The Foundation Course

The Foundation Course was an adventure of inquiry and discovery about the nature of the mind and the heart. It brought me great presence, open-heartedness and authenticity - not merely for myself, but in connection with those I love. It also brought me a greater acceptance, calm and stability within the turmoil of my everyday life, and deepened all the practices that support my wellbeing. Thank you Concord and all involved.

I had a very moving experience of the iEvolve programme. I wanted to feel that breakthrough in my body so I enrolled in the Foundation Course. The course placed a focus on our day to day way of being in life, a new type of awareness which really became my life. During the 10 weeks of the programme I began to create a new relationship with myself and my body. The programme was a roller-coaster of emotions; deep and profound in the beautiful company and safety of a group. Having completed the course I feel I am a bigger person in my own life with a new relationship to my body - I couldn’t recommend the course more highly.

I wasn't expecting to get as much out of The Foundation Course the second time around. But it works a strange magic, and even more emerges and is revealed, leading me further down the road of transformation. Through the generous sharing of my fellow participants, the support of my coach and the grounding of the bodywork and cooking, I have established a deeper connection with my body, and a greater discernment of the patterns that are trying to run my life. I have a strong foundation on which to base further self-discovery and open myself to greater possibilities.

The Foundation Course really helped me appreciate my body and its needs. I found that if I threw myself in to everything on offer that I felt very well and stopped getting caught up in everyday issues and the normal worries that go through my head. It was a joy to be with others who’ve made a similar commitment to looking at and working with their everyday lives. After finishing the course, I have fundamentally changed my attitude towards food and looking after my body.

Participating on The Foundation Course at Concord Institute has created a new space for me to be in my life I didn’t know was possible. Through practising the disciplines of bodywork, wholefoods cooking and rigorous self-enquiry, a quiet yet powerful energy was being fed throughout the three months of the programme, a new kind of strength inside my belly I can tangibly feel. I feel that I can live from my heart in a way that wasn’t accessible to me before, and I have more energy to be able to bring into reality the dreams that live inside of me. Above all, I have the tools I need to support and sustain those dreams. Now is the time.

The Foundation Course provided a framework through which I transformed my relationship with myself, with my family, and with Life. Through integrating the bodywork, whole food cooking, and dialogical inquiry systematically and rigorously over 12 weeks, I was able to break through into a new world that was previously unattainable, and even unimaginable. I now stand firmly with a level of internal contentment that my former self would have only dreamed of - along with the tools and practices that enable this dreamy world to be sustained.

I remember approaching the Foundation Course with a lot of hesitancy. Questioning whether or not I felt ready to fully bring myself to the programme, whilst dealing with quite a lot of change in my personal life. All I can say is that I am relieved that I signed up regardless and completed the programme. No matter what I had going on there was always space for me to be heard and accepted and that really shifted how I relate to myself and others. The opportunities the course created for me to gain a little more energy and strength were countless - through food, movement, breath work, silence, dialogue, just being. I found once I surrendered to the simple practices of the Foundation Course the benefits were undeniable. It has allowed me to find stillness and peace in my every day life, which for me has been invaluable.

The Foundation Course: Helped me to more frequently and easily access the energising realisations of the IEvolve programme. It weaved a new understanding from my mind into my body. It had been a long time since those two parts of me really connected. It allowed for a new way of thinking to develop into a new way of being. The three disciplines of dialogue, bodywork and cooking provided a day to day framework which created the room to recognise and be with old habits and patterns, as well as the strength to then control and manage them. I believe this course has helped me regain my power. It breeds a kind of practical, grounded mindfulness. I have finished it with a lot more room and time for others as a result. The same power of the group’s energy exists, as it did for IEvolve and yet it is also beautifully supplemented by 1 on 1 coaching from those that have been on this journey before. In only 10 weeks I reconnected with family members, changed the shape of key relationships in my life for the better and learned to love myself too. Thank you.

The Foundation Course was a perfect journey of self-evaluation, a forensic enquiry into my sense of self and relations with others through ten weeks of joyful experimentation. Cookery, bodywork and dialogue sessions combined to help me challenge my conditioning towards these fundamental areas of being. I found that my learned beliefs and prejudices had shaped my unhealthy relationships with food, exercise and other people. Confronting and freeing myself from these beliefs allowed me to approach daily life in a fresh and exciting way. The coaching structure and buddying up with other course participants meant that I felt engaged and accountable for my commitments, even when I was away from the Institute. I can’t thank the Institute, coaches and support team enough for helping me to find equilibrium across all areas of my life.