Gathering - Heart of Now Introduction

This Sunday we will have an introduction to a set of practices called the Heart of Now, presented by Debby Sugarman. The essence of The Heart of Now is the practice of being present with your whole self: your emotions, your thoughts, your body, and the place in yourself that is connected to everyone and everything. When you are present with yourself, you can be experience the people, situations and circumstances of your life with greater honesty and clarity. It is from this place that you can free yourself from the limitations that have held you back, and all possibilities are available to you--you are free to create your life as you want it to be. We will experience some of the practices that make up The Heart of Now weekend.

The Heart of Now is a weekend-long experiential weekend that is
taught monthly at Lost Valley Educational Center in Oregon. The
facilitator of this evening, Debby Sugarman, is an assistant for the
course and is working to bring the course to the DC area this
year. For more information ahead of time, you can email Debby at dsugarm@efn.org or go to www.lostvalley.org .

Shalom Retreat - March 24-26

A Shalom Retreat is a powerful transformative weekend experience, helping people become aware of blocks and move past them through breathwork, imagery, and community. Eight people go through a process together of opening up and looking at the parts of themselves that block them from being fully free and loving. A Shalom retreat is not therapy - it is growth along our individual journeys towards more connection with ourselves, those around us, and the universe.

Shalom Retreats come from Shalom Mountain, a retreat and study center in the Catskill Mountains in upper state New York, and now we are bringing the Shalom retreat to the Washington DC area. You can read more about the retreat here.

I am holding the retreat at The Land Celebration just west of Winchester, at a cost of $300 per person, $250 if you pay by 3/18. The retreat runs from Friday night through Sunday afternoon. All accomodations and meals included. Since space is limited to eight people, it is best to register early.

See the comments under the previous Shalom retreat to get a feel of what participants got out of it.

Gathering - Journeying to Music

This Sunday we will be using music and breathwork to allow ourselves to enter a different world. For those of you familiar with holotropic breathwork, this will be a lighter and shorter version of that. Lying down in a safe atmosphere, we will let music guide us on a journey into inner realms of feeling and imagery.

Gathering - A Taste of Shalom

This Sunday we will have a taste of the process used at Shalom Mountain for bringing us healing and new awareness. The process centers on the wisdom of the body rather than the mind to tell us where we are blocked, and on the loving support of a community to create the space for movement and growth in our lives.

Gathering - Goalbuddies

GoalBuddies - This is a practical meeting focusing on accomplishing our goals, moving towards our dreams, and getting the mundane done. If you need encouragement and company on your path towards your goals, this may be a good place to start. Each person who desires will get time talking about what they are trying to do in their life, and the group will brainstorm and share resources that could be of use. We will also buddy up, for those who choose to, so we can have someone to periodically remind and encourage us towards our goals. Please join us.