So this is the second session of the "Compassion, wisdom & wellbeing: 8 week training".  I posted a description of the initial session a few days ago ...

I've already introduced this course in an earlier blog post "Compassion, wisdom & wellbeing: an 8 week training".  This post gives background for the first session of the training.  It will be particularly relevant for participants, but others not coming to the course itself may well find these ideas interesting & helpful.  I certainly hope so!

General details of this course have already been given in the blog post "Compassion, wisdom & wellbeing: an 8 week training".  Before, during & after the course, there's encouragement to fill in questionnaires.  This is suggested for at least three reasons.  One is that when we measure something, we tend to pay more attention to it.  Keeping track is often a therapeutic intervention in its own right.  Secondly we're using questionnaires to see if changes in our behaviours actually produce the improvements we're hoping for.  Does working through this training over a couple of months genuinely improve our compassion, wisdom & wellbeing?  There are more comprehensive ways to measure this, but questionnaires are 'low tech' and one of the most straightforward ways to asses

I read a lot of research.  When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - Endnote - which currently contains well over 25,000 abstracts.  I also regularly tweet about emerging research, so following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ (click on the relevant icon at the top of this web page) will keep you up to speed with some of what I'm finding interesting. Additionally you can view this highlighted research by visiting Scoop.it (click on the "it!" icon at the top of the page).  At Scoop.it, I stream publications into five overlapping topic areas: Cognitive & General Psychotherapy, Depression, Compassion & Mindfulness, Healthy Living & Healthy Aging, and Positive Psychology.