Back to News

Fearless Heart – Two-Spirit Mindfulness & Self-Compassion Workshop

February 5, 2019

Two-Spirit youth ages 15 to 30 are invited to join us for a mindfulness and self-compassion workshop at UNYA.

 

WHEN: Thursday, February 7th, 2019  4 PM to 6 PM

WHERE: Urban Native Youth Association (1618 East Hastings St, Vancouver)

REGISTER: Because of limited space, we’re asking that you register for this workshop. Click here to register.

Is this workshop for me?

Take a few moments to reflect on these questions.

Do I self identify as a Two-spirit Youth between the ages of 15-30 yrs old? Allies that are coming to support a Two-Spirit friend are also welcome.

Do I have an interest in meeting my own direct experience (feeling, thought, sensation), whatever that may be, with facilitative support?

Am I looking for a non-judgmental non-pathologizing space where my whole being and the wholeness of my life are welcomed?

How many people will be in this workshop?

Approximately 10 participants.

What happens in this workshop?

In the first part, information will be shared on how self-compassion from a mindfulness approach may benefit us and our collective well-being. You’ll learn how fear activates our heart, mind, body, and spirit. Poetry is also used to illustrate mindfulness and compassion concepts. A mindfulness practice will be introduced and we will engage in this practice. In the second part, the facilitator will open the workshop for any questions or reflections on the mindfulness and compassion practice.

What can I expect from attending this workshop?

This is a practice based experiential workshop. You can expect to experience practices in a supportive environment which encourages you to directly gently explore your feelings, thoughts, and sensations.

You can expect to have time and space to ask any questions related to your experience of the mindfulness practices.

You can expect to learn how mindfulness based practices can benefit our well-being in order to strengthen our social justice, anti-colonial, liberational activist work.

Can you provide an example of a mindfulness and compassion practice?

An example of mindfulness practice could be being mindfulness of the breath.



A self-compassion practice may be bringing your awareness with kindness; to whatever you are experience with an allowance for the experience with kind acceptance, no rejection, no changing, no pushing away what is present.

 

This mindfulness and self-compassion workshop is for Two-Spirit youth ages 15-30 and allies who are coming to support a Two-Spirit friend.

This mindfulness and self-compassion workshop is for Two-Spirit youth ages 15-30 and allies who are coming to support a Two-Spirit friend.

More About this Workshop

From Lu Lam, Minfulness Counsellor and Workshop Facilitator:

 

Fear or anxiety can be carried in our cells through the impacts of colonization, historical trauma, and ongoing systemic, interpersonal, lateral violence of the everyday-even scientific research has caught up this truth.

Instead of rejecting or judging fear, what if we honoured fear? What would be known if we view fear a respected teacher? How could we be curious about fear-based insecurities like thinking we are too messed up to be loved. This workshop invites us to re-member our inherent wholeness and reclaim a deep sense of belonging, a right to heal and shine bright.

When we begin to pay gentle attention to fear, we radically change our relationship to difficult or scary experiences. Our brilliant, once life-saving ways to push away, numb, distract, ignore the stress of fear in the long-run impacts our holistic personal and community health. And every one of us has the capacity to heal our soul wounds, our grief with a fearless heart.

When we become first, aware that fear is present, we can then greet fear with a kindness called deep self-compassion. This radical act of noticing taps into our intrinsic potential to grow resilience to the hardships in life. When we grow resilience, we also grow our possibilities to live with more trust in ourselves, more ease and wonder which ripples out into all our relations, offering power and sustainability to our liberation movements.

This workshop will be facilitated from an anti-oppression approach, which means that experiences of Indigenous, Black, and traditional ways of knowing will be privileged, lived experiences of intersectionality and oppression are welcomed with respect, humility and sacred understanding. A critical perspective on mainstream mental health and the medical industrial complex will be woven throughout.

Workshop Facilitator

This workshop will be facilitated by Lu Lam.

 

Lu Lam, M. Ed. C.C.C. is a Chinese-Taiwanese trans-identified Mindfulness Counsellor and Consultant. He gratefully acknowledges the people of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueum), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations, where he works and lives as a settler learning to be a guest.

 

Lu finds joy and is skilled in creating spaces for people to uncover who they truly are in order to re-inspire and strengthen our social justice work. Lu brings over 18 years of front line counselling and facilitation experience to his work and is trained in mindfulness and critical diversity counselling approaches. He has a daily mindfulness practice of 10 years, is in continual mindfulness study, and regularly attends meditation retreats. To learn more about Lu, visit his website at www.lulam.ca.

 

For more info about our Two-Spirit programming, visit our program page here.