Workshops

Workshops February - April 2016

Saturday February 6th Sparrows and Eagles 

A Course in Miracles uses these symbols, and others, to explain the conflicting attraction in our minds towards both 'littleness' and 'magnitude'. But our potential for greatness has nothing to do with what the world calls 'high flying'. With reference to Tom Thumb, the Borrowers, David and Goliath, we will distinguish the 'grandeur' of what we are from the 'grandiosity' of what we aspire to be.

Saturday March 5th The Hero's Journey

From Beowulf to Star Wars, the story of the battle between good and evil is endlessly told and retold. What does this tell us about ourselves? To appreciate how the Course changes our perceptions of life as a battleground to life as an awakening, we will explore Joseph's Campbell's study of the 'hero's journey' in world mythology - with its classic cast of heroes and mentors, helpers and villains - in relation to the Course's concepts of 'the hero of the dream' and 'the journey home'.

Saturday April 2nd Who is the Third Who Walks Always Beside You?

These words from T S Eliot's Wasteland - and other poems - are the starting point for a discussion about the meaning and relevance of Jesus in particular and inner guides in general. What does the symbol of the Christ mean to each of us personally in terms of who we are, how we relate to others, and the purpose of what we do?

Workshops are from 10.30 am to 2.30 pm, Andover UK SP10 3RQ. Tea and coffee are provided: please bring something to contribute to a shared lunch.

£30 per workshop, or £70 for all three. This includes participation in the workshop and the written text of the topic, sent by email attachment following the workshop. 

If you are not able to participate in person, you can order the written text of the workshops by email for £10 per workshop. 

To book email anna@unlearningschool.com

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Previous workshops

One-day master class in the art of inward focus and self-hypnosis

Meditation, prayer and self hypnosis have this in common: a purposeful shift of attention, away from outside preoccupations to concentrate on inward realities. They are all ways of consciously taking charge of your state of mind. In their different ways, depending on the approach you use and your intentions, they all free you from the demands and pressures of external situations. They remind you that you always have a choice, restore your peace of mind, and open the way for fresh insight and calm determination.

Self hypnosis is an invaluable self-help skill that enables you to:

• relax at will
• deal with upsets
• focus on what you want and how to achieve it
• revitalize your energy and motivation
• come up with creative ideas and solutions when you want them
• tap into your strengths and base your confidence on being true to yourself

 Sample self-hypnosis now for yourself in this FREE one-day workshop on what it is and how to do it. Try out some of the whole tool-kit of self-awareness and problem-solving techniques that we will be using in the workshop series Only You Can Save the World (monthly from January to June 2014 - see previous posts for September and October 2013).

Numbers are limited and places are filling up already, so if you would like to come along or know anyone else who might be interested, let me know before October 31st 2013 by email anna@unlearningschool.com or phone 01264 395579.

Only You Can Save the World
 
January to June 2014 - a series of monthly Saturday workshops about YOU.

Who are you (really)? What is your special purpose here?

You are unique, and what is unique about you is exactly what the world needs. If you are not true to yourself, how true can you be to anybody?

But you may be acting a part, making compromises, living for other people, ruled by the dreaded Oughts and Shouldn'ts. Or fighting to be different, reacting against your upbringing and circumstances. Neither of these is truly living from the heart.

Here are some of the questions these workshops will help you to answer for yourself:

Who are you anyway? ...let's pretend that under all those disguises and party hats there is a 'real' you

Why are you here? ...assuming just hypothetically that you are not a random flash in life's pan

What is the difference between being true to yourself and just being the selfish, defensive, suspicious, secretive, vengeful, unfairly treated person you are afraid you really are?

Where can your inner self, with its loves and its childish innocence, find its place in the brutal and indifferent outer world?

When the genie pops out of your bottle and offers you anything at all, will you have a list ready at hand of exactly what you want?

How can you tap into your sources of inspiration, acquire the tools to resolve problems and upsets where they really are - on the inside - and rediscover the sheer joy of being truly yourself?

Think not you lack a special value here. You wanted it, and it is given you (T25 VI 7)

Join any one of the workshops, or book now for all 6 workshops.

Bring a notebook and something towards a shared lunch. Expect to take part in lively discussions, exercise your mind, listen to stories, draw doodles, laugh, possibly cry, meet like- and unlike-minded people. Go home with new ideas to make your relationships more wholehearted and your whole heart lighter.

Note: although the workshops are inspired by the teaching of A Course in Miracles, this series is not directly teaching the Course itself. It is about reconnecting with your own inner resources and how to live truthfully in a deceitful world. In Course language, it is about self-concept versus Self.

DATES

Saturday 11 January 2014

Saturday 1 February 2014

Saturday 1 March 2014

Saturday 5 April 2014

Saturday 10 May 2014

Saturday 7 June 2014

TIME

10.30 am to 2.30 pm

PLACE

31 Harrow Way, Andover, Hampshire SP10 3RQ.  
Please email anna@unlearningschool.com if you would like directions.

PRICE

£30 for any one workshop
£120 for all 6 workshops

There is an easy-pay button at the top of this page, or to pay by cheque please make it to Anna Powell and send it to 31 Harrow Way, Andover, Hampshire SP10 3RQ.

Any questions? Email me at anna@unlearningschool.com, I look forward to hearing from you.

September 2012

The Happy Learner

You who are steadfastly devoted to misery must first recognize that you are miserable and not happy…Nothing is so alien to you as the simple truth, and nothing are you less inclined to listen to…To those unhappy learners who would teach themselves nothing, and delude themselves into believing that it is not nothing, the Holy Spirit says, with steadfast quietness: The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there. (T14 II)

A Course in Miracles offers a shortcut to peace and loving kindness for the lonely and embattled mind. It is a practical course that liberates your whole outlook, enabling you to relate more generously and gratefully to everyone, to the world around you and to your own complex self.

But in this process of freeing your thinking from anxieties and grievances, the course makes assertions that fly in the face of everything you have learned to believe is true. Are you supposed to try and bend your mind into believing them? No – the course meets you exactly where you are, whoever you are, however suspicious of it you may be. What you believe is true for you…and to deny it is merely to use denial inappropriately (T2 VII 5). On the other hand, To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold (T24 in 2). The course does not ask you to take anything on faith, only to suspend your disbelief long enough to see what happens for yourself when you try out its ideas.

These words from the introduction to the Workbook apply just as well to the whole course:

Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.

Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required (W in 9).

The Happy Learner workshops offer an introduction to and exploration of some of these ‘quite startling’ ideas of A Course in Miracles. What do they mean, what do they not mean, and how do they apply to the specific situations and relationships that concern us? What does the course mean by the ‘real’ or ‘forgiven’ world, and how can we get there from here?

The workshops will be held on the 3^rd Saturday of each month from September - December 2012 and then on the 2^nd Saturday from January to June 2013: see all dates and workshop details below.

Time: 10.30 am to 2.30 pm

Place: 31 Harrow Way, Andover, Hampshire SP10 3RQ

Refreshments provided; please bring something to add to a shared lunch.

You may also like to bring a notebook for your own notes.

Price: £15 per workshop or £100 for all ten booked in advance

For bookings and other enquiries telephone  01264 395579 or

email anna@unlearningschool.com

The Happy Learner workshops:

1. September 15^th 2012 Forgiveness offers everything I want (W122)

Forgiveness sounds magnanimous and we would expect it to figure in a course in spiritual philosophy; but who would go so far as to say that to forgive and to be forgiven offers everything I want? Would you rather forgive the person who has caused you some grievance, than have anything else you might really, really want? We need to completely rethink the meaning of the word before we can discover for ourselves that forgiveness really is the key to our own happiness.

2. October 20^th 2012 There is no world (W132 6)

This idea is central to the course and the one that most challenges our perception of reality. Even if we can accept in theory that the world we see is a construct of consciousness, a collective hallucination, how can that help us to deal effectively with the demands of everyday life? And how can we waken from this cosmic dream? And do we really want to?

3. November 17^th 2012 Take me as your model for learning (T6 in 2)

The course startlingly presents itself as Jesus speaking to us personally, and as communicated by the Holy Spirit in our minds. But it makes clear that these names symbolize a reality beyond all names and all religions. While we see ourselves as living in this world and in this post-Christian society, they serve to remind us of the transcendent in ourselves…and to help us reconnect with it. 

4. December 15^th 2012 To have, give all to all (T6 V A)

This fundamental and very practical lesson begins the shift in how we see ourselves, from apart to united, from impoverished to abundant; and in how we see others: as rivals and as threats to our peace of mind, or as our brothers and companions. All that I give is given to myself (W126); what I withhold leaves me feeling deprived. Only what you have not given can be lacking in any situation (T17 VII 4)

5. January 12^th 2013 Anger is never justified (T30 VI)

This workshop looks at provocation and upset, the ancient war of good against evil and the true meaning of justice. We will explore what the course teaches us about dealing with guilt, correcting error and what it means to forgive the endless succession of outrages that people commit against each other.

6. February 9^th 2013 Sickness is a defence against the truth (W136)

Nothing proves the body’s reality to us as self-evidently as pain and physical disorders. There is a purpose for every one of them outside of our awareness or even our control, but we always have the choice to heal our minds and see illness as a call for love. In this workshop we will look at what the course says about suffering, healing, helping ourselves and others, and what it calls magic thinking.

7. March 9^th 2013 Fear is not justified in any form (W240)

Let go of fear, and you find peace. We do not realise how perpetually fearful we are, of each other, of what might or might not happen, of all variations and degrees of hurt and loss. We seek out fear in the form of excitement and entertainment, we fear that a state of having nothing to fear might even be boring; yet we spend so much time, money and anxious energy insuring and defending ourselves against every imaginable form of attack. The idea that I could choose peace instead of any distressing situation involves a major thought-reversal; for the whole teaching of the course is contained in the idea that Nothing real can be threatened.

8. April 13^th 2013 I am very holy (W35)

Even if we can accept all the rest, this idea alone may prove too embarrassing, eccentric or alarming to live with. This workshop investigates the immense weight of guilt and inadequacy that burdens our sense of self, for to escape from this is our real purpose and special function in this life. Love, Which created me, is what I am (W229), and this is the reality we are afraid to acknowledge. We want to remain separate, special, and individual; yet love’s call to us to wake up and come home is irresistible.

9. May 11^th 2013 There is no order of difficulty in miracles (T1 I)

This first and fundamental principle of the course cancels out all comparisons and superstitions at a stroke. Whenever the way seems too dauntingly far and difficult, remember: there is no journey, only an awakening. No difficulty is harder to let go than any other, no wrong is beyond forgiveness, and it is never too late to change your mind. It takes great learning to understand that all things, events, encounters and circumstances are helpful (M4 I A 4); that you are not lost; that your worth is beyond question; that your only reality is love. The miracle is not bound by any laws of time or space or logic, because what we seem to see exists only in the mind, and the mind may shift in a moment from withholding to giving, from separateness to a recognition of oneness, from hell to heaven. One instant spent together with your brother restores the universe to both of you (T18 VII 5).

10. June 8^th 2013  I need do nothing (T18 VII and W337)

The emphasis of the course is never on what you do, but on the power of every thought you have ever had or will have. Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world (T21 in I)…How can you practise the Course continually and yet not make it important? How can it teach there is so much that must be done before the way to peace is open (T20 IV 8) but also I need do nothing? How does it actually help, in every tricky situation and conflicted relationship, to know that there is only one problem, and only one solution?

You are prepared. Now you need but to remember you need do nothing. It would be far more profitable now merely to concentrate on this than to consider what you should do. When peace comes at last to those who wrestle with temptation and fight against the giving in to sin; when the light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally achieved by anyone, it always comes with just one happy realization; "I need do nothing." (T18 VII 5)

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previous workshop series (Sept 2011 to June 2012)

Forgive Your Life for Not Being What You Meant

The price of believing in illusions is to be disappointed. This need not be, the Course tells us, and there is no problem that forgiveness cannot solve. Only first we need to learn a new understanding of what forgiveness means and how it works. Forgiveness involves reshuffling your whole view of the world, dropping the limitations you impose on yourself and everyone else. Stopping hurting yourself. The only way to do this is to change your idea of what you are, what anything should be, what your life is for and what happiness is.

A Course in Miracles offers just such a change of thinking. But it is very easy to only partially understand the Course. It does not seem to speak our language, the language of the world’s way of doing things. It does not give any concrete examples or case histories: your own life provides all the examples you need to look at. The workbook lessons repeatedly remind its students to apply the ideas equally to everything, but the ego in us is extraordinarily subtle – it specialises in sabotage and separate compartments, in blind spots and secretly cultivated grievances. So these workshops look for unforgiveness in all its obvious hiding places. Their purpose is to keep applying the principles over and over again from different points of view and in the context of general and particular everyday situations.

1.     September 10^th 2011   Forgive Your Life For Not Being What You Meant

A Course in Miracles teaches just one lesson: how to forgive every last niggle. But there is a difference between forgiveness-to-destroy and the forgiveness that is the miracle of the title. These workshops are about unravelling your own and others’ illusions, and how to live in a world that is not there.

2. October 8^th 2011   Daddy Cool   

Forgive the parent and all forms of authority (including your own): the meaning of justice, rules and responsibility. Transactional Analysis and the inner parent/adult/child. Forgive God for not being either the monster or the personal agent you set Him up to be. The new story of the Prodigal Son.

3. November 12^th 2011   The Inner Child

Forgive the child. Innocence and the loss of Paradise; neediness and selfishness: spontaneity and creativity. Forgive the children you have and those you don’t have: forgive the child you were or were not: and forgive the inner child you have betrayed.

4. December 10^th 2011   Slave to the Grind  

Forgive your job, or the job you don’t have. This workshop explores obligations, identity and competition; your abilities, place in society and its hierarchy, and relationships with your boss, employees and co-workers. The workshop is about the purpose of your life – your special function.

5. January 14^th 2012   Filthy Lucre  

Forgive the money you do not have, and all forms of scarcity: the endless conflict, envy and guilt between the haves and don’t-haves: the compulsion to get, and to get more: possessions and attachments, acquiring and uncluttering: values: having as an expression of identity.

6. February 11^th 2012   Soul Mates  

Forgive the one you love (including the one who hasn’t turned up yet): the immense power of special relationships: the holy relationship and its change of purpose. Loosing the ties that bind and entering the ‘ark of peace’ two by two – that is, you and every other.

7. March 10^th 2012   The Devil You Know  

Forgive the one you hate: that is, everyone, but especially that special problem person. All the other things you do not like or that make your life a misery. ‘What is not love is murder’: the purpose of anger and blame and the reclaiming of ‘guiltlessness’. So many saviours! The correcting of error and the turning of an ancient hate to present love.  

8. April 14^th 2012   Handling the Body  

Forgive the body, the embodiment of the ego: its appearance, limitations, sickness, appetites and embarrassing behaviour. Soul, mind, body, spirit as defined by ACIM. ‘I am not a body’: how to handle the body, communicate with it, live in it but not for it.

9. May 12^th 2012   The Alien in the Mirror

Forgive yourself, your failures and limitations, your powerful sneaky ego and all the harm you do: forgive your ‘face of innocence’ and the person you wish you were: look again at the person you seem to be. Who is the ‘you’ the course is talking to? What does it mean to be a ‘teacher of God’ and to ‘accept the Atonement for oneself’?

10. June 9^th 2012   The Remains of the Day

Forgive the passing of time and your wasting of it, or its wasting of you: carpe diem and winged chariots and what ACIM has to say about ‘the vast illusion’ of past, present and future. How does a ‘teacher of God’ spend his day? The holy instant, the eternal now, and the place of meditation, prayer and other spiritual practices in ACIM.

 

When? 2nd Saturday every month, 10.30 am to 2.30 pm. Tea and coffee provided: please bring something to share for lunch

Where? Andover, Hampshire. Directions sent with receipt of booking.
How much? £100 for the full course of 10 workshops or £15 per individual workshop
Payment by cash or cheque made out to Anna Powell, or on request I will send a Paypal invoice for your convenience. For alternative payment plans please just get in touch.

How to book? Contact Anna at anna@unlearningschool.com or on 01264 395579

previous events:

Illusions

A day workshop exploring aspects of A Course in Miracles. This is an opportunity to learn new insights into the teaching of the Course and into yourself; to ask questions, discuss the ideas and discover more about how they relate to you personally.

Saturday 4th June

10.30 am - 2.30 pm

Andover, Hampshire

£25 on the door or £20 for advance booking: concessions £15. Payment by cash or cheque made out to Anna Powell, or on request I will send a Paypal invoice for your convenience.

Tea and coffee provided: please bring something to share for lunch

Let me know at anna@unlearningschool.com or phone 01264 395579 if you would like to book a place and I will send directions.