Cultivar o Equilíbrio Emocional
One-week retreat in the Azores
September 11-19
The path to a more balanced, happier life.
How to manage the everyday obstacles of our destructive emotions and cultivate a wholesome way of being?
These were the questions that sparked the meeting between H.H. the Dalai Lama with behavioral scientists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists, as well as Buddhist monks and scholars, at the VII Mind & Life Dialogue. One of the outcomes of these rich and fruitful discussions was the development of this program.
Cultivar o Equilíbrio Emocional is a training program designed to increase happiness and well-being within yourself, as well as in relationship to others and the world around you. In particular, it focuses on how our emotions can often become problematic and an obstacle to our own and others’ well-being, and what we can do to transform them into a wellspring of genuine joy and growth.
This course aims at helping you:
- Have your emotions work for you, not against you;
- Have your experience of emotions be constructive, and not destructive;
- Have you and those who know you intimately sense, by end of the course, that you have changed.
Awareness Brings Choice
Our emotions can either greatly help us and be a source of joy, or make us feel and behave in regrettable ways and create profound misery. The problem is, for most of us, emotions are beyond our conscious control – we don’t have a choice, they just happen to us.
The first step towards choice is becoming more aware of and familiar with our emotional experiences. Cultivating Emotional Balance training puts emotional awareness at its core to help participants move closer to a life of choice.
By becoming able to recognize the spark before the flame, we create a distance between stimulus and response, where we can chose if and how we want to emotionally engage.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Emotional balance is just the tip of the iceberg
What’s behind emotional balance? What turns an emotion constructive or destructive? Our emotions are based on the state and characteristics of our mind. A balanced mind will lead to balanced emotions, while an unbalanced mind will lead to unbalanced emotions.
CEB training aims at cultivating and sustaining emotional balance from a solid ground of equilíbrio mental, grounded on:
Awareness
A tranquil mind and stable attention are key to emotional regulation, self-discovery, and well-being in general.
Insight
Our views shape experience and emotions. The right ones bring us peace and growth, but delusion brings pain and unsatisfaction.
Values
Meaningful aspirations such as love and compassion are what constitute the ground of genuine happiness.
The key components of CEB are:
- Understanding how emotions work, and how they can work for and not against us
- Recognizing and working with emotional triggers
- Deepening awareness and stabilizing attention
- Increasing compassion for the self and others
- Cultivating happiness of being and mental balance
Watch the interview
The curriculum
Cultivating Emotional Balance is an evidence-based curriculum that draws from empirical research on emotion, coupled with contemplative practices that are rooted in Buddhist traditions.
CEB training integrates wisdom traditions, contemplative sciences, modern psychology, and scientific emotion research into a secular platform for human transformation. The CEB curriculum features useful and profound theory and practices from both the modern scientific method and knowledge, including psychology, neuroscience and medicine, as well as from the time-tested contemplative tradition with millennia of experience and refinement of Buddhism.
Cultivating Emotional Balance only takes the core wisdom and practices from these traditions and is not associated with any religion, being a completely secular program open to everyone from any background.
The training will focus on learning the theories and practices of psychology regarding emotional balance, based on Dr. Paul Ekman’s work, and the relevant theories and practices of Buddhism, based on Dr. Alan Wallace’s teachings, particularly focused on the cultivation of attention, insight through the practice of mindfulness, and the qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity (the Four Immeasurables). This course features the complete 42-hour Cultivating Emotional Balance program, detailed below.
- Setting an aspiration
- Introduction to genuine happiness
- The path of genuine happiness: attention, wisdom, and values
- Understanding emotions
- What are emotions?
- What is their function?
- How do they work?
- Trigger, experience, and behavior: building a model for the emotional episode
- Recognizing emotions and facial expressions
- Transforming emotions
- How can emotions become destructive?
- How can we make them more constructive?
- Before the emotion: cultivating mental balance and working with hot triggers
- During the emotion: recognizing (emotional awareness), regaining choice, and transforming
- After the emotion: healing and using destructive emotional episodses for growth and improvement
- Dealing with and helping improve others’ emotional episodes
- The 7 universal emotions:
- Anger
- Fear & Surprise
- Disgust & Contempt
- Sadness
- Joy
- Other important emotions (guilt and shame, envy and jealousy, …)
- Cultivating attentional balance
- Introduction to attentional balance
- Mindfulness of the present, body, and breath
- Settling the mind in its natural state
- Achieving mental quiescence and tranquility
- Cultivating cognitive balance
- Introduction to cognitive balance
- The importance of a balanced attention for the cultivation of wisdom
- The four applications of mindfulness: body, feelings, mind, and phenomena
- The three marks of existence and the nature of reality: impermanence, emptiness (interdependence), and dissatisfaction
- Cultivating conative balance
- Identifying the true causes of happiness and suffering
- Hedonia and Eudaimonia
- The four immeasurables: Loving-kindness, Compassion, Empathetic-joy and Equanimity
- Bringing genuine happiness to daily life and out into the world
Core practices:
- Shamatha (attention training & mental serenity)
- Mindfulness of breathing
- Settling the mind in its natural state (mindfulness of the mind)
- Awareness of awareness (optional)
- Vipashyana (insight into reality & self)
- The 4 applications of mindfulness (satipatthana):
- Mindfulness of the body
- Mindfulness of feelings
- Mindfulness of the mind
- Mindfulness of phenomena
- The 4 applications of mindfulness (satipatthana):
- The 4 immeasurables (Brahmaviharas)
- Loving-kindness (metta)
- Compassion (karuna)
- Empathetic joy (mudita)
- Equanimity (upekkha)
Retreat details
Location
São Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal
The Azores are the perfect off-the-beaten-path destination, bursting with natural beauty and endless outdoors possibilities. Dark sandy beaches or craggy volcanic cliffs ascend to mountains as tall as 7,700 feet. It’s a lush, dramatic volcanic landscape. While original laurel subtropical forest once covered most of the islands, today everything seems to grow here.
The capricious Azorean landscape is dotted with white-washed Mediterranean villages, full of color and vibrancy. Locals drive fast, live slow and eat fresh.
Complement your retreat experience with soaks in natural springs, hikes in volcano rims, and runs on deserted beaches. Try surfing, canyoning, or mountain biking.
If you love the outdoors, geothermal hot springs, the deep blue ocean full of whales and dolphins, the lushest forests and the greenest fields, rainbows and clouds, plus the most spectacular vistas, then the Azores is for you. Climb a mountain, or descend it on a bicycle, jump in the ocean from a cliff or simply fill your eyes and soul with the scenery.
We highly recommend that you arrive earlier or leave later to explore and experience all the beauty and adventure of São Miguel and the Azores. If you wish to stay at Quinta Minuvida, please contact the property directly.
Local
Quinta Minuvida Orchard Lodge
We will stay at Quinta Minuvida, a mission-driven, sustainable lodge. The name is a play on the Portuguese word ‘vida’ (life) and Minu, co-founder Rimi’s brilliant and inspiring aunt whose bequest helped fund this venture.
Set in an acre of traditional fruit orchards, Quinta Minuvida is the perfect spot for intimate small groups, offering ample space for meditation and seclusion.
Quinta Minuvida offers intentional, sustainable accommodation. Lovingly restored in 2017, the property preserves its vintage Azorean character dating from the orange era. Quinta Minuvida is only 20 minutes from the airport and capital Ponta Delgada, but a world apart, transporting you to a bucolic lifestyle of early bedtimes and wild canaries announcing a new day.
Quinta Minuvida offers five suites with private baths that can accommodate 10 – 12 guests in private or shared accommodation. Their style can be classic Azorean or more contemporary. They feature vintage furniture or large beds made from reclaimed pallets. If necessary, we can accommodate extra people in the neighbor partner farm. The accommodation types available are:
- 2 suites with 3 single beds and a private bathroom
- 4 rooms with a double bed and private bathroom
- 2 rooms with 2 single beds and a private bathroom
Amenities include five thoughtful suites, outdoor pool, yoga studio, guest kitchen, livingroom with fireplace, outdoor grill, firepit, observatory, organic vegetable garden, and one acre of orchards; a fully equipped studio, a large lawn, a banana grove and terrace space with stunning views. Near beaches, walking trails, hotsprings, bike paths, …
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Accomodation
Meals
We serve 3 delicious & nutritious vegetarian meals, composed of regional and seasonal products.
Tea, coffee, biscuits, and fruit are always available.
Vegan and gluten/lactose free options available.
Getting there
Airplane: Fly to João Paulo II Airport (Ponta Delgada - PDL).
From there we will pick you up and take you to the retreat center.
If you prefer to go on your own, or can't join the organized airport transfer, you can either rent a car or take a taxi (20 min travel).
Azores Airlines and TAP Portugal offer regular flights from Boston and we recommend online booking. From Europe, Ryanair offers low-cost fares from London and Lisbon. Many other charter companies operate from Germany and other destinations, as does Azores Airlines.
Dates
September 11 -19, 2021
Group size
Max. 12 participants
Structure
3.5 hour sessions
12 sessions
Total duration: 42 hours
6 days of teaching
1 free/excursion day
Agenda
07:30-08:30 - Breakfast
08:30-12:30 - Session (inc. break)
13:00-14:00 - Lunch
14:30-18:30 - Session (inc. break)
18:30-19:30 - Free time / activities
19:30-20:30 - Dinner
23:00-07:00 - Silence
There is one free day for excursions/activities /personal practice, possibly the last.
Check-in on September 11 from 14:00
Check-out on September 19 until 11:00
We highly recommend that you arrive earlier or leave later to explore and experience all the beauty and adventure of São Miguel and the Azores. If you wish to stay at Quinta Minuvida, please contact the property directly.
Your teacher
Your retreat will be led by Filipe Gonçalves Rocha, the founder and main teacher of the Center for Human Flourishing. He is a teacher, trainer, and author in the fields of mental and emotional balance, emotional intelligence, awareness, and regulation, meditation and contemplative practices, mental health, happiness and well-being, and personal growth and transformation. He is also a Medical Doctor, having graduated from the Abel Salazar Institute for Biomedical Sciences – University of Porto (ICBAS-UP) in 2021, and a voluntary paramedic at the Portuguese Red Cross. Read more »
Filipe is a Certified Teacher of Cultivating Emotional Balance since 2016.
Registration fees
Currency conversions are estimated and for informational purposes only. All final transactions will be made in euros.
ⓘ See prices in:
Shared suite
€2200
Double suite
€4450
(includes 2 participants)
Single suite
€2780
Early-bird discount
Valid until June 4 for the first 6 registrations.
Shared suite
€2200 €1949
Double suite
€4450 €3999
Single suite
€2780 €2349
Payment plan:
You can secure your place by paying only the 300€ deposit.
50% of the remaining balance must be paid until July 4.
The remaining 50% must be paid until August 4.
Financing options:
Disponibilizamos preços especiais para aqueles com dificuldades económicas comprovadas. Se esse for o teu caso, por favor contata-nos.
Apenas o conseguimos fazer graças aos nossos doadores – faz um donativo!
Refunds:
Full refunds (minus a 50€ administrative fee) until July 4.
50% refunds until August 4. No refunds after this date.
Full refunds in case the retreat is cancelled or its dates change.
COVID-19/Disease protection:
In case you cannot attend due to COVID-19 travel restrictions or a disease, we will credit you your registration so you can take it another time in the future.
What's included
Teachings
of the full 42-hour CEB program
Accomodation
for 8 nights
Service
Daily cleaning, bed linen, towels, hygiene products
Meals
3 daily delicious & nutritious vegetarian meals + tea, coffee, fruit & biscuits
Use of spaces
Kitchen & barbecue, gardens, and pool, exclusive for the group
Guided trail
in the lushing green vulcanic beauty of the Azores led by our hosts Rimi and João, certified guides
Airport transfer
Wifi
Course Manual
Certificate
Guided practices
Support
Are you unsure or have a question?
We can schedule a short call with you to answer your questions and give you more details.
Benefícios
- Increased emotional awareness (both yours and others') - recognize the spark before the flame
- Increased freedom of choice in emotional experience: choose whether you want to emotionally engage or not, and if yes, how
- Turn your emotions (both your experience of them and their results) more constructive and less destructive
- Recognize and work with emotional triggers
- Change and transform old established emotional patterns in you which may be disfunctional
- Become better able to help transform others' emotional episodes into more constructive ones
- Learn to recognize facial expressions and emotional micro-expressions
- Understand why you (and others) feel, think and behave in certain ways
- Learn about emotions and deeply understand what they are and how they work
- Explore with detail each of the 7 universal emotions: Anger, Fear, Surprise, Disgust, Contempt, Sadness, and Joy, along with others such as Guilt and Shame, Envy and Jealously, ...
- Realize what are the true causes of happiness and suffering, as well as how you can cultivate the first and eliminate the latter
- Develop a calmer mind with a refined awareness and attention through meditation
- Cultivate wisdom and attain insight through the careful investigation of experience, and release limiting beliefs and world-views
- Cultivate good human qualities which are key to intra and interpersonal happiness and well-being
- All of this immersed in the beauty and peacefulness of the land and nature of the Azores
Testimonials
Not included in the package:
- Travel and insurance
- Accommodation before and after the retreat
- Extra activities (excursions, yoga classes, massages, etc.)
- Lunch and dinner for the free day (you may want to travel somewhere around the island and eat there, or choose to eat at the center)
FAQ
Not at all. This course will guide you through the very first steps of meditation practice, all the way to more advanced and profound practices and meditations.
Not at all. The themes and practices of CEB are universal and are not tied to any particular religion, but are open to all.
We can steadily enhance our capacity for attention, wisdom, and good qualities, by strengthening these mental qualities just as we can our triceps. As with our physique the key is steady practice. Part of CEB training involves learning various forms of meditation that present a systematic path leading to deeper levels of concentration, but begin with the simple exercise of following the breath.
Yes! All those who successfully complete the course will receive a participation and completion certificate by the teacher and Center for Human Flourishing. Presence in 85% of the sessions is necessary.
Yes! All registered participants will be handed a course manual as well as various documents and worksheets which are either needed or improve your experience and outcomes from the course.
Yes! Here is the recommended bibliography:
Paul Ekman, Ekman, Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life. New York: Times Books, 2003.
Paul Ekman & H.H. the Dalai Lama, Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion. New York: Times Books, 2008.
B. Alan Wallace, Genuine Happiness: Meditation as a Path to Fulfillment. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
B. Alan Wallace, The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind. Foreword by Daniel Goleman. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2006.
B. Alan Wallace, The Four Immeasurables: Cultivating a Boundless Heart. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2004 Publications, 2004.
Daniel Goleman, Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama. 2000.
Daniel Goleman, Healing Emotions.
Culadasa (John Yates) & Matthew Immergut & Jeremy Graves, The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness. New York: Atria Books, 2015.
There will be no scheduled interviews, but occasional short personal interviews may be arranged as needed. Full individual sessions are provided to participants with a 25% discounted price.
There is a possibility for that if everyone agrees at it!
The weather in the Azores is spring-like most of the time; capricious, with days of sun interlaced with low clouds, a shower, a rainbow – and then sun again. Seasons run the same as everywhere else in the northern hemisphere, although it is said that the Azores can have the four seasons all in just one day (or hour!).
We are blessed with a cool to warm subtropical climate, heavily influenced by the ocean. We get enough rain to look lush and green year-round. Never too cold (seldom drops below 10ºC/50ºF) or too hot (rarely rises above 28ºC/82ºF). Humid and often cloudy. Perfect for the outdoors.
Yes! All sessions include a 10 to 20 minute interval.
We have a donations fund for cases like you. Contact us!
Have a different question? Ask aqui!
