Deep gratitude to each and every one of you for your participation in our first CDP class today. May our common humanity and warmhearted presence with each other support us in remembering the goodness that we already are. Louise, Marie-Andrée Couture, Leslie Dwyer, and Brigid Butler, we look forward to getting to see you next week. 🙂Â
After settling and teacher intros, we began our course with the following reflection: What do I need to feel welcome and safe in this space? And what would I like to offer so that others likewise feel welcome and safe? We acknowledged that our responses to these questions, while authentic and heartfelt, are also aspirational; may we be kind to ourselves and each other when we inevitably veer off the path we’ve set for ourselves. When this happens, may we remember both impact AND grace, knowing this is rich territory for growth personally and interpersonally.
We then explored some identities represented in our classroom — both visible and invisible — via the iceberg exercise. And we enquired: which of our identities have benefited us and limited us? This helps us to check our assumptions of others while appreciating the richness of our own lives and identities.
Each person then introduced themselves in the group, sharing one invisible identity as well as a resource that supports them in times of struggle. We concluded with our first small-group breakout sessions and a few words of experience from our returning participants, emphasizing the importance of slowing down, being kind to oneself, and attending class regularly.
Housekeeping
First things first: there is quite a bit to take in the first two weeks of class. We encourage you to return to your Zones of Optimal Learning in which you check in again and again to ask, “How am I?” and “What do I need right now?” Let this graphic be a mental reference for you in class as well as in this Mighty Network. We aspire to stay OUT of overwhelm and inside our challenge zone, where learning most readily takes place. Take it slow and easy, remembering that all that we offer here is for your personal benefit and remain available to you after the course ends.
Other housekeeping:
- Please mark your calendars: We will have three rest weeks during the CDP (no class meeting): March 18, May 13, and July 15.
- Starting in a couple of weeks, we will begin to offer weekly home practice. For now, settle yourself in the course online and on the Mighty Network and continue any practice that already supports you.
- The recording for video replays will always be viewable here. An important reminder: these recordings are to be kept completely confidential and will be deleted 6 weeks after the course ends.
- Reflect: Anything more you’d like to add to our list of Guiding Principles? If you have any other guiding principles you’d like to add to the list we co-created during class, please do so in the comments below this post. Reflecting on the questions: “What do I need to feel relatively safe practicing here?” And “What am I willing to offer others in the group so that they may feel relatively safet and welcome here?”
- Meditation: While some of you already have a consistent and satisfying meditation practice, we know that for others of you, establishing or stabilizing your meditation practice is part of what brought you to the CDP. For this reason, we’ll offer you both formal and informal practice suggestions each week, starting soon. (See the video below to learn the difference and importance of both.)
Today’s Related Reading:Â
“Choose Yourself, Again,” by Alex Elle and Fog Chaser
