Renewing your Relationship program begins on Monday, Feb. 18, 2013

Relationships offer us a golden opportunity to grow up. In fact, they give us countless opportunities. But unless we’re careful and thoughtful, it’s easy to mistake these opportunities for headaches and hassles.

What many of us want from our relationships is smooth sailing. We want support and comfort, respect and good cheer. In fact, much of the time we expect love to unfold on a well-paved path. When we trip on rocks that suddenly appear and trudge up hills when we’re already tired we can easily conclude that something has gone amiss. Love’s gone wrong. Or, more to the point, our partner needs to get with the program and shape up.

But how our partners conduct themselves is really not our business and is out of our control. How we conduct ourselves is exclusively our business and is the primary thing we can control.

If you would like to strengthen your relationship and seize the opportunity to grow along the way, please join us for our annual Renewing your Relationship program which starts on Feb. 18, 2013. This 30 day distance learning program will provide you with a wealth of resources and practices that you can cultivate in your day to day relationship.

Participants will receive a CD, a great collection of readings (both paper and on-line), and a calendar of daily exercises. You’ll also be part of an online community with other program participants that can add a rich sense of camaraderie and support. And the cost of this month-long program is about the price of one counseling session ($78 for members; $93 for non-members).

This is a practice course, which means we don't just study the ideas but actually put them into practice. Relationships are an extraordinary vehicle for personal training. As Zen teacher, Charlotte Joko Beck says, “intimate relationships provide the clearest mirror we can find.”

Linda Anderson Krech, LICSW, will be conducting the program. Linda has more than 20 years of experience teaching Japanese Psychology and is the author of numerous articles on family, parenting and relationships. She has been married to Gregg Krech for 20 years and is well-versed in both the blessings and the challenges of love.

Please join us for this month-long adventure in love and partnership.

It may not come as a surprise to hear that New Year’s resolutions don’t work – at least for more than 90% of those who make them. You’ll hear a lot of discussion about how to make better resolutions: write them down, be specific, make them realistic. But this doesn’t really address the more fundamental issue – we need to have the self-discipline to make changes in the way we are living. And most of us are living a feeling-centered life, rather than a purpose-centered life. No matter how skillful we are at making resolutions, this fundamental issue still has to be addressed. As long as our lives are tossed to and fro by the tides of our feeling states, we remain relatively incapable of doing what we say we will do.

So to make important changes, we need to shift to a more purpose-centered life. Living with more purpose isn’t just about keeping a few New Year’s resolutions -- it’s about putting our energy towards what truly matters and making wise and conscious choices about how we use our time. And it’s about taking action.

Many of us desire to live a more purposeful life. We want to use our time well, to put our energy towards that which truly matters, to leave behind a positive legacy. But when we step back and take an honest look at how we're living . . . we're not satisfied.

Maybe we're spending too much time doing things that feel urgent, but aren't particularly important. Maybe we find ourselves frequently being pulled off course by our feelings – feelings of fear, anxiety, or depression. Maybe we just procrastinate on doing what we know we need to do, or maybe we're just confused about what our purpose should really be.

We will be starting our next distance learning program on November 12^th. Gratitude, Grace and a Month of Self-Reflection is one of our most popular programs, offering a gentle way to integrate self-reflection and Naikan into your life. The structure provided by the program helps us to keep this transformative practice alive on a daily basis.

Practicing on a daily basis helps to enrich the Thanksgiving season by stimulating gratitude for our blessings. The program directs our attention to the things that we might otherwise take for granted, thereby uplifting our spirits and energizing our lives. The program is based primarily on Naikan and Naikan-related exercises, but also draws on material and ideas of Albert Schweitzer, Ben Franklin, and others whose work emphasized the importance of quiet self-reflection. Many of us believe that it is important to take time for quiet reflection, but we don’t do it because our lives are so busy. This program requires an average commitment of about 30 minutes per day, yet even such a limited amount of time can have a profound impact on our attitude, relationships and understanding of our life.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, we can each sit at our own keyboard and join the table, so to speak -- from all corners of the globe. Whether you choose to share your reflections with the group, or just work independently, we hope you will join us for this poignant practice.

The course comes with Gregg’s book, Naikan: Gratitude, Grace & the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection. (An alternate book, Thanks! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make Your Happier by Robert Emmons, can be substituted for those who already have Naikan).

If you are interested in the program but are currently unemployed or experiencing financial hardship, please let us know. We may be able to apply our scholarship funds so that you can register with a minimal cost.

Life is richer, sweeter and kinder when our hearts are softened.
Naikan offers a simple and profound way to soften your heart.
Please join us.

With all good wishes,
Linda