Micro-Seminar: Inner Resources for Living your Best Life at USC! PART ONE

Micro-Seminars have two parts. Attendance to both parts is required. Registering for the PART ONE session will automatically enroll you in the PART TWO session on Friday.

Part 1: Thursday, August 22, 2024 from 3:00 – 4:30 pm (PST)
Part 2: Friday, August 23, 2024 from 10:00 – 11:30 am (PST)

Yay! You did it! You’re in college! So now what?! USC life will no doubt be a new and exciting chapter filled with life-changing experiences, challenges, and opportunities. This seminar is all about unearthing your inner capacity to truly be present for all that is coming your way, both the big and the small. How do we find the beauty in our ordinary, everyday experiences, especially when we feel overwhelmed with coursework and exams? How do we find a sense of home in ourselves, especially when we are homesick for family and friends? How do we befriend ourselves in the midst of critical thoughts telling us we aren’t smart, attractive, or good enough? Together we’ll explore mindfulness and contemplative practices to help you cope with difficulty, experience deeper connection, savor more joy, and cultivate self-compassion to guide and support you in living your best life at USC (and beyond!)

Day 1 - What goodness has been here all along? We’ll explore practices for uncovering inner sources of joy that, like hidden treasures, our brain’s negativity bias can often fail to see. Through gratitude and mindfulness practices, we’ll get to the heart of the ways meaningful connection helps us overcome challenges and have a chance to workshop ways to approach difficulties you are facing today.

Day 2 - How can I be my own best friend? Do you sometimes feel like your own worst enemy, constantly pointing out your flaws or comparing yourself to others? Through compassion practices, we will learn how to befriend our inner bully. We’ll also explore how wonder, awe and beauty can transform the ordinary into extraordinary.

If you struggle with anxiety and not feeling good enough, or if you want to experience a sense of community and share vulnerably with others, this is the seminar for you!

Lead By:

Professor Martin Vitorino

Martin Vitorino, Ph.D. (he/him) teaches stress management and mindfulness in the PEMBH Department at USC as well as through Mindful USC. He also facilitates meditation groups for trans/non-binary communities. He shares contemplative practices from a justice and equity lens, with the intention that these tools might help us heal internalized systems of oppression and resource us to actively transform the world around us.

Professor Kiel Shaub

Kiel Shaub, Ph.D. (he/him) teaches stress management in the PEMBH Department at USC. He is also the Academic Curator for the EXL Lab @ USC, a new experience-based program initiative within the USC Dornsife Office of Experiential and Applied Learning. As AC, Kiel develops, designs, and leads dynamic experiential and maker-focused programs and events, convening USC Students, Faculty, and the Lab’s non-academic partners around a common vision of connecting learning to experience.

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