Module I Video

Watch or Listen to the Module 1 Video with Kathryn and Bo

Please note: The materials in this module, as well as the entire mini-course, are designed to stretch the connective tissue of our mindset about emotional illnesses: what they really are, what causes them, and what helps to transform them. The tools we offer throughout this course are designed to shake our mindset: imagine shaking a snow globe and watching the way things fall in different alignment and place. When we “shake it,” space opens for creative thinking and collective problem solving. Shaking the system can result in a sense of dislocation or cognitive dissonance: we know the old beliefs don’t quite work, but we don’t have anything new with which to replace them.

Our goal here is to create a flexibility in the “connective tissue” of our mindset, to hydrate the interconnected beliefs. Please do so in whatever doses feel productive, yet therapeutic for you. The embodied check-in (below) is designed to bring clarity to points where embodied practices might ease any sense of dislocation, and bring us home to our own bodies.

Imagine a “warning label” here: These materials can be hazardous to the status quo. Enjoy!

Supplementary Material & Practice Toolkit

• The Yoga Practice Lab (YPL) check-in. (Practice this before and after you engage with our touchstone materials below. What do you notice after “stretching” the connective tissue of your mindset? How does your baseline change?
• Bo’s Shake it up Manifesto
• Bo’s statement on depression as a social disease/Anthony Bourdain’s death
• Audio: Clip of Michael Pollan on “the grand unified theory of mental illness,” from the Tim Ferriss
  Full Podcast: The Tim Ferriss show featuring Michael Pollan on “the grand unified theory of mental illness” (Please note that this video clip does not constitute a recommendation to take hallucinogens, but rather, a way to hear a respected author and thought leader discussing the ways in which these illnesses are similar.)
• Article “Effectiveness of Talk Therapy is Overstated, Study Says,” by Benedict Carey, The New York Times, September 30, 2015
• Article “Do Antidepressants Work?” by Aaron Carroll, The New York Times, March 12, 2018

Lifework

• Set up your profile so your colleagues can “see” you
• Respond to the forum prompts (our forum is called the ConnectOMe)
• Comment on 1-2 other people’s posts and visit their profiles