90-Minute Keynote Presentation By Heather Stang
Transform Suffering to Hope Session Description:
We don’t need to look at FBI statistics or the NOAA Storm Event Database to know that public tragedies are on the rise. Repetitive exposure to traumatic events via television, social media, and during personal interactions can trigger psychological distress, especially when we feel there is nothing we can do to help.
The difficult emotions that arise in the wake of public tragedy combined with our personal losses can negatively impact our health, our relationships, and our ability to serve and support our clients and colleagues. Left unexamined, a perfect storm begins to form for compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, physical distress, and mental illness. This is the bad news.
The good news is that if we skillfully turn toward our suffering, rather than suppress it, we can transform any difficult emotion into compassion, and compassion into inspired action that motivates us. When we learn to relate to our suffering in a different way, we are better able to serve our clients, our community, and ourselves in a more whole-hearted and helpful way. We can even improve our health, and feel more connected to our loved ones, those we serve, and the world at large.
During this motivational keynote, author Heather Stang will illustrate how mindfulness-based compassion practices can transform empathic distress into hope, boost resilience and connectivity, and inspire action that is rooted in our shared human desire to be happy, safe and free from suffering. Through motivational stories, a look at evidence-based best practices, and a brief period of guided meditation, attendees will learn how to be the spark, and tend to local and global suffering with transformational loving-kindness and compassion.
