This class will be offered online. The Zoom link will be provided at least 24 hours before the class begins. Please call 415-354-0360 if you have any questions. This program will have the option of closed captioning.
We offer this course regularly because of high demand.
Suzuki Roshi said, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities …”
Weaving together mindfulness and contemporary psychology, this course explores how to best take care of ourselves by relating to depression and anxiety with compassion and understanding. Our purpose is for participants to learn and practice how to interrupt conditionings that hinder feeling better and noticing what is good in our lives. We will encourage each student through skillful means to cultivate common sense practices that help us manage, and prevent, chronic feelings of unhappiness. By focusing on direct experience, we will learn to see and reroute the habitual mind patterns that lead to depression and anxiety.
Each week will consist of two sessions:
A two-hour class on Tuesdays combining presentations, guided meditations, exercises and group discussion. A follow up one-hour practice session each Thursday including guided meditation, a brief practice encouragement, and time for participants to ask questions and share about their practice experience since the last class. These auxiliary sessions are offered to support participants in deepening learnings from the previous class.
The focus for each week of classes and practice sessions will be as follows:
- Week One ─ Being in the Present Moment with Whatever Shows Up
- Week Two ─ Recognizing and Interrupting Reactive Habit Patterns
- Week Three ─ Relating to Difficulties with Compassion and Lovingkindness
- Week Four ─ Strategies for Taking Care of Ourselves
During this class series, you will discover how it is possible for you to:
- Be released from the limiting storylines that you and others have told you about yourself
- Learn new skills that lead to untangling painful thoughts and self-criticism
- Build the capacity to be with emotional pain and distress with strength and courage
- Cultivate self-confidence and self-esteem as you practice using re-sculpting tools
- Learn to offer compassion and acceptance to yourself and others
- Cultivate a natural experience of peace, ease, and well-being
- Experience deeper authentic connection, presence, and vitality
- Feel better and have a more satisfying relationship to life
Appropriate for those who are new to meditation and for those who are experienced meditators.
Tuesday Classes | Thursday Practice Sessions | |
5:30 – 7:30 pm | 5:30 – 6:30 pm | |
Week 1 | May 30 | June 1 |
Week 2 | June 6 | June 18 |
Week 3 | June 13 | June 15 |
Week 4 | June 20 |
- General $275
- Current SFZC Members $247.50
- Sliding Scale 1: $165
- Sliding Scale 2: $68.75
For additional discount options, please email us at rezoffice@sfzc.org.
Or call 415-354-0360.