M I N D & L I F E I N S T I T U T E

A Call for Care and

Compassion in Our Schools

Brooke D. Lavelle Heineberg, Ph.D.

Senior Education Consultant

Pro-Social Education

• Character education

• Service learning

• Moral education

• Cooperative learning

• Social and emotional

learning

• School climate

• Mindfulness

• Transformative

education

The Initiative: A Year in Review

Call to Care

We have a

natural capacity

to be caring and

compassionate.

These capacities

are nurtured

implicitly

through

unconditional

caring

relationships and

explicitly through

compassion training.

Relational Care

Three Modes of Care

Receiving Care

Helps us learn to connect

with sources of care in our

lives. Through continual

repetition, educators

practice embodying

experiences of safety,

security and basic well-

being.

Caring Moment Practice

Cultivating Self-Care

Helps us learn to host

our own thoughts,

feelings and emotional

experiences with

kindness, openness,

warmth, and deep

acceptance.

Compassionate Mindfulness of

Feelings

Obstacles and Fears of Self-Care

Obstacles to Self-Care

• Fatigue

• Time

• Other commitments

• Unexpected life demands

• Unrealistic expectations

• Email

• Spending time with loved ones

• Full plates

• Seasonal changes

• Prioritizing

• Urgency vs. Important

• Hard to see immediate results

M I N D & L I F E I N S T I T U T E

Fears of Self-Care

• Fear of exposing emotions

• Fear of losing composure

• Feel guilty or selfish taking time

for self

• Fear of difficult emotions

• Fear of receiving

• Feeling unworthy

• Fear that I won’t meet

obligations

• Fear of judgment

• Fear of failure

• Opportunity costs

Helps us learn to see

others more deeply

and connect with their

potential, beyond our

limiting thoughts of

them that inhibit our

caring capacity.

Extending Care

Communities of Care

Call to Care: Educator’s Program

Summer Intensive

Care-Course

Community of Care

Classroom Guide The integrated educator and student

programs provide specific investigations

and reflective learning experiences for

the development of our caring

capacities.

The C2C program is imbued with

principles of honoring local values,

respecting and empowering educators

and students, and supporting

community.

Care in Context

http://www.mindandlife.org