The Zen of Chocolate–

A Seriously Fun Approach to Creating Extraordinary Happiness

Presented by Diane Gehart

Happiness is fleeting, make each bite last!

Using chocolate as a medium for inquiry, You will laugh and play while reflecting on how to bring greater joy to each day. Two sciences of happiness, Buddhist and positive psychology, inform your experience in this workshop/retreat. You will identify ways to increase life satisfaction as well as learn about what modern science has to say on the subject.

This retreat is designed to move participants from the generic and fleeting happiness for which most of us settle toward a more enduring and profound happiness, for which we all long. In this workshop, participants will learn to use two sciences of happiness, Buddhist and positive psychology, to map a clear and straightforward path from ordinary to extraordinary happiness. Dr. Gehart translates these two sciences using a fun and familiar medium: chocolate. In addition to a variety of chocolate-based meditations and exercises, participants will also examine their life maps, their relationships to problems, and their choices in everyday life to identify ways to increase life satisfaction as well as learn about what modern science has to say on the subject. Participants should expect to laugh and play while seriously studying and reflecting on how to bring greater joy to each day. Note: non-chocolate eaters are welcome to attend.

Tentative Schedule
July 27 Evening: Introduction to chocolate meditation

July 28:
Morning: From Chocoholism to Chocolate Snobbery: Becoming a Seeker of Extraordinary Happiness

Afternoon: Chocolate Is a Vegetable: Mapping the Truths You Live By

Evening: Who Moved My Chocolate?: Befriending Problems, Befriending Life

July 29:
Morning: Mindfully Waking Up to Your Life: One Bite Is All It Takes

Afternoon: Fierce Compassion: Opening Your Heart to White, Milk, and Dark

Evening: With or Without Nuts?: Crazy Wisdom and the Backdoor to Happiness

July 30:
Morning: There’s No Wrong Way to Eat a Reese’s or Is There?: The Ethics of Happiness

Evening: Artificial Chocolate, Comfort Foods, and Spiritual Materialism: Dangers on the Path

Aug 1: Wrap Up: The Art of Savoring: Joyfulness as a Way of Life

Diane Gehart, Ph.D is a prolific author, presenter and Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at CSUN.. She is an internationally sought after speaker, having facilitated hundreds of workshops to professionals and general audiences. CEUs are available to MFTs and LCSWs

For more information on Diane, visit her website at www.dianegehart.com