Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - FE298: Unleash Personal Potential

Course Details

Want to expand your life skills for dog training and competing? Wondering how to make mindfulness and dog training work together? Curious about how to plan to include dreams and aspirations? Not sure how to increase your resilience and support those around you (animal or human) who need help recovering from tough events? Want to know about Growth Mindset, Flow and how you can achieve them? Looking to expand your creativity and sense of joy in life? Look no further - this course was designed for you!

We will be exploring a wide variety of topics and specific tools looking at becoming our best selves. Golds will choose which type(s) of work they'd most like to focus on. Expect supportive, safe and thought-provoking nudges and support from Andrea. It's the way she works!

One innovation for this class is a 42-day challenge that will provoke all levels of students to USE tools, experiment with things beyond their comfort zone and continue to move towards growth, change and self-awareness. Mindfulness is seen as a buzz word - that's not the intention of its use here. Deliberate, careful, conscious choices inform and support our ability to stay focused on the present and the things that matter most to us. Work together with Andrea to determine which tools you want to use to help you be your best self each and every day.

Teaching Approach

The class material consists of short lectures and specifically related exercises to help students apply the tools and understand the concepts covered. Material is provided in mainly written form. Students will work through materials at their own pace and get individualized feedback on their progress. New material will be released on an average of twice a week, depending on the general progress of the class. Each gold student will be able to personalize the course to get the help they need with their own concerns and challenges.

This class will have a Teacher's Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook study group to help the bronze and silver students! Directions for joining that Facebook group will be in the classroom after you register.

Instructor: Andrea Harrison

Andrea Harrison (she/her) is passionate about all species, including dogs and humans! Having lived with dogs her whole life, Andrea was an early convert to positive training for people and dogs. She has taken this message to the media many times...(Click here for full bio and to view Andrea's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

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This course will change each time it runs as students are welcome to bring their own goals to class. We may spend a great deal of time on each lecture framed in terms of dog sports or in terms of life. No matter! All students at all levels will benefit, as will their animal partners!

This syllabus will likely change even before the course begins - so keep your eyes on this page!

Week One - Mindfulness - what is it? Historically? Practically? What are the four agreements? This week's activity will help you explore meditation and awareness.

Week Two - Values will be the topic of the lecture and activity - identifying yours - finding connections to the things that matter to you to goal set, and dream. (And why and how these things can help you train your dog!)

Week Three - Learning and creating (mindfully) will be the focus of the lecture and activity for this week. How to implement creativity in our training and life and how to maintain that sense of being a curious learner will be covered. What is Flow? What is a growth mindset? How can each help us navigate our dog, and other world, lives?

Week Four- Practicing meaningful reflection - how to do it and why it matters will be the lecture/activity focus - (you might like to think of it as enriching your record-keeping).

Week Five - Checking in on self-care and self-compassion while reviewing the notion of being impeccable - EVEN TO YOURSELF is where we will spend time this week.

and

Week Six - We'll explore the issues you want and make sure you have practical ways to implement the various learning and activities in your life!

Prerequisites & Supplies

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An open mind and a willingness to test tools are all that is required. You may find All in Your Head, or another Andrea course helpful.

Sample Lecture

Welcome to a sample lecture for UPP – aka Unleash Personal Potential

This lecture is an early one – it is the first lecture after the class starts – after a preamble lecture when you sign up

A Short Treatise on Mindfulness

Mindfulness is comprised of presence. Being conscious of our thoughts, physicality, awareness of surroundings and those around us all combine to increase our awareness of ourselves. Or at least that’s the theory!

Mindfulness is often espoused as a path to peace, calm and serenity. Often the term meditation is used nearly interchangeably with mindfulness but to my way of looking at it meditation is only one component of being mindful – and one that many people struggle with – one can be mindful without embracing, or even engaging in meditation. (though you might decide to test meditation or work on your practice of it – it certainly is NOT required in this class!)

If we go back to the Buddhist roots of mindfulness you will hear reference to the seven steps to enlightenment. Much of the work you can do through this course is rooted in these tenants in some way. The classes you have taken with me delve into many aspects of mindfulness -if you chose to head down that path.

Physicality – this includes the notion that you can ground yourself, breathe for calmness and clarity that your body is connected to your mind and where we must pay some attention.

Mindfulness of Emotions – This can be uncomfortable – this is the chain of consciousness work – where thoughts are followed and explored – through dialogue and reflection what can be discovered?

Mindfulness of Thoughts – this connects to and extends the concept you have worked with before – that thoughts are not you – they are guests in your body.

Mindfulness of Effort – when we work here we look at motivation, goal setting, planning we are including effort as an aspect we must develop.

You will also perhaps recognize other wisdom in the work we have done. My training and interests are diverse and that is reflected in my approach to education, counselling, and facilitation.

The Four Agreements influenced my thinking, teaching, and counselling long before I read Ruiz’s book.

They resonate with me to this day – and some are very difficult to practice daily! (although interestingly enough different elements are difficult for different people and are hard at different times – when I ask people to participate in public speaking on this – the groups are more often than not quite equally divided on which element is the hardest to put into practice!)

There are positive physical and mental benefits to practicing mindfulness and the four agreements but if you’ve ever seen or heard my self-help rant

You know that I don’t rely on “proper” mindfulness practice as being a panacea for everything or even as a tool for all people. I will not tell you to meditate and all your answers will come to you – I promise!

The reason I appreciate these two concepts is that they give us markers or goalposts to aim for. Some of the many strategies I have in my toolbox to suggest and help you test come from mindfulness and the four agreements so it would be remiss not to review them here.

This course is yours, as all of my courses are. There is a weekly lecture on each of the following topics to explore together values, learn mindfully, reflection, self-care, gratitude, and forgiveness.

The way you use this course is up to you. People have used my courses for a wide variety of purposes including:

· tweaking training or competition plans,

· to be held to account for actions,

· to peak performance for major events,

· to goal set,

· to work on relationships with any species

· getting a new job

· deciding what open door to walk through

· processing grief

· exploring change

· investigating aspects of character that make training challenging.

Homework:

Considering the earlier homework and your goals for this class how much attention do you want to pay to these broad principles? Have you worked with them formally at all? Is there any specific subject mentioned that you would like more information about?

How does this lecture change, build or support the goal you have for this class?

Resources you may find helpful/interesting/informative:

https://www.mindful.org/what-is-mindfulness/ (meditation as mindfulness)

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cui-bono/201012/agreeing-the-four-agreements (an article about the Ruiz book)

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/30-simple-mindfulness-practices-to-help-you-focus-and-be-present/ (ways to embed mindfulness into life routines)

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/5-beliefs-anxiety-can-actually-cause-anxiety/ (anxiety and mindfulness)

Testimonials & Reviews

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A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...

"Andrea has a great deal of compassion for all of her students, it makes it easy to open up to her and dig down to the hard work."

"Learning how to let go of all the layers of coping mechanisms randomly cobbled together throughout the decades has been difficult. Replacing them with better strategies has been amazing. I couldn't quite make the leap about how to do this in my dog training life. Andrea has helped me get unstuck and I feel a lot more positive about how to move forward."

"Yet another great class from Andrea who continues to be the best thing about FDSA (saying a lot after 30+ total classes and many wonderful instructors). Andrea has this great ability to tailor her feedback to each of her students individually and simultaneously challenge you to improve and comfort you by letting you know you're not alone."

""Unleash Personal Potential" is about the human end of the leash. Andrea created a safe space for her students to be vulnerable and share our feelings, fears and experiences. Her feedback was always empowering and validating, and she helped us find self-care strategies that work for us, reframe our experiences, and relate to the dogs and people in our lives in new ways. An incredibly helpful class to take - it'll not only help your relationship with your dog, but also with yourself." Chrissi S.

"Andrea's classes are very beneficial and promote new ways of understanding ourselves, our relationships with our dogs, and offer strategies that help with planning and managing challenges. Her dedication to her students is obvious. To get the most out of her classes, students need to be prepared for sharing self reflection and being an active participant in defining the journey. Thanks Andrea." Nancy B

"I want to thank you for teaching this class. The lecture material is excellent. Your expertise and experience are obvious.
I admire the strength you have to deal with all our "issues" with care and compassion. I remember how Jill Stoller used to rave about your classes. Now I know why."

Registration

There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please subscribe to our mailing list for notifications.

Registration opens at 10:30am Pacific Time.

FE298 Subscriptions

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Tuition	$ 260.00	$ 130.00	$ 65.00
Enrollment Limits	12	25	Unlimited
Access all course lectures and materials	✔	✔	✔
Access to discussion and homework forums	✔	✔	✔
Read all posted questions and answers	✔	✔	✔
Watch all posted videos	✔	✔	✔
Post general questions to Discussion forum	✔	✔	✖
Submit written assignments	✔	✖	✖
Post dog specific questions	✔	With video only	✖
Post videos	✔	Up to 2	✖
Receive instructor feedback on	Questions All videos	Questions All videos	✖

Find more details, refund policies and answers to common questions in the Help center.

FE298: Unleash Personal Potential

Course Details

Teaching Approach

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Silver

Bronze