an ally. The workshop will offer actions you can take to make peace with your unique body and bravely declare your ancestral beauty to the world. Even in our short time together, you will be inspired to come home to your body in a way that allows you full access to your internal wisdom, beauty, and power.
Exploring Your Purpose: How Your Personal Identity Can Support a Purposeful Life, led by Claudia Biçen and Adrian Michael Green
In this workshop, leaders from Project Wayfinder will explore how uncovering the nuances of our personal identities can support us in building purposeful lives. Together we will create "landscapes" of our identities, mapping out the parts of who we are that have made our lives more challenging and those that have provided us advantages. In acknowledging that all these experiences have given us resources and tools, we will consider the ways we can draw upon both our hardships and privileges to meaningfully contribute to the world around us.
Saturday, May 4th
Using Connection to Reduce Stress, led by Eve Ekman, Ph.D.
In this interactive session, we will apply transformative practices of connection which naturally provide feelings of ease, safety, and openness. These scientifically studied practices include loving kindness (imagining our own flourishing) and conversational questions to create closeness (the tools for feeling close to anyone in under 10 minutes). This session will review cutting edge research on the consequences and solutions for our increasingly busy, stressed and disconnected world. These connection practices will be delivered as reflective writing, guided meditation, and structured conversations.
Reconnecting with Yourself through Loving Kindness Practice, led by Pawan Bareja, Ph.D.
Our desire for love is a basic need. Yet despite having many Facebook friends and spending more time on social media and our phones, we may feel disconnected, lonely, isolated, and depressed. Research by Barbara Fredriskson and others suggests that the practice of Loving Kindness nurtures a sense of safety within yourself, so you are present to “micro-moments of connection” with yourself, your loved ones, and anyone around you. This practice has immense health benefits and opens you to love, joy, wisdom, and wonder in your daily life.
Come and see for yourself how this ancient yet simple Buddhist practice of Loving Kindness can create a flood of positive emotions within you. Using guided meditation, experiential exercises and movement to free up energy, we will explore how to cultivate feelings of tenderness, warmth, and compassion for ourselves and another person by wishing them love, peace, strength, and general well-being.
Courageous Inclusion: Learning to Hold All of Ourseles and Each Other, led by Brooke Deterline and Simone Harris
“Things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.” ~ Adrienne Maree Brown
"We yearn to end the lovelessness that is so pervasive in our society.” bell hooks
The human-made hierarchy of value called race is woven into each of us, as well as our societal fabric. This Courageous Inclusion workshop offers an opportunity to increase our awareness, skills, and social support to create more inclusive and equitable relationships and environments.
Workshop leaders Simone Harris and Brooke Deterline have trained Fortune 500 companies and national nonprofits in the skills of having courageous conversations. With a life-affirming approach based in neuroscience, they will offer ways to embrace all of ourselves and each other by managing key evolutionary and socially-based traps, as well as by leveraging the saving graces of what it means to be human. Come see our common humanity, observe and experiment with different approaches, share and support each other, and increase our ability to help build a more compassionate, inclusive, and equitable society. We're in this together, so let's cultivate the compassionate courage and consciousness to face what keeps us separate and realize the reality of our oneness as a human family.
Bridging Difference from the Inside Out, led by Rev. Jennifer Bailey
Many people struggle to have constructive dialogue across difference, whether it’s within the four walls of their own home or in the wider communities in which they serve. What does it look like to forge resilient relationships across political, racial, generational, and other divides? Drawing on lessons from The People’s Supper, this session will share about the ingredients that go into creating “Brave Space,” and how these principles can apply in dialogues across difference. In an experiential learning environment, we will explore together how to craft conversations that center personal storytelling, build empathy across divergent perspectives, and allow people to feel seen, heard and understood in the stories and experiences that shape us.
Attuned Listening for Professionals, Parents, and Partners, led by Kathy Simon, Ph.D.
Our family members, clients, and colleagues want us to hear them — to understand their feelings, take in their pressing concerns, help them navigate divergent opinions. We, too, want to be heard — to lead, teach, and inspire, and also to share our concerns and vulnerabilities. When we speak, we want to be honest, and of course we would always prefer to be kind.
But we don’t always see how honesty and kindness fit together. In short, communication is core to our relationships, but communication is complicated. It requires listening well, even when we don’t like what we hear; it requires speaking our truths in ways that can be heard, even when the audience isn’t particularly receptive. Based on the principles of Nonviolent Communication© (NVC), this interactive workshop will highlight the listening side of the equation—attuning to others in ways that bring mutual understanding and a sense of new possibility. Designed for experienced listeners, our time together will deepen your skillset and help you show up even more fully in all of your roles.