Being Present with Suffering
NOW CLOSED
This webinar was recorded and is now available as a Talk on Demand. Click here for more details.
Saturday 23 November 2019 - London
A one-day seminar led by Nigel Wellings and Elizabeth Wilde McCormick
There is something about everything that makes it not quite satisfactory. Even things we really love are spoilt by not being quite enough or – the opposite – going on too long. People entering psychotherapy want to feel better – more authoritative, less anxious or depressed, more whole – and although it can help, an enormous amount of difficult and painful emotions continue to arise. After years and years of therapy many of us feel as mad as ever. There is no ‘happy ever after’. This all begs the question; what is the place of suffering in human experience and how best can we be with it?
READ MORE...This day picks up this question and answers by saying that discontent and unhappiness are inevitable parts of our human experience but there are ways to avoid adding further unnecessary suffering. By becoming mindfully present, accepting and kind, we may enfold what hurts us in a more spacious and meaningful way. Together we will cultivate our ability to be present with emotions felt in the body and maybe get a glimpse of how emotions dissolve in the open space of awareness.
Advanced reading
Nothing to Lose: Psychotherapy, Buddhism and Living Life by Nigel Wellings and Elisabeth Wilde McCormick (Woodyard Publications, 2005).