Feeding not Fighting Online Course
Feeding not Fighting with Fay Adams
A Radical Practice for Transforming Inner ‘Demons’
including contributions from Choden and Kristine Mackenzie-Janson
Online 1.5 hour sessions x 6
18.30pm – 20.00pm on Monday 8th February, Monday 15th February, Monday 22nd February, Monday 1st March, Monday 8th March and Monday 15th March 2027.
Prerequisite: MA Level 1 Mindfulness and Level 2 Compassion or equivalent. If you’re unsure whether you have the equivalent experience, please email fay@mindfulnessassociation.net with a short summary of your experience of meditation or other inner work.
Please note: For this course to be beneficial to you, you will need to have the resources to take responsibility for your physical and mental health while participating. Please get in touch if you’re in doubt and would like support to decide if now is the right time to engage.
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke, from Letters to a Young Poet
Course Summary
When anxiety, self-criticism, anger, chronic illness, or exhaustion show up, our natural instinct is to fight them, fix them, or run away. But pushing these inner “demons” down only drains our energy and keeps us trapped in reactivity and fear.
Inspired by Lama Tsultrim Allione’s Feeding Your Demons® and rooted in ancient wisdom, this advanced course flips the paradigm. Instead of fighting your struggles, you will learn to drop beneath the surface and tend to them at their root. By discovering and meeting the deepest unmet needs behind your difficulties, the inner conflict clears –allowing your struggles to organically dissolve into wisdom, vitality, and deep peace.
What You Will Take Away From This Course
By moving from inner conflict to a greater sense of aliveness, you will finish this 6-week journey with:
How the Journey Unfolds
This is a deeply experiential, embodied course. Over six 1.5-hour online sessions, we combine three profound deep dives:
“Often, I finish the practice in a tangibly different inner state to the one I began with and then feel able to reengage with whatever life is throwing at me from a fresh place. I gain great confidence from knowing that it’s there whenever I need it.” — Fay Adams, Course Tutor
Is This Course Right for You?
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly do you mean by "demons"? Do I need to believe in anything supernatural?
Not at all. In this context, “demons” (traditionally called māras in Buddhist teachings) are the internal forces that work against us. They are your everyday struggles: anxiety, chronic self-criticism, exhaustion, anger, insomnia, or limiting beliefs. We aren’t dealing with anything external or supernatural, we are working entirely with our own mind, habits, and emotional patterns.
How does "feeding" a difficult emotion actually work?
It is a practice of radical welcoming. Usually, when a difficult emotion like anxiety shows up, we try to fight it or suppress it, which only makes it stronger. In this course, we use a structured somatic and imagination-based process. You will learn to locate the emotion in your body, give it a form, dialogue with it to find out what it truly needs (like safety or love), and satisfy that need. When the struggle is met with compassion instead of resistance, its energy naturally transforms into an inner “ally”, like clarity or confidence.
I haven’t done Level 1 and 2 with the Mindfulness Association. Can I still join?
This course is specifically designed for those who have completed our Level 1 Mindfulness and Level 2 Compassion courses (or equivalent deep training), as it requires a strong foundation in mindfulness and self-compassion. If you have an established, long-term meditation or personal development practice from another tradition or modality and feel ready for this work, please email fay@mindfulnessassociation.net with a brief summary of your experience so we can see if it’s a good fit.
Is this course safe for me if I am currently going through a mental health crisis?
Because this practice involves turning toward and directly engaging with your vulnerabilities and challenging emotions, it requires a stable foundation of emotional resilience and is not a replacement for therapy. To benefit from these sessions, you need to have the inner resources to take full responsibility for your physical and mental well-being. If you are currently experiencing acute trauma or a mental health crisis, we recommend waiting or consulting with your healthcare provider first.
What happens if I have to miss a live online session?
We highly recommend attending live to get the full benefit of the group energy and the optional pair work during inquiry. However, we understand life happens! All six sessions are recorded and made available to participants shortly after each broadcast, so you can easily catch up or revisit a specific practice in your own time.
