Stress Reduction Trainings & Meditation Classes

7-Fold Mentor Bonding Practice: Radical Self-Healing with a Caring and Trusted Ally

Step into the imaginal theater of the Tibetan Buddhist 7-fold mentor bonding practice, and open into your vibrant, dynamic, and compassionate self. Slough off negative thought loops, distressing emotional rides, and negative self-beliefs; and cultivate a safe haven for weathering difficulty and cultivating resilience.

As mammals, we learn about who we are and the world around us in relationship with others. If our caregivers in childhood were overly stressed and not consistently emotionally available, then our perception of ourselves and the world gets distorted with the influence of these experiences. Using the healing power of imagery and a self-chosen trusted ally, we can ignite our vital self-healing talents to dissolve our limited self-view and stretch into the deeply nourishing characteristics and ways of being we see in our chosen mentor. By inviting in a relationship with a resonate ally, the 7-fold mentor bonding practice uses our innate developmental social learning equipment to rehearse and cultivate an embodied relational experience that matures a caring, confident, and compassionate self-view.

Watch this 1.5-hour self-healing journey. All levels of meditators welcome!

☀️ If you watch and enjoy this video, support SFDC and Fiona here: https://sfdharmacollective.org/donate or at SFDC’s Venmo, here: https://venmo.com/SF-dharma-collective. Be sure to indicate that the donation is for Fiona.

Benefits of the practice

• Regulates the nervous system with healing imagery that rewires neural networks for self-compassion and prosocial engagement

• Rehearses a positive connection and attachment with a chosen caring ally speeding up our innate ability for self-development and self-healing

• Builds an internal safe haven where we can feel seen, held, and cared for 24/7

• Promotes resilience against negative self-views and stress caused by challenging relationships and oppressive systems

Tending Our Fire: Psycho-Spiritual Resourcing for Perimenopause and Menopause

Step into an exploratory imaginal sanctuary and learn ways to be with the potent psychological state of change that comes with perimenopause and menopause. To be in relationship with this many-moons process we will look at how we meet change and how we tend our inner fire. We will experiment with self-supporting resources including guided visualizations and compassion-based meditations. No previous meditation experience required. All welcome!

This experiential workshop will offer space to be in dialogue with ourselves and others about how we are reckoning with this rite of passage. We will get curious together, share together, write together, meditate together, and learn how to meet change by tending to our psycho-spiritual inner fire. Some themes we will explore include our relationship to rage/anger/heat; our relationship to sex and sensuality; arising grief; and increased self-empowerment and self-compassion.

What you will learn

• Ways to listen into and care for the psycho-spiritual changes that come with perimenopause and menopause

• Simple contemplative practices to nourish and care for your inner fire as you navigate the changes in your menstruality

• Breathwork practices to balance your nervous system

• Practices to increase self-awareness to reduce mood swings and emotional reactivity

When: Saturday, January 25th, 2025

Where: In-person in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. Exact location given once registered.

Time: 10am - 3pm PT

Fee: $80-120 sliding scale

Build Embodied Resilience and Life-Long Self-Healing Skills with CBRT

Dive into a comprehensive self-healing training by immersing yourself in the neuropsychology of well-being; the practices of mindfulness and compassion meditation; and the ingenuity of posture and breath-work with Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT). This 9-week training gives you essential psychological, contemplative, and embodied tools for mental, emotional, and somatic resilience. You will leave the training with the wisdom, care, and experience to nourish life-long self-healing. No previous experience with meditation necessary. All are welcome!

Why Should I Take Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT)?

The mindfulness, compassion, posture, and breath-work practices taught in this 9-week course are vital, wholesome, and curative methods used to develop a calmer, more focused, less stress-reactive mind; an open and responsive heart; and a relaxed centered body. The timeless contemplative wisdom and compassion that these practices spring from offers us ways to face life’s stressors with more equanimity and joy, and grounds a felt sense of resilience and a sublimer quality of life.

Benefits of CBRT

• Develop a more present, balanced, open and discerning mind through mindfulness meditation.

• Nurture self-care and acceptance, unlearn social biases, and deepen positive emotional connection with others through compassion meditation.

• Build physical resilience, self-regulation, positive energy and the capacity for flow through posture and breath-work.

• Shape a life of personal resilience, social engagement, and greater purpose through cultivating mindfulness, compassion, and embodiment over time.