CULTIVATING HUMILITY ONLINE COURSE

Humankind can rise to the occasion
if we keep our fears under control
and be a bit more humble about our views.”

Yuval Noah Harari
21 Lessons for the 21st Century

You’re invited to a free introductory session for “Cultivating Humility,” a new course teaching participants to become calmer and humbler when considering today’s most pressing problems — as Yuval Harari suggests.

Cultivating humility and a calmer mental state may ultimately help us bridge our political divide. Learning to cultivate these traits promotes a deeper and more satisfying connection with relationship partners, family members, friends, and colleagues at work. Humility and calm make us less emotionally reactive and promote understanding at a deeper level.

This is a 3-module course, meeting once a month for 3-hours.

Module 1
What does it take to cultivate humility? What gets in the way?
An exploration of the latest findings from the realms of psychology, neurobiology, and the social sciences

Module 2
How can we improve our Critical Thinking and get to “I’m not sure”? What gets in the way?
An exploration of biases, cognitive errors, and emotional reasoning

Module 3
How can we expand our ability to “zoom out”?
What gets in the way of perceiving the bigger picture and appreciating the value of a variety of perspectives: Viewpoint Diversity

We will not be focused on politics. We believe taking the time to understand ourselves — especially our innate human “operating system” — is a more effective approach to eventually bridging our political differences. In early 2022, with these three modules as a pre-requisite, we will offer an additional course that applies these lessons to the polarized political climate in our country. Our focus will be cultivating calmness and humility to bridge the toxic divide between Left and Right.

Please join us online Wednesday, September 15th from 6:30 to 7:30pm (Pacific Time). We will first provide a detailed outline of topics to be covered in the course, then answer any questions you might have about the material.


WHO WE ARE

Marla Estes founded The School of the Examined Life in 2007, giving workshops combining film watching with psychology. From 2017 to the present time, she has taught under the organizations Bridging the Divide and Building Bridgers. She is experienced in teaching and working with groups.

Joe Burgo is a clinical psychologist who has practiced psychotherapy for more than 35 years. As a writer, he blogs for Psychology Today and is the author of several books focusing on psychological defense mechanisms, shame, and narcissism.

If you’d like to attend, please email marla@buildingbridgers.com and we will keep you in the loop!