The Willingness to be Open with Vinny Ferraro

“One of my teachers says that all emotions contain their opposite. So when I'm willing to be with the grief, I have access to joy again. Instead of this armoring that comes very natural to us, we do our best to remain to find the willingness to open in an undefended way.”

— Vinny Ferraro

In this episode, Dara and Sarah talk with Vinny Ferraro about the training program, A Year to Live, emotional opposites and armor, insight meditation and how his practice has shifted his relationship to grief. 

Vinny Ferraro is a nationally recognized leader in designing and implementing mindfulness interventions. He’s served as the Training Director for Mindful Schools, Challenge Day and the Mind Body Awareness Project. His experience includes decades of direct services to incarcerated people. He’s been empowered in the Buddhist Insight tradition, and he’s been the Guiding Teacher of the Big Heart City Sangha in SF since 2004.

This episode is part of a Breathing Wind miniseries titled Grief and Humor, co-hosted by Dara Kosberg and Sarah Davis. The Grief and Humor miniseries explores how humor allows people to get closer to their grief, explore it and better understand it, by creating a gateway into the hard feelings.

To find out more about this episode and subscribe to the newsletter, visit the show notes.

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