BEGINS OCTOBER 30th, 2024
BRAND NEW + COMPLETELY REVISED FROM RALPH’S PREVIOUS SELF-LOVE COURSE
And for the first time ever: Europe-friendly Zoom call times
When we become the primary source of love in our lives, it evolves everything. The daily choices we make, the habits we keep, the people we choose, the way we give, the way we receive, the way we communicate, and the possibility we sense about getting free from past conditioning.
Self-love as more than just a shift in our attitude.
Self-love as a doorway to profound healing and personal revelation.
Self-love as an inner experience we can learn to extend to every part of us (including the parts that feel unlovable)
While there are no quick fixes or overnight revolutions, we can re-orient our personal compasses and move in this new direction.
This course, like all of Ralph’s courses brings together Buddhist wisdom + meditation, trauma theory, and the Internal Family Systems’s revolutionary process of “parts work.”
This course will show you how to uncover + abide in the source of love you already have inside and how to work with what gets in the way of it.
You’ll get an Introduction to Internal Family Systems (IFS), including an intro to parts work meditation, and begin working directly with parts of you that may be stuck. Most importantly, you’ll learn several ways of getting to self-love—what IFS calls “Self energy”—even when you can’t seem to find it inside. You’ll also learn a method developed by neuroscience for helping positive states to rewire our nervous system more deeply.
Mix of self-paced and live content. Scroll down for course structure.
*Flexible payment options and no one turned away for lack of funds.
A mix of self-paced content and weekly live Zoom calls.
EVERY WEEK YOU’LL GET
One or more guided meditations that deepen as we go
Pre-recorded dharma talk (20-30 mins)
Handout to accompany the talk
Reading assignment + journal prompt
Online discussion forum moderated by Tess Felder
Four group Zoom calls with Ralph on Wednesdays
Two Zoom call options:
Evening: 5-6pm PT / 8-9pm ET
Mid-day: 11am-12pm PT / 2-3pm ET (Europe-friendly option)
All Zoom calls are recorded and shared the next day to course participants
Readings assigned from:
The Monkey Is the Messenger: Meditation and What Your Busy Mind Is Trying to Tell You
which you can purchase new here and used here
GOOD TO KNOW
Ideal time investment: 2 - 4 total hours per week. You’ll be supported in however deep you choose to go (or not go).
You do not have to do every single thing offered to get substantial benefit
Optional private sessions with Ralph are available
This course functions well as a stand-alone experience. However, if you wish to continue after this course, you’ll be in a perfect place to continue with this curriculum if it calls to you.
If you are a “yes” to one or more of the following:
You feel stuck, like there’s some piece of the truth you must be missing
You like the idea of self-compassion, but experiencing self-compassion is another story
You want practices + learning to support your ongoing therapy
You’ve been to therapy and needed something more instructive and engaging
You’ve tried all the things and still feel half-healed
You desire community with folks who are healing and growing like you are
You long for a space that’s non-hierarchical, where your inner wisdom is just as important as anyone else’s and the “teacher” is someone doing the work alongside you
You’re a helping professional interested in IFS training (which is best learned experientially)
You desire an experiential exploration of Buddha Nature (a.k.a. the heart of compassionate action)
You want to begin, refresh, or deepen your meditation practice
…this is for you
Radical non-pathology: The audacious notion that nothing is wrong with you. You’re not broken, dysfunctional, or neurotic. You had to figure out how to survive and feel emotionally safe in some tough situations, though. You were also born into an emotionally unintelligent society where aggression is normal and conformity is demanded. Whatever’s driving you to this course—be it depression, anxiety, relationship rollercoasters, grief, self-medication cycles, or simply the sense that there must be more—is the product of how you adapted to all this. And it worked. You survived. And it is also an excellent idea to evolve now.
Compassion first: Compassion is the strongest, cleanest fuel for healing and growth. Curiosity is the doorway to removing obstacles and past conditionings. Self-love is the essential nutrient we’re hungry for. If self-shaming and self-punishment worked, you wouldn’t be reading this.
Start where you are: Whatever the level (or lack) of trauma, whether you’re a beginning meditator or a fifth-level bodhisattva, we all start in the same place: what it’s like here and now. We all do the same work, even if at different levels of subtlety. And we will all mess up, miss a day, get behind, etc. In these courses, the invitation is to continually accept where we are, and keep going from there. (If you’re getting the vibe that you’re allowed to be utterly human around here, good.)
Community amplification: Healing in isolation is one thing, healing with folks who are having their own insights and breakthroughs amplifies our own process—even for introverts who are attached to our pillow forts.
Meditation is a must: We all know change comes from within, but how much time do we spend there, within? If we want our lives to evolve, we simply must relate directly to what’s happening inside of us. Meditation offers us a self-governed home base where we can do inner work any time, anywhere, and free of charge. The meditations offered here different. They are an invitation to a kind of self-relationship that’s only available when we spend time inside. Busy minds are welcome here