ONE STEP AHEAD
6 week course to help with those struggling with codependency.
Suitable for those who rescue or want to be rescued, those who are involved with addicts or addiction and cant stop.
Course start date 2nd July 2020. Offered at a greatly reduced rate to help those struggling during lockdown
Presented by Elf meditation
Lead by Christina Sherratt
GOAL – TO LOVE OURSELVES, LIFE AND OTHERS
To create a space for nurture and self-love. A place where we escape the hustle and bustle of daily life, have fun, build friendships and embrace being who we are.
This toolkit has been specifically written for those who have experienced some kind of domestic abuse and trauma in their lives and in particular in relation to codependency and co-addiction.
Codependents tend to focus their external world on others with the majority of their thoughts, actions and lives focused on either trying to fix, rescue or escape their partner or others.
‘ONE STEP AHEAD’ encourages participants to bring the focus of their attention back to themselves and embrace their own power.This is sought through mindfulness meditation where we learn to become more present, more peaceful, loving, calm, and wise. The course aims to provide participants with a toolkit to assist them in their daily life once ‘One Step Ahead’ has been completed.
We hope to raise awareness of addictive thought patterns by bringing the conscious mind continuously back to the present moment and most importantly back to YOU. We learn to become the observer of own mind, to take delight in the now, rather than spending most of our time living in the past or the future. We learn about the importance of mind body connection and work on building a relationship with our body.
Mindfulness practice needs constant reinforcement, so week after week, we meditate and train the mind to come back to the present and most importantly, as stated previously, back to you. This is particularly important for codependents who tend to escape their own reality by distracting their attention from themselves onto others for validation, love and approval.
This programme hopes to kick start a journey of finding and honouring you. We become aware of codependent traits and characteristics which have developed from childhood and observe from within ourselves how they can lead to dysfunction.
We learn to recognise negative thought patterns and use meditation to move our mind to a more peaceful, loving and positive state.
Those who have suffered some kind of abuse often have low self-esteem and have become disconnected from their own wants, needs and feelings. This programme will help build a sense of self and encourage self-care, self love, honour and respect.
The aim is to bring the focus of recovery onto the codependent. It is for this reason I feel this will fit perfectly as a follow on from The Freedom Programme where the emphasis is placed on the traits of the perpetrator.
‘One Step Ahead’ has been devised by myself, Christina Sherratt, a meditation teacher, who has personal experience of all that this course entails. I am aware of the importance of accepting when you are a victim and removing denial but believe we need to move from victimhood to empowerment to create lasting change and to build healthy relationships.
I have been meditating and studying the mind, codependency, addiction and spirituality solidly everyday for more than seven years. I believe my life purpose is to pass on knowledge I have gained from the painful lessons I have experienced to others to provide tools for recovery to help others in daily life to become a calmer, more mindful, healthy person. I am a trained CIC Mindfulness Teacher and Reiki Practitioner.
‘One Step Ahead’ incorporates a wide range of techniques derived from many perspectives from 12 step recovery to buddhist philosophy, to the law of attraction and metaphysics to many other spiritual perspectives and practises.
OUTLINE OF COURSE
Weekly sessions will run for 1.5 hours
WEEK 1 – INTRODUCTION TO ONE STEP AHEAD
An introduction to One Step AheadCovering why we are here and what we hope to achieveAn introduction to mindfulness meditation and the importance of staying in the present moment. An explanation as to why mindfulness will assist in recovery from codependency and gaining inner peace in our daily lifeA guided meditation session
Week 2 Building Awareness Build an awareness of where our addictive thought patterns and where they take us Understanding judgement of ourselves and othersMeditation practice to train the mind to come back to the present moment which helps us respond to situations in our lives rather than reacting.
Here we take time to explore the body and our relationship with it.
Week 3 Awareness of codependent traits and characteristics and how to identify with them through mindfulness.
We learn how we help to create dysfunction by controlling, enabling, rescuing, ignoring red flags and seeking validation from outside of self.In particular looking at the dance between the perpetrator and the codependent and raising awareness of getting pulled back in the dance with either the same perpetrator or another one – this is demonstrated through Ross Rosenberg and the song Aretha Franklin and Mos Def – One Step Ahead, which this course is named after.
A sharing session (as in 12 steps) with participants
This is extremely powerful as it teaches us how to listen without giving unsolicited advice but also allows us to identify similarities from others shares.
Meditation practice to reinforce the teaching.
Week 4 What can we do about codependency and co-addiction
The first is awareness from the above teaching – In this session we then move to recovery through:-
The Three GetsMind Your BusinessDetachment Letting go, surrender and trust Meditation practice of bringing the teachings into the meditation.
Week 5 Here we focus on the importance of self care and self love by empowering ourselves by bringing the focus of our mind back to us – to our wants, needs and what we feel. Many codependents have shut down and no longer are aware of what they want, need or feel. This session teaches participants the importance of asking ourselves these three questions.
What do I need What do I want and What do I feel
We start to connect and listen to our body through expressive meditation. We practice picking wild flowers and getting out into nature and start treat ourselves with love, respect and care.
This helps rebuild a sense of self and bring the focus of our attention back to us. We reinforce this through a mindfulness meditation session by connecting with our needs, feelings and wants.
This is then followed by a meditation on – What would someone who loves themselves do? which will help build self-honour and respect.
Followed by a teaching on unconditional love which is not about control, jealousy or manipulation but purely, a wish, NOT an action – BUT a wish – for others to be happy. This is an incredibly important teaching as we get to understand what love is and that we don’t need to fix, rescue or act out other addictive behaviours to be loved. We learn that it is a wish and not an action which in turn helps us become more peaceful by holding a mind of love instead of anger.. This teaching also makes us aware that love from others is not represented by jealousy, control or manipulation but by the same wish of wishing us to be happy. This helps us understand the dynamics of a healthy relationship.
Week 6 Law of attraction
Understanding that our thoughts create our reality – what we believe comes true for us.
Brief teaching on the law of attraction used by many including Jim Carrey, Oprah Winfrey, the late Wayne Dyer and the late Louise Hay.
We look at what our thoughts and beliefs are about ourselves and how this has manifested into our reality. We will discover this through a sharing session.
Following the share we then bring the focus onto the present moment and leave the past behind. We focus our attention onto what we want from our lives including our OWN dreams, goals, passions and relationships.
We learn about positive affirmations as a technique to help be the change we want to see in our world. We learn – change our thoughts – change our world.
A guided meditation to visualise our dreams, desires and the life we want.We will also meditate on gratitude for what we already have in our lives which helps us to focus on positivity and be thankful for what we already have.
We end this course by bringing the focus to the present moment and leave the past behind. We focus on where we are now and what we want from our world. We move forward with inspiration, passion and a desire to be the best version of ourselves we can be.
Copyright owned by Christina Sherratt
Next course starts 2nd July at 11.30am – 1.30pm
Six week course £240 – for those experiencing difficulties or who are in or come out of a toxic relationship and need a concession it is 75% reduced fee of £60.
Concessions for those struggling at this time during lockdown.
For further information please contact Christina on 07379436082 or drop me a message by email or on facebook.
