Mindfulness
MSC Core Skills & Nature– and Art-based Meditation
SEPTEMBER 5th-10th, 2022
UPCOMING
Pre-register click here
“Finding inspiration in Nature, nourishing Creativity and Heartfulness”
A time to Befriend yourself, Immerse in Nature and Explore your Creativity – A time to Thrive and Care for our Planet Earth
Reconnect with your inner resources and replenish in a wild and beautiful alpine setting on the campus of the beautiful MonViso Institute in Ostana, Piemont.
This 5-day workshop includes the 4-session Core Skill (12 hours) Introduction to Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC). MSC is an empirically-supported training based on the pioneering research of Prof. Dr. Kristin Neff and the clinical perspective of Dr. Chris Germer. It combines the skills of mindfulness and self-compassion to enhance our capacity for emotional wellbeing. Mindfulness is the first step – turning with loving awareness toward difficult experiences (emotions, sensations, thoughts). Self-compassion comes next – bringing loving awareness to ourselves. Together, mindfulness and self-compassion and the notion of common humanity comprise a state of warm, connected presence during difficult moments in our lives, which is particularly relevant during these challenging times. The curriculum has been steadily refined since 2010 and taught to over 100.000 people worldwide. Our workshop will include 4 x 3-hour morning MSC sessions, complemented by a similar amount of hours of Nature Meditation, Art-based Meditation and Body Movement / Yoga in the afternoon, and concludes with a half-day silent self-compassion meditation retreat.
We will nourish our innate human competences of mindfulness, common humanity and kindness as a practice form of self-care. You will gently explore how you typically respond when difficult emotions arise. You will practice tools for becoming a warm and supportive companion to yourself, strengthening emotional resources and personal capacities through exercises, meditations, group sharing, dyads and informal practices. You will find a safe and supportive environment for relaxing, grounding and reconnecting with yourself.
At the same time, there will be many options to enjoy, explore and rejuvenate with space and time just for yourself. Immersion in nature, sensing and savoring the great outdoors in guided formats with a reciprocal focus – nature in us and we as nature – and other non-verbal communication forms will support your inner processes. Feel inspired to awaken your own creativity and deepen your awareness practice through artistic processes. From a safe space of gentle self-care, we will intentionally plant seeds for sustainably caring for ourselves, others and for our precious planet Earth. We will be respectful guests in the Occitan culture, get to know local people and projects and their way of coping with climate change. We will savor delicious, healthy Piemontese food.
This course covers the official MSC Core Skills contents. It is a way to get to know the MSC practice, and for those who have already taken a MSC program, to deepen it. It is an introduction to the full MSC program and does not qualify for teacher training. We are especially privileged to offer this new workshop on the campus of the real-world laboratory of MonViso Institute, a project at the cutting edge of research and education on sustainability transitions and regenerative design.
All meditation levels are welcome. Please bring a certain level of fitness to be at ease at an altitude of 1500m asl and to cover medium-seized walking distances. We are happy to accommodate special needs. Just let us know what you need.
Language: English with a bilingual option of German for the MSC course. Italian, Spanish and French are spoken, too.
Course location: MonViso Institute (MVI) Campus, Ostana, Piemont, Italy (1500m asl altitude), a real-world laboratory at the cutting edge of research and education on sustainability transitions and regenerative design in breath-taking nature.
Location and seminar spaces
Centro Polifunzionale “Lou Pourtoun”
Course setting: The amphitheatre and a spacious and well equipped glamping (glamorous camping) tent on campus with access to all needed facilities are the main locations for our course. Depending on weather conditions, we will alternate between our cozy tent space for the morning sessions and expand practices to the outdoors on and around the campus in the afternoon.
Your Teachers: Certified MSC Teachers Mirjam Luthe and Helga Luger-Schreiner (see below)
Time: September 5-10, 2022 (Monday afternoon to Saturday morning) with the possibility of earlier arrival or later departure.
COST
Maximum 12 persons
MSC Workshop: 600 EUR (early bird until May 30th). After June 1st, 2022, cost will be 650 EUR.
ACCOMODATION AND FOOD:
We offer pre-organized accommodation-food packages for 5 nights. The offer contains overnight stay in four categories, including breakfast, lunch, dinner and day snacks/drinks on campus..
You are invited to choose your type of accommodation from these four full pension categories:
1. Camping on the MVI campus (glamping) in single sleeping tents: 78€/day or 390€ for 5 nights.
You are welcome to bring your own tent and gear. The Campus offers a protected outdoor shower under the trees and a dry compost toilet.
2. The hostel “Foresteria”, a well- equipped hostel with bunk beds and kitchen: 78€/day or 390€ for 5 nights.
3. Comfortable single or double rooms at Agriturismo “A Mizoun” or “Rifugio Galaberna”, 130€/110€ per day or 650€/550€ for 5 nights.
4. Apartments in local building style in a beautifully renovated typical stone house or a tree house (most are offered through AirBnb): 120€ per day or 600€ for 5 nights.
Since Ostana is quite popular this time of the year, accommodation gets booked out fast. The MVI team has done some pre-bookings and will handle the final booking process for you. You can book your package here through this Google form: https://forms.gle/pMWsED29BZP1tHJu7
Further information about the locations in Ostana can be found here:
https://monviso-institute.org/ostana/
The MVI team is happy to support you with up-to-date information regarding logistics and local conditions via email: contact@monviso-institute.org
Food: Please see above for the accommodation & food package. We will enjoy the regional Piedmontese kitchen, yet offer vegetarian food as the default. Some responsible meat options are available upon request, same as vegan. Please be aware of the traditions in mountain food, where for example cheese often is an ingredient. We will offer a mixture of open fire barbeque, catered outdoor lunches, self-made pizza at the outdoor wood fire stove, and cozy restaurant visits.
International travel: The MVI campus can be reached by train/bus to Torino and then by train to either Savigliano (preferred) or Pinerolo, followed by a shared taxi ride of one hour uphill into the Commune di Ostana. Closest airports are Torino and Milano. If you come by car, there is parking space in the village.
Car sharing or public transport are encouraged to keep the village free from traffic.
Local transport: During the course, distances between the MVI campus, the main village and accommodations can be walked or cycled on mountainous trails, or the winding road. Count in distances of about 20 minutes walking up and downhill. Bringing an E-bike is ideal; one E-bike is for free use for campus guests and more can be rented in place for additional cost. Where needed, the MVI team will provide us with car transport in the village as an included service. Extra transportation outside the village is subject to additional costs.
What to bring: You are welcome to bring your own meditation/ yoga mat and cushion or blanket (otherwise, you will find the necessary equipment in place). Any gear you may need in the mountains and outdoors to protect you from sun, rain, cold. Flashlight. Bathing (natural water pools and creeks) and hiking gear. A detailed list will be provided upon reservation.
For course information and booking: mirjam@walk-in-beauty.org
For information and logistical support in Ostana: contact@monviso-institute.org
TEACHERS
Mirjam Luthe
www.walk-in-beauty.org
Mirjam, MA International Cultural & Business Studies, Development Cooperation & NGO Management, is a Certified MSC and Certified MBSR Teacher, a Yoga Teacher and a Certified “Awake in the Wild” Nature Meditation Teacher. She is trained in the Mindful Schools Curriculum, and continuously exploring Council Practice and contemplative dialog forms like Interpersonal Mindfulness and “Time to Think” as a means to invite equity and build bridges in midst of diversity. Mirjam cooperates with the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion since 2016, first in the field of teacher relations, then International Affairs and now Global Engagement. She has taught MSC in Germany, Vietnam, Spain and in California. At UC Irvine Susan Samueli Integrated Health Institute, California, she cooperates as “Mindfulness Instructor” since 2020, and for AVE Institut as a co-creator of the mindfulness-based advanced teacher training program (Germany). Engaged since its foundation in 2012 in the core team of the European Network for Grateful Living „Dankbar leben“, founded by Brother David Steindl-Rast. Mirjam has been learning with OneEarth Sangha in the Eco Sattva Training, with EarthHolders at the Plumvillage Community, Ökosattva Group at ZPI, “White Awake” and “Cultural Healing and Restoring Kinship” course (“My Grandmother’s Hands”) and is an active member in Jeremy Lent’s “Deep Transformation Network”. Prior to teaching a variety of mindfulness-based formats, Mirjam has been engaged for 15 years in consultancy work in development cooperation in many countries and has lived in Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, California and other countries. Integrating these experiences into teaching mindfulness, she passionately stands for a socially engaged practice, including all voices. She speaks German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and some Portuguese and is able to teach in several languages. A lover of being in the outdoors, the arts, dance, shakuhachi and handpan practice, and a mom of currently three teens.
Helga Luger-Schreiner
www.powerful-heART.at
Helga Luger-Schreiner is a certified mindful self-compassion trainer, Mindful Compassionate Parenting MCP and metta meditation teacher, an art pedagogue, multimedia art therapist and artist. On behalf of the City school Board of Vienna, she developed the concept of the project PAS “Pedagogy with Awareness and Self-Compassion” and leads this project at the ZLB (Center for Teachers Education), University of Vienna. She is part of the development team of the master’s program “Mindfulness in Education, Consulting and Healthcare” at the KPH Vienna, and is a lecturer there. She co-created the mindfulness-based advanced teacher training program, at the AVE institute. She founded and led a free school with focus on mindfulness and creativity. She is a lecturer and course instructor at Arbor Seminare and at the competence center for children and adolescents and many other Institutions. She co-authored the book “Self-Compassion Therapy Tools” (Beltz 2020). At her own institute, she offers support in developing presence, creativity, mindful self-compassion and community-building through art-based meditations and meditation-based art seminars, workshops, meditation evenings, retreats and one-on-one sessions. Her inspiring method of combining artistic processes with mindfulness and self-compassion training enables heART based transformation.
