How to Get Over Yourself: Finding the Bliss Beyond Self-Fixation and Fear

In Western countries that emphasize individual uniqueness, people are seen as wholly independent,autonomous, solely responsible for their psychological well-being; one’s sense of self, and how one isseen by others, is constructed from their achievements, personality quirks, physical appearance and careers.

Individualism has beneficial aspects: it allows us to make important decisions—how we express ourselvescreatively, the work we pursue, who we affiliate with and date—without intrusive oversight or influence from one’s government, work of family.

And yet the emphasis on our individual uniqueness has led to higher rates of emotional isolation,loneliness, alienation, anxiety and other forms of dis-ease. As the Buddha noted throughout the dharma, our fixation of “how do I compare with others?” “What’s going to happen to me in the future?” “What do others think about me?” is the root cause of Papañca, the stressful, intrusive, repetitive thinking that underlies suffering.

In this retreat we’ll review a wide array of contemplative and somatic embodiment practices as well as contemporary psychological based tools to overcome self-fixation and gain access to a core drive to connect with the transpersonal serenity of being, getting curious with existence, and being kinder to our core beings.

We will also offer yoga/movement taught by Lindsey Liberatore.

This is an in-person retreat appropriate for both new and experienced practitioners.