This talk was recorded on May 20, 2020. Purchase to access the recording.

Sustaining Resilience: Mindfulness, Pacing and ‘Crazy Wisdom’ for the Long Haul

When faced with a task that demands tremendous endurance, we draw on deep reservoirs of strength, will, practice and natural resilience to help sustain us. What if the finish line is consistently moved? What if there is no conceivable finish line? What if we find ourselves at the end of our capacity? Long term stress sometimes turns the tried and true, the usual wisdom on it’s head. Most students of the dharma have heard about ‘crazy wisdom’ in the Buddhist tradition. There are times when doing what seems the ‘best’ does not serve us. This evening we will explore how mindfulness and embodiment serve us in times of uncertainty. We will also consider the skillful application of mindlessness. I will introduce the concept of micro-practices to help us increase our resilience an hour and a day at a time. As my first, beloved dharma teacher would say, “just this much”.

Karen R. Brown LMHC, is a somatically oriented psychotherapist who specializes in working with high-intensity stress through body-oriented and resource building pathways. Her subspecialty is training caregivers and first responders in self-care skills and the amelioration of secondary traumatic stress. She has participated in several disaster response efforts and understands the profound importance of restoring us to our own embodiment as a fundamental dimension of the healing process. Karen is a long time student of the dharma and maintains a private practice in New York City.