The SoulCare Course with Joan Borysenko

Research in spirituality and health has identified meaning and faith as central to wellbeing, prevention and recovery from illness and surgery.

In this session, you will explore the nature of your spirituality, enter the temple of your soul through inquiry and practice, and begin an exploration of the two intersecting worlds of chronos or clock time and kairos or eternal time.

In Module 1, you will:

• Explore your personal experience of the soul
• Discover exactly what helps you connect to your spiritual center
• Receive guidance for deepening your spiritual practice, or discover how to undertake a new spiritual practice
• Uncover any blocks you have to connecting to your soul

In this session you will explore the pathways through which your emotions and beliefs become embodied – from neuro-hormones to immune function; from stress to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines that can predispose you to illness; and from adrenal fatigue to burnout and depression. You’ll deeply explore this circle to understand how illness and stress can guide you back to your soul.

In Module 2, you will:

• Discover how spiritual principles help you to become “stress hardy”
• Learn how your thinking predisposes you to health and illness
• Recognize and overcome “New Age Guilt” and simplistic thinking in the mind-body realm
• Discover how illness acts as a metaphor for our lives (or not)
• Learn to use stress and burnout as course corrections

Twenty years of research has shown beyond any shadow of a doubt that time does NOT heal childhood wounds. It only conceals them. There is a dose-response relationship between the number of adverse childhood experiences (neglect; emotional, physical or sexual abuse; a missing, addicted, depressed, incarcerated or mentally ill parent; violence toward the mother) and physical health for the remainder of the lifespan.

In Module 3, you will:

• Heal childhood wounds using the new breakthroughs in affective neurobiology
• Create rituals (which operate in the realm of the soul, the imagination and the amygdala) and create healing of a different order than talk therapy (which operates at the level of the hippocampus)
• Discover when spiritual practices can help heal childhood wounds and when they act as “bypasses” and block effective healing
• Embody the archetype of the wounded healer
• Access psycho-spiritual healing resources for you as an individual and for your clients (if you’re a healthcare professional)

One of the most active areas of research in integrative medicine is the link between forgiveness and health. An interesting research tidbit: 94% of people believe that forgiveness is a good thing for their health and peace of mind. But only 48% have tried it.

The conditioned self is averse to self-reflection and change, yet is always pushing to improve and judging the parts of yourself that are not yet developed. It encourages self-hatred rather than compassion. The soul is ruthless in pointing out your conditioning, yet as loving as the Great Mother who encourages the still sleeping parts of you to wake up and shine.

In Module 4, you will:

• Realize the power of forgiveness and its direct correlation to your health and wellbeing
• Discover what you gain (and lose) by holding on to grudges
• Understand the misconceptions of forgiveness that prevent people from experiencing it (and how it differs from reconciliation)
• Learn soul practice that open the door to forgiveness of self and others

The universe comes into being now, and now, and now again, freshly creating in every moment. Change is the only constant you can depend on. The way you approach unwanted change leads to stress or despair on the one hand, or to transformation, soul growth and service on the other.

Change begins with the death of what was and culminates in the dawning of something new. The intermediate or liminal stage is “the place between no longer and not yet.” This is the most fertile, but also the most challenging, part of the process.

Navigating this change is an essential skill for living in these times of global shift. Moving through liminality with grace, and without allowing the fear of the conditioned self to move to premature closure, requires a set of soul competencies in the area of resilience.

In Module 5, you will:

• Discover how to get comfortable with the unknown
• Discern between allies, mentors and “enemies” (those who drain your energy and collude with the conditioned self to create fear)
• Practice the power of mindfulness and gain the capacity to still your mind and calm your body
• Develop your curious self and learn to listen to your intuition
• Become a resilient, soulful shelter and support to others

The conscious mind is like the tip of an iceberg. The soul lives in the unconscious realm where imagery, rather than words, is the mode of expression. Fantasy, imagination and dreams convey a lot of information about physical and emotional healing, the meaning of symptoms, undiagnosed illness and the means to recovery.

In Module 6, you will:

• Discover the link between fantasy and healing
• Explore your dreams and see them as “letters from the Divine”
• Understand how your waking dreams and imagination convey information about your health and wellbeing
• Learn to awaken in and from your dreams

As a human being, you may not realize this but you are a master in the fine art of self-deception. Discerning the flow of guidance from ego reactivity is an important – and often neglected – healing art. Is that strong hunch you have about your health or another issue a true unfolding of the inner guide/physician or something else?

When you tune into your guidance and learn to trust it as part of your daily life, you will be directed as to how to evolve and free yourself from the repetition of karma to experience the dharma of life.

In this session, Joan will draw from her book, Your Soul’s Compass: What is Spiritual Guidance, in which she and her husband Gordon Dveirin interviewed close to 30 male and female spiritual leaders – Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Sufis, Quakers, Hindus, shamans and intuitives.

In Module 7, you will:

• Explore the 4-part cycle of guidance: alignment with Source, discernment, action and retrospection
• Discover the keys to embodying energy as guidance
• Discern the difference between synchronicities, knowings and red herrings
• Learn the art of the SoulCircle (experienced in small groups)
• Realize the joy of being and having an “anam cara” or soul friend

Dr. Bernie Siegel, an internationally recognized expert in holistic medicine and cancer treatment, joins Dr. Joan Borysenko for a lively dialogue on living your most authentic life and turning life’s difficulties into labor pains of self-birth.

There’s no way around human challenges – all of us encounter these along our path. But you can find a way to keep being re-born, living your life with deep meaning and satisfaction, even with pain.

Bernie is one of the original pioneers in integrative medicine, and if you haven’t yet heard him speak – or even if you have – you’re in a for a real treat with this bonus recording.

Dr. Christine Hibbard, a leading-edge teacher of mind-body-spirit health and human consciousness for over 27 years, joins Joan Borysenko for a dialogue on how we can heal trauma by caring for our soul. Healing is about relationships and the human connection of heartfelt energy.

Drawing from her experience working with post-war trauma refugees in Kosovo, Yugoslavia and other parts of the world, Christine shares from a compassionate and heart-expansive place on how we can truly heal any trauma in our lives.

Module 1: The Practice of Meditation and Mind Training

• Discover meditation and mind training practices that will lead you deeper into peace than you’ve ever been before

• Experience ancient wisdom teachings to develop your mind-body-spirit connection

Module 2: Authentic Happiness and Inner Peace

• Discover the keys to human flourishing and how YOU can best flourish
• Examine the root sources of the overactive/afflicted mind and explore practices that allow you to break through these disabling mental patterns
• Explore how you can redefine health to be consistent with its traditional aim as a “state-of-being” rather than merely a state-of-biology

Module 3: Spiritual Practice in Daily Life, Relationships and Work

• Discover how to invite optimal wellness to be present throughout your life, including through aging, disease and death
• Explore how your relationships and work can become spiritual practices
• Experience how you can create and sustain a lifelong program of spiritual development