To see these offerings in a printable format, click here.
Please familiarize yourself with the intention of the group in the classroom on sarahpeyton.com or here.
Session 1: Exploring Chapter 1, Are You Willing to Like Yourself? Clearing Blocks to Self-Warmth
Focus: Planting the seeds of self-warmth
An option for group resonance and discussion, created and offered by Jaya Manske
SUGGESTED FORMAT
1. Take a moment to settle in and say hello (Timing: 1-2 minutes)
2. Choose someone to lead this session. We recommend a different person volunteer to lead each time. This person will track time and read aloud the instructions that follow (you may also pick 2 people, one to track time and another to read instructions). (Timing: 1 minute)
3. Introductions. Please introduce yourselves to each other by going around the circle, giving each person an opportunity to share:
– Your Name
– Your location
– One feeling or body sensation
(Timing: 2-5 minutes)
4. Getting to know one another.
Each person take 2-3 minutes to answer one of the following questions
– What brought you to this journey (course)?
– Where are you in your self-warmth journey?
(Timing: 10-15 minutes)
5. Brief Discussion. It can be very vulnerable to step into a new group, especially with work like this. Each of you may be feeling differently. For ideas about how to create a group where deep sharing is possible, please read these guidelines here.
Does anyone have any additional requests for the group that would contribute to this being a safe space for them?
Allow any voices that would like to be heard.
(Timing: 0-15 minutes)
6. Discussion (round 1) We ask you to try to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard; one way to do this is to make sure that no one speaks a second time before everyone has spoken or said that they are passing. If someone passes, check in with them after everyone else has shared to see if they would like to share before moving on.
Please share.
– How are you with being kind to yourself?
– What is your experience of your Default Mode Network (DMN)? (is it stressed,
After you share, you may ask for either a resonant feelings/needs guess from the group, make one for yourself, or pass to the next person.
(Timing: 15 minutes)
7. Please share in response to the following questions (round 2):
What has contributed to the way your DMN is? How does your experience make sense?
(Timing: 15 minutes)
You can pull from questions on page 1 of the book to put your experience into context:
– Who in your life has modeled self-warmth? (if any)
– Have you had opportunities to make your own choices, or has someone always made choices for you?
– What societal structures have impacted your life (poverty, racism, body shape/age/health/ability/religious prejudices, oppression from inside or outside ourselves, the safety and warmth of our childhood neighborhoods, current living conditions, etc).
– Have you lived through traumas that have turned the automatic voice of the brain (DMN) into a self-annihilating system of destruction?
– Do you have any unconscious contracts with yourself that forbid self-warmth?
– How far in your healing journey are you?
8. Closure: please close by having each person name a need met or a gift received after this discussion. You can read more about this practice here.
(Timing: 5 minutes)
OTHER FORMATS FOR YOU TO CHOOSE FROM:
The suggested format above is meant to create ease, however, your group might instead choose to structure your time around any of these activities or create your own:
1. Offer resonant empathy to each other, either in the whole group or in smaller sub-groups (you can use this resonant empathy circle format if you’d like)
2. Listen to the meditation from chapter 1 together and talk about what came up for you
3. Do one of the homework exercises suggested and discuss
