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WHAT’S NEW?
Fall is coming – I can feel it in the air. Time to look at the year, see what worked and what did not. Time to let go of resentments and frustrations and look towards creating something new and fresh for the new year.
Taking time during December is one of my favorite activities – I love dreaming about what I want for the future. Once I am clear, I have a ceremony on New Year’s day to manifest that dream. It’s been a long-standing tradition, one that I love and has always served me well. What about YOU??
Blessings & love, Sheri
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EVENTS, JOURNEYS + WEBINARS!
Mastering the Tao Nature Within:
Wudang Mountain, China
November 6–18th, 2017
Join Terry Hodgkinson for a powerful journey to China where you’ll learn ancient methods for inner balance. We’ll be focusing on the art of Tai Chi, which will bring clarity and calm to your mind.
The art of Qigong will be introduced into your lifestyle, enabling you to find your true self and place in this world. And Taoist meditation will clear your energy body and have you feeling more rooted to the earth.
Wudang is located in Central China’s Hubei Province and this location houses thousands of years of Taoist practice. The atmosphere is ripe with Tao and finding your inner Tao is easily grasped in this ancient place with so much support. The complex was specially designed to fit the Taoist principle of harmony between man and nature.
Magnificent buildings of ancient Chinese design and thought and are located all over the mountain and there are more than 2,000 Palaces and Temples, making this complex the world’s largest Taoist center.
Trip tuition: $2,497 USD based on double occupancy, single occupancy: $3,197 USD – many meals included.
Details for China on Terry’s website!
Soul Ambrosia –
Reset, Reclaim, Renew in Belize
February 2nd – 9th, 2018
Would You Love To:
- Reset your daily rhythm, to calm and center your soul?
- Reclaim your joy, to nourish your spirit?
- Renew your connection to yourself and your passions?
Take the journey of a lifetime to the lush rainforest and tropical beaches of Belize. Through inner exploration and outer adventures, you will calm the chatter in your brain, drop into your heart, and rediscover your soul’s passions and desires.
Allow your locks to click open, to access the boundless potential of your soul in present time. Nourished with play and beauty, you’ll bring home the priceless tools and tricks of your Soul Ambrosia discoveries, to create more joy and fulfillment in your life with an everyday practice to continue your journey. With amazing new retreat friends, to boot! Soul Ambrosia offers you the chance to reset, reclaim, and renew, as you explore aspects of yourself long forgotten or never discovered.
Trip tuition: $3,495 USD based on double occupancy, single occupancy: $4,245 USD – some meals included.
Details for Belize on Jennifer’s website!
OUR FEATURED ARTICLE
Loving-Kindness
an excerpt from “The Places that Scare You” by Pema Chodron
Our personal attempts to live humanely in this world are never wasted. Choosing to cultivate love rather than anger just might be what it takes to save the planet from extinction.
What is it that allows our goodwill to expand and our prejudice and anger to decrease? This is a significant question. Traditionally it is said that the root of aggression and suffering is ignorance. But what is it that we are ignoring? Entrenched in the tunnel vision of our personal concerns, what we ignore is our kinship with others. One reason we train as warrior-bodhisattvas is to recognize our interconnectedness – to grow in understanding that when we harm another, we are harming ourselves. So we train in recognizing our uptightness. We train in seeing that others are not so different from ourselves. We train in opening our hearts and minds in increasingly difficult situations.
For an aspiring bodhisattva, the essential practice is to cultivate maitri. In the Shamhala teachings this is called “placing our fearful mind in the cradle of loving-kindness.” Another image for maitri or loving-kindness is that of a mother bird who protects and cares for her young until they are strong enough to fly away. People sometimes ask, “Who am I in this image – the mother or the chicks?” The answer is we’re both: both the loving mother and those ugly chicks. It’s easy to identify with the babies – blind, raw, and desperate for attention. We are a poignant mixture of something that isn’t all that beautiful and yet is dearly loved. Whether this is our attitude toward ourselves or toward others, it is the key to learning how to love. We stay with ourselves and others when we’re screaming for food and have no feathers and also when we are more grown up and more cute by worldly standards.
In cultivating loving-kindness, we train first to be honest, loving, and compassionate towards ourselves. Rather than nurturing self-denigration, we begin to cultivate a clear-seeing kindness. Sometimes we feel good and strong. Sometimes we feel inadequate and weak. but like mother love, maitri is unconditional. No matter how we feel, we can aspire to be happy. We can learn to act and think in ways that sow seeds of future well-being, gradually becoming more aware of what causes happiness as well as what causes distress. Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others.
You can pick up a copy of Pema’s book on Amazon here!
Want to see our whole line-up for the upcoming year?
Visit our Trips at a Glance page.
