Essential Education - Anna Colao

Mind over Matter 6 and 7 March 10am – 5pm Suggested Donation £70 (includes vegetarian lunch on both days, concessions £45

Being Reasonable 17 and 18 April 10am – 5pm Suggested donation £70 (includes vegetarian lunch on both days), concessions £45

Anna Colao is a trained Essential Education facilitator with over six years experience in charity work, community projects, fund raising, event organising and youth activities. A freelance educationalist she has been involved in innovative and inclusive projects based around the principles of positive education, secular ethics and happiness produced through service to society.

The Essential Education Core Curriculum provides a philosophical framework for all Essential Education resources, programmes and training, ensuring that they are rigorous, authentic and profound, and that they take forward its aim of helping people everywhere to develop compassion and wisdom.

The subject matter of the Curriculum has been distilled into sixteen topics. The First nine of these are concerned with exploring reality, and the last seven are concerned with practising compassion.

The content of the Core Curriculum is largely informed by reference materials from the Buddhist tradition, but our aim is to present the topics in a way that is accessible and helpful to people of all traditions and cultures, and followers of any religion as well as followers of none.

Anna will be facilitating two weekend workshops using materials from the last seven to do with practising compassion. “Mind over Matter” develops materials from the article on “How can we Recognise States of Mind” into a series of practical group and individual exercises. Topics explored range from recognising subtle mental states and patterns of thinking, to which mental states always operate when we are aware and which don’t, to which mental states are beneficial, which harmful, which neutral and which variable

“Being Reasonable” also develops materials from the article on “How can we Sharpen our States of Mind” into a series of practical group and individual exercises. Issues looked at range from how many of our cherished beliefs are reasoned, are all reasoned beliefs reasonable? Why do we believe the things we do? Why do we give authority to the sources we trust? How can we improve our reasoning?

Please also visit www.essential-education.org for more on our sister charity.

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