A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
- Einstein
For many years I have run two kinds of "training group" for clients. One teaches what can loosely be thought of as "stress management skills". The latest version of this is the "Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing" course that I have been describing at some length in blog posts over the last three months. The other kind of group that I regularly facilitate focuses on relationships. As this group has evolved over the years it has been given various titles. For quite some time I called it the "Relationships & emotional intelligence" group. It was an accurate description of what we focused on, but it was kind of clunky as a label. I've now reverted to simply calling the course "Opening up&