Connecting to Compassion ~ 6-week online course with Kirsten Wilkinson

Do you have a loud inner critic? Do you sometimes struggle with offering patience to people in your life? Are you looking for a way to connect to humanity during these challenging times of isolation and lockdowns? Do you need a space to connect to yourself in a compassionate way?

If the answer to any of these question was “yes”, then it is time to connect to compassion though your new or existing yoga practice. 

Right now we have so many reasons to feel anxious, lonely, overwhelmed, angry, stressed, gloomy, and ultimately out of touch with ourselves and our communities. However, through this exploration of practices that promote compassion, we will find ways to tap back into our wholeness and wellbeing.

In this 6-week course you will learn techniques for creating self mantras and affirmations, practice yogic based movements and shapes that work towards self awareness and curiosity, as well as experience breathing and mindfulness imagery exercises to stimulate the mind/body connection. 

What are compassionate practices?

• curiosity of ones self and our surroundings
• mindfulness 
• present moment body sensing and awareness
• self holding and touch
• affirmations
• personal mantras
• gentle flow
• expansion and contraction stretches in the body
• non judgement
• shifting perspective
• non attachment of outcome

“Sometimes the hardest part of the journey in believing you are worth the trip.” Maya Angelou!

The approach of this class is based on both scientific methodology and felt sense experiences. Kirsten focuses on the micro level by starting this course focusing on cultivating self compassion, and then expanding outward, exploring ways of embracing community compassion, and eventually expanding into compassion towards our globe and humanity as a whole. 

Classes will include journaling prompts, mindfulness practice, breathing exercises, gentle flow and restorative stretches, affirmation and mantra work, invitational language, as well as extra resources, videos, articles, and practices you can explore on your own all in the scope of compassion.​

This class is for you, if...

• you want to lower feelings of stress and anxiety in your body! - you are eager to find easy to nurture your innate resilience
• your mind and body crave more ease
• motivation for the things that drive you has waned
• happiness boosts feel good
• self image and self worth are you inner critics favourite punching bags!
• you feel lonely
• you hope to improve your immune response
• you have moderately high or high blood pressure
• you are committed to building and maintaining healthy relationships
• you want to explore boundaries 
• you are called to increase or sustain your capacity for empathy and kindness 

About Kirsten

MA, TCTSY-F, E-RYT, RCYT, Mind/Body Practitioner
SEP Student Cohort, IAYT Candidate, Qi-Gong Certificate Student, R-DMT Candidate, PhD Student Psychology/Somatic Therapy, Meridian University
Kirsten is the Founder and Executive Director of Legacy Motion, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organisation committed to sustaining the ongoing preservation and documentation of endangered ancient dance forms, as well as promoting resiliency, empowerment, trauma resolution, psychosocial coexistence, community and peace building through restorative, movement based practices. Through interrelated projects Legacy Motion dedicates itself to evaluating, creating and implementing high quality sustainable programs based on experience and collaborations in the field. 

Her professional dance career spans over 10 years during which she performed with such companies as The San Francisco Ballet, David Dorfman and Heidelberg Ballet.  She has held positions at The Library of Congress, Dance Heritage Coalition, and various adjunct professorships at American University Cairo, University of Oregon, University of Hawaii and many more.  

After much physical trauma sustained in a car accident, she has found sanctuary in her yoga practice and teaching.  She is a certified Hot Yoga and 200YTT yoga instructor with thousands of hours teaching moving bodies.  Kirsten’s training comes from a broad background including Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Nidra, Alexander Technique, LabanNotation, Dance Therapy, TCTSY, and Mind/Body Therapy. 

She is also the Founder of Healing Motion, a place where you can discover your innate wisdom, restore your embodied strength, and transcend to holistic wellbeing through private sessions, community events, and free offerings.

www.legacymotion.org / www.healing-motion.org

Dates & prices

Starts 10th March
Wednesdays, 19:00-20:00, for 6 weeks

Week by Week:

• Week 1 & 2 - Self Compassion and Stimulating the Vagus Nerve ( our nerve of empathy)
• Week 3 & 4 - Community Compassion and Expanding our Heart (our organ of fire and compassion)
• Week 5 & 6 - Global Compassion, our centering our Basket of Humanity, and Tonglen. 

Included in this course:

• 1h live online class per week, PLUS recordings, so you can also do them either again or on replay, with life long access
• Access to the Healing Motion Community and special discounts on other online community classes and private sessions with Kirsten
• Automatic enrolment in Healing Motion’s Free Online Community Yoga Offering with lifelong access to the recordings, Dawning Light, on March 19th
• One free month of Healing Motion’s monthly subscription service, Embodied Strength, launching in March 2021, which will feature practices that assist in reducing chronic pain and stress
• Personal support by email throughout the course
• Discussion board to connect with community and participants during this course
• Additional resources, videos, articles, and practices all relating to compassion

PLUS:

• practices for self exploration, self restoration, and discovering your currently present wholeness​

Your investment: 50€ 

Sign up via Kirsten's website here: 
www.healing-motion.org/events/p/connecttocompassion