Personal Exploration   

Why obsess over kale and collagen while ignoring the foundations that make it all work? Every superfood and supplement depends on one catalyst — oxygen, optimally delivered through healthy breathing. This course reveals how proper breathing transforms your complete metabolic cycle, from fuel intake to waste elimination. Discover why healthy breathing 24/7 catalyzes cardiovascular, digestive, brain and metabolic health — while mouth breathing sabotages it, even if you eat well and exercise daily. Exercise with healthy breathing to amplify benefits and limit stress risks. You invest your time and money in proper food and ample exercise. Why not “invest-igate” in your breath and master the overlooked keys to metabolic health?

NOTE: This is a practical course exploring the different dimensions of your breath and respiratory functions. It is not a substitute for medical care of your conditions. You are responsible for your own participation.

Why obsess over kale and collagen while ignoring the foundations that make it all work? Every superfood and supplement depends on one catalyst — oxygen, optimally delivered through healthy breathing. This course reveals how proper breathing transforms your complete metabolic cycle, from fuel intake to waste elimination. Discover why healthy breathing 24/7 catalyzes cardiovascular, digestive, brain and metabolic health — while mouth breathing sabotages it, even if you eat well and exercise daily. Exercise with healthy breathing to amplify benefits and limit stress risks. You invest your time and money in proper food and ample exercise. Why not “invest-igate” in your breath and master the overlooked keys to metabolic health?

NOTE: This is a practical course exploring the different dimensions of your breath and respiratory functions. It is not a substitute for medical care of your conditions. You are responsible for your own participation.

This class is composed of structured interactions in larger and smaller groups, from dyads to the whole class. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about one another, share about their own lives and build skills and agreements that allow for deeper conversations and connections. The class will be a bit of encounter group blended with theater and team-building games, with a dash of improv. Expect to touch and be touched, both physically and emotionally. Feed your playful side and counteract feelings of isolation or loneliness. Come willing to take some risks, stretch yourself and make some new friends!

NOTE: Although this class shares some elements with growth-oriented therapy groups, it is not therapy. Participants should be able to manage their own experience and emotions in the class without needing help from others. A private continuation of this group will be available upon the conclusion of the class. Signed liability waiver required to participate.

Ready to expand into your next level of consciousness? In his book “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,” world acclaimed spiritualist Eckhart Tolle takes us beyond our own lives to show that we can create a new, more loving world. This involves a radical inner leap of consciousness from identification with ego to a new way of transformative thinking that few of us have achieved. In this highly interactive course, you will have opportunities to bring to the group specific Tolle passages that you would like the group to explore for clarification and deeper meanings. We will create a “collective consciousness” that uses members’ shared experiences and insights to reveal new interpretations of Tolle’s unique ideas for the evolution of human awareness.

NOTE: Students are encouraged to read the book before class meetings and make notes on topics to present for group discussion.

Most families have secrets that conceal shame-evoking histories and experiences. Many of them involve taboos about sex, criminal behavior, incarceration, war trauma, ancestry, race or other denied and hidden pasts. Some secrets hold less power over our lives, and others are so painful or would create so much pain for others that we keep them hidden. Decisions about concealment and truth-telling are often complicated and raise questions such as: “Who owns the secret?” and “Who has a right to know?” This is an academic exploration of the social and interpersonal dynamics in families that lead to secret-keeping, and the motivations behind secret-keeping and revealing. No one is expected to reveal secrets. Discussion formats will give participants freedom to share or opt out of sharing.  

NOTE: Course materials are from psychological studies in family secrets, sociological looks at trends in culture, and diverse memoirists. Some discussions or materials could be evocative. Those with newly uncovered secrets or deeply painful secrets may wish to take another course. Course participants will read “The Secret Life of Families” by Evan Imber-Black.

“I Am the Word” is a channeled book by spiritual author Paul Selig. The source of the material is a nonphysical collective called “The Guides,” ostensibly spiritual masters who are preparing our world for a major shift in consciousness. Some of the topics to be addressed and discussed include: cultivation of “Christ consciousness” (this is not religious, but a vibrational experience); our current time of cosmic change; releasing self-defeating patterns such as shame and fear; overcoming judgment of self and others; various aspects of love; addictions; and freedom from conditioning and cultural mandates. The material is not religious nor is it rigid dogma. The power of the message is inherent in the text, and the message is one of hope and transformation.

NOTE: The required book is readily available online.

Jin shin jyutsu is an ancient, energetic healing art from Japan brought to the West in the 20th century. Similar to acupressure, it uses simple and deeply effective hands-on techniques to stimulate “energy flows” within the body to restore balance in one’s system. Releasing accumulated tensions and stress allows the body to heal and rejuvenate naturally. In this self-care version, one gains a new awareness and sensitivity for listening closely to what one’s body is saying energetically, while one learns to treat and rebalance. As a daily practice, jin shin jyutsu is known as a powerful tool for correcting emotional and physical imbalances as one’s skill grows.   

NOTE: The three-book set of manuals, “Introducing Jin Shin Jyutsu Is” by Mary Burmeister from jsjinc.net ($42), is required for this course. Signed liability waiver required to participate.

Interested in cultivating a mind full of wonder? In this class you will learn and use seven rich, beloved practices adapted from Zen Buddhism for being alive in the moments of your ordinary day and drawing on mundane moments to cultivate wonder-mind. Students will explore the topic of wonder by engaging with self-designed experiences based on a framework of practices that will be offered in the course. Through sharing experiences, dialogue and applying the practices in your everyday life, you will end the course fully prepared to build upon your class experiences — you may find yourself living in wonder! No prior knowledge or experience is needed for this course. All are welcome! 

Interested in cultivating a mind full of wonder? In this class you will learn and use seven rich, beloved practices adapted from Zen Buddhism for being alive in the moments of your ordinary day and drawing on mundane moments to cultivate wonder-mind. Students will explore the topic of wonder by engaging with self-designed experiences based on a framework of practices that will be offered in the course. Through sharing experiences, dialogue and applying the practices in your everyday life, you will end the course fully prepared to build upon your class experiences — you may find yourself living in wonder! No prior knowledge or experience is needed for this course. All are welcome! 

This 10-week series will introduce students to 10 very different films, ones that are on various spiritual or transformational topics, including: pilgrimage, forgiveness, the internet and technology, healing from childhood loss, a relationship with an octopus (!) and more. Each class begins with a short, guided meditation, teaching on an aspect of film studies, and an introduction to the film of the week. These vary in length from 84 to 118 minutes. We will discuss the movie at the beginning of the next week, paying attention to psychological and spiritual themes, motifs, archetypes, plot and character portrayal, and useful life lessons. There will be weekly study questions with (optional) homework. Movies will be announced the week before class starts. All are welcome!

NOTE: There will be subtitles with the foreign films (German, French, Spanish) and there will be no subtitles on the English-language films.

Students will learn that ancient prehistoric cultures as well as practitioners and teachers of women’s spirituality today celebrate/d a female goddess. You will read materials, discuss and have student presentations on scholars who illustrate the goddess as a giver of life, of sustenance, of agricultural plenty, a keeper in death and as a connection to the great cosmic cycles. We will discuss what a worldview that values equality in social relations and connectivity to the cycles of natures and the web of life could mean for us and our communities. No prior knowledge is needed. There will be in-person sharing and discussion.

NOTE: There is no class on Monday, Jan. 19.

Transitions can be difficult, long and unsettling. Where we are now in life took time to develop, and we keep adjusting over the span of a working and parenting life. Many of us had to put aside deeper life issues to successfully function with a career and family. The major theme in William Bridges’ book “Transitions” is that we will, almost universally, need to spend some time in “the neutral zone,” waiting until a new direction becomes apparent. This is challenging but necessary if one wants to take on a durable new direction and attitude toward the future. How one adapts to this neutral zone will affect the success of the new direction.

NOTE: Required reading: “Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes” by William Bridges. Read the first two chapters before class and continue reading throughout the course to facilitate awareness and maximize time in class.