Inquiry . Mindfulness . Compassion . Peaceful Community
14 Week Integrative Inquiry/Compassion Course
Adapted from the version that is offered to doctoral students enrolled in ED 815, this 14-week course, designed, facilitated, and evaluated by Marilee Bresciani Ludvik, will meet for one-hour per week in an online face-to-face environment with one 18-20 minute online video to prep participants for the exercises they will experience in their online face-to-face environment.
Weekly Practice Webinars: (practice for your Integrative Inquiry (INIQ)/Mindful Compassionate Leadership exercises online in a community)
Designed for who have a desire to heighten their own self-awareness and optimize organizational transformation, this course intends for participants to achieve the following outcomes:
Increased ability to direct attention to the desired object of attention on demand
Increased ability to manage emotions, particularly difficult emotions on demand
Increased ability to regulate stress and anxiety on demand
Increased awareness of the relationship of thoughts to bodily sensations, emotions, and choices made
Increased compassionate dialogue
Increased compassionate interactions
Increased awareness and acceptance of the consequences of choices
Increased resilience
Increased collaboration, creativity, and productivity among diverse workgroups
Week 0- Orientation – Online overview of the neuroscience that supports this curriculum design and creating the container for the course. In the face-to-face process of creating the container for this learning environment (course), the participants will discuss their expectations for the way in which they desire to be with each other within the context of this course. Often times in the work environment, we focus on what needs to be produced and spend very little time discussing our expectations for the environment we desire to co-create so that work goals can be met.
2- Minute Journal Reflection: When I think about fully engaging in this course, I …
Week 1 – Introduction to Stress and Anxiety – Online overview of the neurobiology of stress and anxiety and an introduction to positive ways to mitigate the maladaptive impact of stress. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to mitigate the negative impact of typical stress experiences.
Week 2 – Attention Regulation – Online overview of the neurobiology of attention and an introduction to various methods that can train attention. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to train their attention on demand.
Week 3 – Emotion Regulation – Online overview of the neurobiology of emotion and an introduction to various methods that can positively regulate emotion without suppressing, avoiding, or denying emotion. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to regulate their emotion on demand.
Week 4 – Self-Compassion and Emotion Regulation – Online overview of the neurobiology of self-compassion and an introduction to various methods that can cultivate self-compassion and therefore aid in the process of emotion regulation. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to cultivate self-compassion.
Week 5 – Overcoming the Negative Bias of the Brain and Cultivating Gratitude – Online overview of the neurobiology of negative bias and an introduction to various methods that can cultivate gratitude. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to cultivate gratitude and overcome the natural negative bias of the brain.
Week 6 – Cognitive Regulation/Flexibility – Online overview of the neurobiology of cognitive regulation/flexibility and an introduction to various methods that can cultivate awareness of thoughts in relationship to experience. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to heighten their awareness of thought and that thought’s relationship to current experience, thus empowering the opportunity to select the next empowering thought in the next moment.
Week 7 – Compassion Cultivation – Online overview of the neurobiology of compassion and an introduction to various methods that can cultivate compassion for others; therefore, aiding in the process of emotion regulation as well as the decrease in implicit bias, stereotype threat, and implicit racism. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to cultivate compassion for others, particularly members of their perceived “out-group”.
Week 8 – Active and Empathetic Listening and Non-Violent Communication – Online overview of the various methods that can cultivate active and empathetic listening as well as nonviolent communication; therefore, aiding in the process of emotion regulation as well as the decrease in implicit bias, stereotype threat, and implicit racism. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will practice various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to cultivate active and empathetic listening and non-violent communication.
Week 9 – Difficult Conversations – Online overview of Stone, Patton, and Heen’s Difficult Conversations process. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will practice this process that they can adopt and use daily to cultivate compassionate dialogue, increase selfawareness, and decrease implicit bias behavior.
Week 10 – Introduction to a Trauma–Informed Workplace – Online overview of the neurobiology of trauma and an introduction to various methods that can heighten awareness of working with trauma survivors in the workplace. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to heighten awareness of working with trauma survivors in the workplace; particular during these times when so many people are becoming traumatized by what they witness in the news or via social media.
Week 11 – Resilience, Reverence, and Vulnerability – Online overview of the definitions of resilience, reverence, and vulnerability and an introduction to how heightening an awareness of the practices that can cultivate these skillsets can create a transformational work environment. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to cultivate resilience, reverence for others’ lived experiences, and vulnerability to authentically be with what is arising within the work place.
Week 12 – Integration of Strengths and Opportunities to Improve – Online overview of the process of integrating personal strengths and opportunities to improve as opposed to trying to “get rid” of what we don’t like about ourselves or others. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will explore various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to cultivate the integration of their strengths and known opportunities to improve. This may open the door to becoming more aware of “blind spots.” In this module, participants will be invited into the power of knowing which question to ask and how to ask it in order to empower themselves and others into improvement and action.
Week 13 – Visioning and Prioritizing the “Dream” Goals – Online overview of the importance of noticing our frustrations and dissatisfaction and how that noticing can be harnessed to design some dream goals that we may have been afraid to articulate. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will put into practice various no-cost exercises that they can adopt and use daily to transmute frustration and desire for something better into a vision for a better life or workplace environment.
Week 14 – Integration into Daily Life – In the final week of this class, the online portion will introduce various resources that participants can leverage in their way forward to support their continued learning of outcomes gained from this class. In the face-to-face portion of this class, participants will craft their “way forward” plan, specifically outlining how they will integrate class learning into their work environment.
2-Minute Journal Reflection: In keeping these practices alive in my daily way of being, I …
