Personal Wellbeing
“A calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence, so that’s very important for good health.” – Dalai Lama
“When you drop from your Head into your Heart, Life becomes clear and purposeful”
Barbara Piper-Roelofs
Taking Care of You
Taking good care of yourself is essential to meeting the challenges of a busy work and life and to deal with times of stress. This 12-week experiential course is designed to cultivate contemplative practices and self-compassion in community. As we model behaviors of empathy and kindness to ourselves and others, we learn to deal and prevent (further) stress and build resilience. Practicing meditation together in an open and safe space normalizes the practice and motivates acts of self-care and kindness. By addressing work-life balance through meditation and self-compassionate practices, we create systemic change.
Techniques to help you better understand what is up for you. To learn to be open and learn to express and manage feelings and thoughts as well as how to deal with others. This way, we help to cultivate skills of presence, listening, gratitude, self-compassion and a non-judgmental attitude. By actively practicing these skills, we create inner-wellbeing and prevent stress and it enhances our capacity to recover balance.
In this course we will explore evidence-based models of (compassion) meditation based on the program developed at Stanford university’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) and the Applied Compassion Academy’s Applied Compassion Training (ACT).
Five Invitations
The course is designed around five invitations which we will work with over the course of 3 months. We bring focus internally first; we learn to practice holding attention in the moment. Our minds become silent, and we start feeling what is really going on for us. Then we will move towards discussing what is going on for us with others. This course will help you understand what goes on in your body, mind and emotions as well as give you a framework to deal with what comes up and share this with others.
Course Curriculum
Part 1: Learning to become present with yourself
Topics: Presence, Awareness, Mindfulness, becoming Grounded
Part 2: Learning to become aware of your intentions
Topics: Breath focus, (self) compassion, non -judgment, aligning with your values, intentions, deep listening
Part 3: Learning to work with the focus of our attention
Topics: Qualities of the heart, kindness, forgiveness, compassion but also boundaries, how the brain works, attention, focus and manifesting
Part 4: Learning to recognize triggers
Topics: ‘Know thyself’ – Recognizing how emotional triggers manage us, learning to determine where they come from and skillfully respond to them by being self-compassionate as well
Part 5: Learning to express our experiences
Topics: Mindful communication/compassionate conversations. Practicing presence, using our anchor, relational awareness, cultural & personal sensitivity. Learning more about other focus
Part 6: Integrating the learnings into our life
Topics: Taking good care of ourselves moving forward. Expressing ourselves out into the world, bringing the learnings into work and life. Practicing presence, using our anchor, relational awareness, cultural and personal sensitivity
Course Description & Weekly Session Format
Session Set-up
The sessions are designed to be a weekly moment of calm reflection and to a sense of ease and joy. Something to look forward to and be relaxed.
Working in a safe space
The goal is to create a safe space where people can drop into silence as well as share their experiences. Some sessions we will hold a facilitated group discussion on our experiences and application. Meditations are followed by break-out sessions as well as plenary debriefs.
Materials and Assignments
To facilitate continuing practice at home, we will share the materials, research papers and exercises used in the sessions as well as work with a buddy in the group.
Support Work-Life Balance
- Consistent meditation practice over a 3-month time period
- Weekly live zoom connection with colleagues
- Debrief for application in real-life environment
- Connecting with colleagues in a new and safe way
Meet your instructor
BARBARA PIPER-ROELOFS is founder and owner of Be Rooted, a Netherlands-based company focused on cultivating personal leadership. Barbara leads strategic projects for organizations and teaches teams and leaders how to work from a place of kindness and compassion. She holds a master’s degree in Communications and has over 20 years of experience in both corporate environments and health care management.
Today, as a Stanford-trained certified compassion facilitator, her focus is on workplace wellbeing and bringing the qualities of compassion, kindness, and empathy into organizations. Barbara completed the Stanford Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) and Compassion Immersions multiple times and is a graduate of CCARE’s Applied Compassion Training program.
After living in San Francisco for 3 years, Barbara and her family moved back to The Netherlands, where she continues to share the teachings from her time at Stanford through the School of Compassion, with European parties. She additionally serves as a mentor, coach and facilitator for young professionals all over the world.
Contact Susanne or Barbara
“When you drop from your Head into your Heart, Life becomes clear and purposeful”
Barbara Piper-Roelofs