Week 1
Experienced Practitioners: Cultivating Equanimity, Balancing the Heart
CLICK HERE to view a PDF of the home practices from the Spring 2024 EP group
CLICK HERE to view a PDF of the home practices from the Fall 2024 EP group
Home Practices Week 1 (2/18/2025)
The home practice this week is to have a piece of paper ready (ok on computer too!) to begin making a list of what you have a sense of agency over and what you do not.
Other words than “sense of agency” are responsibility, the effort to control the uncontrollable, the effort to manage or fix the unfixable.
We are looking at where we do have agency and where we do not.
Please come to class next week with your list and be prepared to talk in the small group about what you have learned and how you worked with this home practice.
Week 2
Experienced Practitioners: Cultivating Equanimity, Balancing the Heart
Home Practices Week 2 (2/25/2025)
CLICK HERE to view a PDF of the home practices from the Spring 2024 EP group
CLICK HERE to view a PDF of the home practices from the Fall 2024 EP group
The home practice this week is to have a piece of paper ready (ok on computer too!) to begin making a list of what you have a sense of agency over and what you do not.
Other words than “sense of agency” are responsibility, the effort to control the uncontrollable, the effort to manage or fix the unfixable.
We are looking at where we do have agency and where we do not.
Please come to class next week with your list and be prepared to talk in the small group about what you have learned and how you worked with this home practice.
Week 3
Experienced Practitioners: Cultivating Equanimity, Balancing the Heart
Home Practices Week 3 (3/4/2025)
Please contemplate the possibility that thoughts and emotions arise due to causes and conditions, and that the arising is out of one’s control.
Instead of trying to figure out why things arise, please simply acknowledge and accept that what you are observing is the way things are in this moment, right here and right now.
After acknowledging, please bring your attention to your response. How are you holding this thought, this emotion? Can “this” be responded to with greater wisdom and compassion? Is it possible to respond with wisdom instead of habit?
Week 4
Experienced Practitioners: Cultivating Equanimity, Balancing the Heart
Home Practices Week 4 (3/11/2025)
Please contemplate the possibility that thoughts and emotions arise due to causes and conditions, and that the arising is out of one’s control.
Instead of trying to figure out why things arise, please simply acknowledge and accept that what you are observing is the way things are in this moment, right here and right now.
After acknowledging, please bring your attention to your response. How are you holding this thought, this emotion? Can “this” be responded to with greater wisdom and compassion? Is it possible to respond with wisdom instead of habit?
Week 5
Experienced Practitioners: Cultivating Equanimity, Balancing the Heart
Home Practices Week 5 (3/25/2025)
TS Eliot: “Ours is in the trying, the rest is not our business”
Please take a moment to reflect on the idea that people are as they are due to causes and conditions. They are beyond our control. Rather than trying to analyze or psychologize as to why someone is the way they are, see if you can accept them “as they are” and leave room for them to change. After acknowledging, explore your reactions and responses. Bring your attention to your reactions and responses and respond to your heart rather than over focusing on the other.
Week 6
Experienced Practitioners: Cultivating Equanimity, Balancing the Heart
Home Practices Week 6 (4/1/2025)
Please continue with the home practice from week # 5 and add: Turn the attention within when you realize you are lost in blame.
Practice turning it around. When you find yourself blaming someone, turn your attention within instead of continuing to focus on the person you are blaming. Instead, focus on what is going on within you. What are the sensations in the body? In this way, practice caring for your heart instead of feeding the blame.
Week 7
Experienced Practitioners: Cultivating Equanimity, Balancing the Heart
Home Practices Week 7 (4/8/2025)
The home practice is to continue working with the previous two week’s practices, (a double practice – week 5 and week 6) which are…
Continuing to reflect on the idea that people are as they are due to causes and conditions and are out of our control.
And…
When you find yourself blaming someone, turn your attention within instead of continuing to focus on the person you are blaming.
More detailed descriptions of those practices can be found in the tabs for weeks 5 & 6.
Week 8
Experienced Practitioners: Cultivating Equanimity, Balancing the Heart
Home Practices Week 8 (4/15/2025)
The home practice this week is the flip side of the coin of the question, “What is out of our control?”
As often as you can remember, please ask yourself “What is possible right now?”