Flourishing in Stressful Times - with Tara Brach

When stressful events come our way, evolution has hardwired us to go into the fight-flight-freeze response. This automatic process served us well in surviving across millennia as a species, but in modern life, unconscious reactivity often is counterproductive and even harmful to the things that matter most to us.

In reality, stress – the actual experience of tension, of demand – though it may be uncomfortable, doesn’t have to be a problem. In fact, a certain amount of stress is necessary to bring out our full intelligence, creativity and care. It’s the essential ground for us to wake up to our own full potential: to who we really are. When we cultivate our capacities for mindfulness and compassion, meeting the challenges of life actually helps us grow mentally & emotionally stronger, as well as physically healthier thanks to reduced inflammation responses.

A critical inquiry for us as humans is: When we get triggered and reactive, how do we shift from flight-flight-freeze, into “attend and befriend”?  This is the evolutionary shift that reconnects us to ourselves and each other; and, globally, can help to end violence and heal our precious earth.

In this short course packed with practical teachings and scientifically validated meditation exercises, students will work directly with their real-life negative patterns and learn to relate to stress with an empowering, clear and caring presence.