Overview

The inner science course is an eight-week program of self-exploration. It combines the wisdom of the ancient contemplative traditions of Buddhism and Daoism with the insights of modern psychology, neuroscience and philosophy. The goal of the course is to explore our inner worlds in order to understand ourselves better and become more mindful, compassionate and wise. To do so we look at our own minds as a kind of laboratory and our stream of consciousness as data which we can observe, understand and ultimately transform. The course combines theory and practice and integrates the scientific method and ideals with an approach of secular spirituality and existential philosophy.

Content

The course consists of eight in-person sessions of 2,5 hours featuring various meditations and contemplations, lectures, dyadic deep listening exercises, short mindful movement practices, reflective writing exercises and times for question and answer. The meditation exercises are also practised at home between sessions to establish the habit of self-exploration. The total time commitment for live-sessions and meditation practice at home is about 5 hours per week. The course language is English. It is suitable both for beginners with little previous meditation experience as well as experienced meditators who want to deepen their practice. All you have to bring is an open mind and some curiosity 🙂

Some guiding questions we will explore

• What is meditation? And how can we use it to find greater inner calm⁣, balance and well-being?
• How can we cultivate a mindset of self-care, self-acceptance and self-compassion?
• How can we bring more awareness into all areas of our lives, including our work, relationships and communication?
• How can we train our attention, mindfulness and meta-cognition in order to better notice, observe, understand and transform our experiences?
• How can we understand stress and systematically let go of it?
• How can we maintain mental hygiene in times of information overload and build a healthy relationship with our digital devices and (social) media?
• How can we identify personal challenges and turn them into opportunities for growth?
• How can we support each other on our individual paths and create a network of mutual support and care?
• How can we learn to regulate our emotions and become more resilient?
• How can we establish a continuous and sustainable practice to bring about lasting positive change in our habits, behaviour and world-view?
• How can we find a deeper sense of gratitude, meaning and joy?

Dates and Times

The live-sessions are 2,5h and take place on Wednesday evenings from 19:00 - 21:30 every week from 28.10.2020 - 17.12.2020. The 1st, 5th and 8th session are 3h long, from 19:00 - 22:00.

Costs

The costs for the course are 280€ (including VAT).

Covid-regulations

The live-sessions will be held in accordance with the current covid-guidelines respecting max. number of participants of 10, 1,5 meters distance and mask regulations.

The location

The course takes place in the beautiful large workshop space at the CoopSpace, a self-organised coworking community in Berlin-Kreuzberg (see picture below).

Address

Glogauer Str 21, 10999 Berlin, first courtyard, door on the right, 1st floor.

Application process

The course includes a non-binding preliminary talk, free of charge. This serves to get to know each other and to clarify questions and expectations. Afterwards you can decide whether the course is right for you.

You can NOT book the course on eventbrite!

To register please visit this website: www.nicolasendres.com and fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page. I am looking forward to hearing from you!

About the facilitator/guide

Nicolas Endres has an academic background in psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and works as a coach and mediator in Berlin. In his early twenties he became extremely fascinated with the mind, especially his own, which let him to study psychology at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK. He then returned to Berlin where he studied psychology, neuroscience and philosophy at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain at Humboldt-University. During this time he worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Human, Cognition and Brain Sciences within one of the largest longitudinal studies on the effects of meditation. After his studies he designed and taught an experimental inner science university course at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain which formed the basis for the present inner science course.

Besides Western science and philosophy his main interest lies in Eastern contemplative traditions, especially Buddhism and Daoism, and the meditative techniques associated with them, e.g. meditation, Yoga and Qigong. The more he practised these techniques the more he realised their value for individual and collective mental health and well-being. He is fascinated by the idea of applying the scientific method directly to the mind in order to gain a more complete understanding of the inner workings of the human mind and brain. He works towards integrating the wisdom of ancient contemplative traditions with the insights of modern science and technology with the ultimate goal of raising our collective level of consciousness. Nicolas teaches courses on inner science, gives talks on philosophy and psychology and is currently founding an organisation for consciousness research, -education and -culture.