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Friends with Your Mind


This 4 week class covers the basics of how thought works, the role of the predictive protective brain and nervous system in generating catastrophic and anxious thoughts, and tools to orient to the safety of the present moment. 

Date and time: Sunday April 16th 1 to 2:30 PM Eastern for 4 weeks ending May 7th.

Participant Resources here (password protected)

The mind is a system of stimulus and response, and our brain literally develops in response to our experiences. A foundation of being friends with our own mind is to be able to work effectively with our thoughts, with our responses to our thoughts, and with the energy and sensations in our body that are stimulated by our thoughts. 

We focus on two complementary approaches:

We work with somatic (body) mindfulness and awareness of thoughts in the present moment so we can intervene before we’re sucked into a whirlpool of toxicity or anxiety AND

We go upstream to what is generating the sense of danger → we strengthen the nervous system and build resilience to lessen hypervigilance so the brain doesn’t generate so many alarming thoughts and sensations

The secret of emotional regulation is being able to reliably stay in the present moment. Participants learn powerful tools to take the intensity out of catastrophic thoughts and emotional flashbacks. To break the trance of the past, we tap lightly on the forehead, taking our attention away from the thought and into the sound and sensation of the tapping. With our eyes open, we put the image in a frame on the opposite wall and take our eyes around the empty space on the outside of the frame. 

We orient to visual cues of safety. The warmth of our own hands and our feet on the ground reminds us we are here in the present where we can offer ourselves kindness. We activate the relaxation response in our body through long exhalations or speaking in long sentences. 

Our thoughts are not a mystery. Most of them are in response to the brain and nervous system trying to protect us. For 90 minutes each week we practice powerful tools to regulate our nervous system and increase our sense of ease and agency.

Explore these key learnings and tools in a supportive setting. You’ll learn about the mind, brain and why core deficiency beliefs and intrusive thinking get a hold on us. We will do somatic mindfulness inquiry to see what is driving the habits of the mind. We’ll learn and practice grounding and orienting tools, and cultivate patience and kindness for ourselves. You will walk away with a changed relationship with your mind.

  • Trauma and our thoughts

    Developmental trauma

    Fight/ flight/ freeze/ fawn

    Two complementary approaches to work with troubling thoughts: build resilience, somatic mindfulness for early awareness

    Tools: tapping, frame and trace, focus shifting

  • Trauma is stored in our body as energy with associated thoughts

    Locate and describe the sensations

    Space around the energy

    Awareness and safety in the present moment

    Experiences turn into beliefs

    Connecting with self-compassion

  • “Breath is a direct pathway to our autonomic nervous system, making it both a regulating resource and an activator of our survival states.” Deb Dana, LCSW

    The effect of trauma and stress on our breath

    Catastrophic thinking

    Ruminating and agency

    Welcoming what is here

  • “Shame is one of the most painful and corrosive emotions, which can feel like death.” Trauma expert Dr Peter Levine

    Shame is a primary emotion related to our survival need for connection

    Who’s Driving? Bringing your adult self to support your fearful younger self who feels like they are on their own.

    Welcoming all of who we are

    Friends with our mind


Lynn Fraser has been teaching people about their mind for twenty five years. She is a senior teacher in the Himalayan Tradition of Yoga Meditation, and specializes in helping people understand and heal trauma. The Stillpoint Method of Healing Trauma is a somatic mindfulness inquiry practice.

She published a book by the same title in 2017. She is currently working on a revision of Friends With Your Mind.

I am very flexible on pricing for this course. If you are interested and cost is a barrier, lease email me with a suggestion of a price that works for you.

 

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