Classes
Welcoming as Sanctuary of Belonging
Starting March 24th, from 5:30pm-7pm, every Friday for 6 weeks
Cost: $ 150 (includes class materials)
Early Bird: $ 125
Please register directly with Madrona MindBody Institute:
iRest® and The Practice of Welcoming offers life-skills in form of meditative self-inquiries that shift perspective and create a new track in the way how our nervous system fires and wires together. Instead of addressing the Human Condition- and the Human Conditioning! – as a “problem” we welcome all perceptions wholeheartedly. This perspective shift creates a parallel pathway of synaptic connections. The more we practice walking down that new pathway – the more often an impulse travels down that new pathway – the more the old habitual route is overgrowing.
We are allowing opposing experiences and perceptions to be present without trying to fix, change or alter them. We practice meeting and greeting and welcoming ourselves – and each other – in our brokenness, in our despair, our joy, our anxiety, our enchantment, our confusion, our envy, our grief, in our anger. Whatever arises – the crack, the tear, the tension – we include and accompany the orphaned and homeless aspects back home into the wholeness and perfection that we are an expression of.
From “or” to “and”:
Living the Paradox of Opposites
6 weekly 120-minute classes on Wednesdays starting January 3rd, 2024 at 5:30-7:30pm (PDT)
At Madora
310 Fort Worden Way
Port Townsend, WA 98368
$165 for the series, with an early price of $135 if paid before December 3rd.
When we invite relaxation, what will walk through the door first? Most likely we will meet tension and contraction, accompanied by an incessant loop of thoughts…
iRest® and The Practice of Welcoming offers life-skills in the form of meditative self-inquiries that shift perspective and create new connections in our nervous system. Becoming aware of the states that keep us locked in a particular groove of reaction opens new ways of being in the world and with each other.
What happens if we turn toward that which takes us away? In each class I will offer different ways of experiencing and seeing through the layers of identification (‘koshas’) that define this being human. We will experiment with conscious movement, breathing practice, dialogue, co-meditation in dyads, and there will be a guided iRest® Yoga Nidra Meditation at the end of each session.
Instead of trying to fix, change or even transform so- called negative experiences, we welcome them, and experience ourselves as a sanctuary of belonging, where the broken and orphaned aspects of being human find refuge. We are the sanctuary within which opposite perceptions roam freely. The perspective shift from ”either/or” to “and” invites a feeling of peace, connection and inclusion.
Duality is living inside of Non- Duality.
Research shows that iRest® Meditation effectively reduces stress, insomnia, anxiety, depression, burn-out syndrome, chronic pain, and post-traumatic distress, so we may experience enhanced equanimity, joy, and wellbeing throughout daily life’s challenges. iRest® can be practiced individually or in groups and is used successfully in conjunction with other therapeutic modalities.
This adventure will include:
Playful movement and creative breathing to tone and balance the nervous system while activating our capacity for connection and belonging to self/others/world;
Practicing exchanging visualizing and thinking for feeling and sensing;
Experientials inspired by the Polyvagal Theory, such as for instance identifying Glimmers and Triggers – the felt qualities of safety and belonging as well as their opposites;
Welcoming and tracking the flexibility of attention and the way our nervous system responds;
Guided iRest® Yoga Nidra Meditations;
Self-Inquiry and Co-Meditation in dyads – seated, in gesture and movement;
Dialogue, discussion and integration;
Online classes
Sign up to receive an update when the schedule will be ready.
Mentoring
Mentoring offers an opportunity to integrate your personal practice into everyday living and into your workplace, as a teacher, therapist or coach, wherever and however you care to incorporate iRest® into your professional environment.
Drawing from my rich experience with a wide variety of people and circumstances we explore new ways to develop creative concepts and find professional strategies that work for you.
We may address questions like these:
- How do I support and integrate my deepest heart’s calling into my professional life in a practical way?
- How do I create a safe framework for clients and/or participants?
- How do I incorporate the 10 steps of iRest into my lesson planning?
- How do I structure a retreat thematically?
- What does it take to implement this valuable practice in such a way that my clients are met and welcomed exactly where they are – regardless of the socio-economic environment and/or political, religious or cultural orientation?
- How do I deal with a challenging situation?
- How do I adapt meditative self-exploration so that it resonates with a person’s ability to integrate an experience?
Private / Individual Sessions
In individual sessions we dive into specific topics or issues as they arise for you.
The Practice of Welcoming – based on the iRest® Meditation developed by Richard Miller, PhD- offers a creative approach inspired by the teachings of the Non-Dual Tradition, Tantra Yoga, Kashmir Shaivism, mindfulness practice, the latest findings in neurobiology, and last but not least my own life experience on and off the mat.
Foremost you are in charge – you are the driver of this magic bus, and your needs, concerns and desires are determining the route and the velocity we travel together.
I may ask you questions intended to deepen, unpack, and integrate your experience. The invitation is to become aware of and then describe what you are feeling: sensations, emotions, thoughts, images, memories, core beliefs. We sit together in shared presence with the intention to support the unfolding of your life path. Together we are the sanctuary of welcoming.
We may not have experienced being accompanied by another person in a safe holding environment as we discover who we are. We may never have experienced a “sacred mirror” to reflect to us the validity and value of our existence. We may not have been welcomed in the expression of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aliveness.
Co-meditation means attentively and compassionately meeting the contents of consciousness and then gently unwrapping them like a gift that is waiting here. By not interpreting, fixing or changing – without even transforming the experience in any way – we are meeting the raw, unfiltered moment exactly as it is.
We are letting it be.
It is exciting and very touching to witness how transformation and integration happens spontaneously when we turn toward that which seems to be holding us back.
The flow of a session is not necessarily linear. Sometimes different messengers might arise simultaneously holding different treasures to discover. This can seem a bit jumbled and chaotic at first. By staying with sensing and feeling we find that opposites not only appear at the same time but they reveal each other. The thinking mind cannot necessarily “grasp” this, because thinking is happening in an either-or universe.
Cost:
A 60 minute session is $ 110, a 90 minutes is $ 150.
I am offering a “4-Pack-Special” :
4 x 60 minute sessions within 3 months for $ 380,-
4 x 90 minute sessions within 3 months for $ 540,-
