A foundational gift of practicing centering prayer is that we also begin caring for our mental and emotional well-being during our prayer sits. Fortunately, this is also one definition of self-compassion. Frequently, we start noticing this gift with a simple thought like, “my days feel better since I began centering prayer.” Centering prayer creates self-compassion because it requires us to learn and repeat the process of awareness (being present), acceptance, and letting go while consenting to the presence and action of the Divine within us.

What is happening in our brains biologically as we repeat this process of awareness, acceptance, and letting go? How does this process impact our mental and emotional well-being? The good news is when we do centering prayer, the work of the Spirit is teaching us self-compassion, and this class will help us understand some of the transformations enacted in this process. Finally, by aiding our developing awareness, acceptance, and letting go, the course will also offer us additional skills to increase compassion toward ourselves and others.

Over the six weeks, we will explore the physical changes centering prayer brings about in our brains. Then, we will explore the corresponding mental, emotional, and spiritual transformations resulting from those changes. Most importantly, in every class, we will practice those tools for creating self-compassion by discussing what we experience; we will learn from each other. Through this weekly repetition, participants will habituate new ways of caring for themselves. As we practice, our lives will feel more meaningful, grounded, and empowered to share ourselves in the world through God-given grace.

About Blair Ashby

In 1994, Contemplative Outreach International asked Blair to transfer the Christian Contemplative Heritage video series to audio cassettes. In the first fifteen minutes of the introductory tape, Fr. Thomas said so much about God and reality that Blair’s head exploded and unknowingly germinated a desire to experience and eventually teach this God-created reality. In 1997, Contemplative Outreach of Colorado asked Blair to record Fr. Thomas live, and Blair has been recording the annual conferences and fall retreats ever since. Through personal relationships with Fr. Thomas Keating and Fr. Tony D’Souza (Anthony DeMello’s apprentice), and the dozens of spiritual teachers he has recorded, Blair has gained deep contemplative insights. He has practiced centering prayer and self-compassion for the past twenty-eight years.

Blair now teaches Self-Compassion and Communication at a trade school, a US Army base (yes, the Army), and to dozens of private clients worldwide. Blair always learns alongside the students in his seminars, and we at Contemplative Outreach of Colorado look forward to the new sense of spirituality he brings to us as a community.