Featured Courses

The range of courses offered in the Featured Courses section of the Charter Education Institute stem from assisting individuals, teams and organizations around the world on understanding the mind and heart of a compassionate community and explore processes that create paths to design sustainable action plans to meet local, national and international challenges.  In addition, just as many of us engage in different circles of culture and society, so does the Charter for Compassion.  The Charter supports work in twelve sectors: art, business, education, environment, healthcare, interfaith (religion and spirituality), peace, science and research, social justice, social services, restorative justice, and women and girls.  Consequently, course work is being desired and implemented in each of these sectors.  

Vist this page periodically to see current listing of courses which usually change monthly or bi-monthly.

Back by Popular Demand!
Poetry for Inspiration and Wellbeing

Start Date: April 6, 2020
Duration: 4 weeks
Facilitator: John Smelcer
Cost: $30.00
Registration: Now Open!

A chance to learn about writing poetry from the one of the longest-serving poetry editors of a national magazine in American history. Come join us for this popular course in April which is National Poetry Month!

Poetry has the power to inspire. Poetry can give witness to social injustices or show us how to live mindfully and compassionately. Poetry is therapeutic. For those who are hurting, poetry has the power to heal. Many people begin writing poetry as part of a healing process. By writing about what has injured our spirit in the past and about how we feel about ourselves presently, we can diminish suffering and begin to rediscover joy. This course will explore how writing poetry can inspire not only us, but others, how it can increase well-being, and how it can be used to teach tolerance, understanding, and compassion, including compassion for the earth and all living things. Click here to learn more about the course and register.

Back by popular demand! -
Compassionate Integrity Training - Spring 2020

Start Date: Cohort 1 - Tuesday May 5, 2020
                      Cohort 2 - Thursday May 7, 2020
Duration: 10 weeks
Registration: Now open!

Have you ever wondered how you could cultivate the compassion called for in the Charter or help others cultivate that compassion? Compassionate Integrity Training (CIT) is a great place to start!

CIT is a resiliency-informed program that cultivates human values as skills, so we can thrive as individuals, and a society, within a healthy environment.  By learning skills to calm our bodies and mind, becoming more emotionally aware, learning to practice compassion for ourselves and others, as well as engaging with compassion in complex systems, we can build towards compassionate integrity: the ability to live one’s life in accordance with one’s values with a recognition of common humanity, our basic orientation to kindness and reciprocity. Click here to learn more about the course and register.

NEW!
Our Sense-Able Nature:
Mindfully Reconnecting with the Natural World

Start Date: May 18, 2020
Facilitator: Kate Trnka
Cost: $30.00
Duration: 4 weeks
Registration: Starting soon!

Experience the wonderful health benefits of nature by being introduced to Forest Bathing, Heart Math, Earthing, Ecotherapy, Natural Attraction and your 54 natural senses/sensitivities. More and more, science is telling us that it is imperative to our health and well-being that we have an intimate relationship with the natural world. This course is designed to introduce you to simple ways to develop and/or enhance your relationship with the natural world resulting in amazing mental, emotional, physical and spiritual benefits along the way.

You will be guided through a variety of ways you can commune with the natural world. We will learn about natural attractions and begin the process of engaging with our 54 natural senses/sensitivities - yes, 54. Click here to learn more about the course. Registration will open soon.

New!
Powerful Conversations Arouse the Heart, Mind and Spirit

Start date: June 8, 2020
Duration: 7 weeks
Cost: $30
Registration: Opening date to come

Have you met an edge in being/staying compassionate through diversity? trust? depletion? intimacy? isolation? disconnection? or conflict?  I have on many fronts; in many situations.

Join a series of four 75 minute experiential conversations over 7 weeks to learn and practice being simultaneously caring and authentic while journeying with others. Whether you are a physician, teacher, social worker, manager, parent, spouse, friend or neighbor, our collective ability and capacity to engage deeply with compassion, is central to the future.

Perhaps one of these situations resonates with you? You are challenged by:

• How to work with diversity: different values, beliefs, ways of thinking, behaving and solutions.
• Building greater trust in order to be honest, open in addressing important social, environmental and economic topics.
• Working with someone who is depleted, bored, blaming others.
• High achievers who don’t have time or interest to engage in meaningful conversation.
• People who communicate electronically and feel isolated.
• People who are reserved, respond with one word and won’t be easily drawn out.
• People who have experienced a loss or conflict and are challenged to heal.

Anyone who enjoys practical, relevant learning, applied to real situations is welcome. Bring an open-mind, curiosity and the willingness to share, learn and practice. Additional Information and Registration will be available soon!

Deepening the Heart of Compassion

Start date: August 10, 2020
Duration: 4 weeks
Cost: $30
Registration: Opening date to come

Come explore and experience the Heart of Compassion: What does an awakened, compassionate heart feel like? How does it express itself in real life? Learn how to develop a deep, compassionate connection with yourself, others, nature, and the Source of Compassion. Learn how to bring compassion into every thought, feeling, and action.

This course speaks directly to the heart. Our time together will be joyful, loving, and healing. It will be an authentic and personal experience of the Heart of Compassion.

You will develop your capacities for being a strong, compassionate presence who supports healing, awakening, and transformation within yourself, others, and the world. You will experience heart-opening exercises, healing meditations, personal connection, deep listening and greater levels of awareness.

We will step beyond definitions in order to live from the roots of compassion in our moment-to-moment interactions. What does the world look, feel, and taste like when our relationships reflect the ever-present reality of Compassion? What is possible when we embody the knowing that we are compassionate presence itself?

By the end of the course you will feel more deeply connected to the Source of Compassion, and you will know yourself to be a gift of love and healing for all. More information and Registration will be available soon!

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