Friends, I'm filled with joyful anticipation to invite you to a beautiful and powerful class offering made just for these times. Join me for Radical Gratitude & The Practice of Praise.
What is it?
A 6-week practice-focused course intended to strengthen our praise practice and our gratitude muscles. To fortify our grounded presence, to beautify our minds, to nurture abundant courage to meet these tumultuous times with a whole and well-nourished heart, to feed what we love, and to nourish the soul of the world. Why radical? Radical means "deeply rooted." A friend of mine says "Increasing complexity requires deeper roots." The world and our lives are certainly complex. Wouldn't it be lovely to plant our roots deep in the soil of gratitude and the practice of praise? Yes.
Each week's class will include embodied grounding practice, powerful poetry, simple and potent teachings and invitations, time to practice (this may be writing, guided meditation, and/or somatic practices), and you'll have an opportunity to connect with others in small groups if you like. Introverts, don't worry! If small groups scare you, you can leave the meeting before we start that part or skip the small group gatheirngs. If you're hungry to connect with other like-minded people, enjoy the connection! One blessing I'm so grateful for is the incredible quality of human beings who show up for my classes. You'll be in good-hearted, kind, respectful company. If you can't attend live, no problem – enjoy the recordings. You'll have indefinite access to our online classroom with recordings and readings as well as a place to connect and share with others.
The powerful practices and perspectives we'll explore in this course can ripple benefits into your life in so many ways. Your participation in this course will support you in:
- meeting life in a more grounded, mindful, and reverent way
- growing your capacity to find joy and satisfaction in simple moments
- taming the all-too-common mind of insufficiency that gives rise to endless consumption that is ravaging the Earth and instead, nurturing the beauty of our own capacity to be easily pleased by simple, ordinary-extraordinary moments
- strengthen your praise muscle, your awe muscle, your wonder muscle, your gratitude muscle and so find yourself uniquely strengthened to meet these times
- understanding the brain's negativity bias and using the power of neuroplasiticity to embody radical gratitude and to really see the abundant gifts all around you (without ever suppressing, denying or bright-siding our grief.)
- learning to see life more like Mary Oliver did and less like Tucker Carlson does. (Amen!)
Who is it for?
For any human of any gender and any age from teen on up
- who wants to liberate themself from habits of numbness or negativity
- who longs to liberate themself from the cultural bullshit that tells us we never have enough or are enough or have done enough to pause and enjoy our life
- who wants to nurture the habit of lavishing abundant thanks on this life and this beautiful world that is so worthy of our profound reverence and praise
- who wants to live a more reverent, awe-inspired, deeply satisfying life
- who wants to feel better and tame the brain's negativity bias not only for personal benefit but to be a more beneficial presence in the world
- who wants to convert the energy wasted judging oneself or one's life into fuel for being an embodied and powerful force for good in the world
- who wants reliable ways to do less harm and to feel more grateful, satisfied, blessed, content, and capable of blessing
- who wants to reclaim and more fully live from love rather than greed, competition, or consumption
- who wants their mindfulness practice to have deep roots in embodied presence (not just mental practice)
- any anyone who wants to support others in growing these qualities.
When is it?
A 6-week course that meets on Sunday mornings from 10am-Noon Mountain time (that's my timezone.) Click here to find yours. We meet weekly from June 4 - July 9, 2023. You can also attend via recordings which are uploaded within 24 hours of each class and are yours to keep.
Where is it?
We will meet live on Zoom. If you can't attend live, you can participate through recordings and by engaging in our user-friendly online classroom. Join us from the comfort of your own home or wherever you happen to be. You only need internet access or a phone and something to write with. Easy.
Why?
I believe with my whole heart that the world needs more humans who wake up and give thanks with their first breath. Who refuse the dominant narrative that we never have enough, do enough, are enough. I believe grateful humans have a more clear-eyed view of the abundant gifts we're showered with by this generous Earth every day, and grateful humans are less likely to destroy it. I also believe it's deeply important to hold space for gratitude and praise with nuanced understanding. Grief always comes when gratitude is invited. And will never be suppressed in my circles. This is not a practice of forced joy - you can feel however you feel - it is remembering the ancient ways of good manners and rituals of reverence and appreciation. I believe grateful humans who remember how to praise are more capable and resourced to meet these tumultous times.
“Times are difficult globally; awakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal. It's becoming critical. We don't need to add more depression, more discouragement, or more anger to what's already here. It's becoming essential that we learn how to relate sanely with difficult times. The earth seems to be beseeching us to connect with joy and discover our innermost essence. This is the best way that we can benefit others.”
― Pema Chodron
Tuition:
$295 includes 6 live workshops plus ongoing access to recordings, readings, and more inspiration in our online classroom.
Please read my cancellation policy. Then...
I am so excited to practice with you!! We'll delve deep with
- inspiring poetry
- grounding practices
- writing prompts
- praise practices
- potent embodied gratitude practices
- positive neuroplasticity training
- authentic conversation
- attentional training
- transformative perspectives that will beautify your mind
- deep listening and reflection
- a chance to engage in small group conversation
- a community ritual
- a wonder circle
- resources to support daily life integration
- and so much love.
- In addition, all classes are audio and video recorded and archived in an easy-to-use online classroom so you can return to the lessons anytime. If you need to miss a class, you can catch up on what you missed from home.
We do this work and engage in this learning not only for ourselves, but in service to Life.
This is of utmost importance.
Let us revel in the practice of praise, which I believe is one of the most neglected and vitally needed practices on Earth. It also gives us potent soul ballast during challenging times.
Consider the species not yet extinct - we are blessed to be alive along with finches and ravens, singing whales and spirit bears, fir trees and peach trees, stag beetles and lightning bugs, seastars and honeybees!
Consider the amazing beings we're blessed to know. Family and friends whose presence seems ordinary until they're gone and we realize how extraordinary our moments with them really are.
Consider sunrises and sunsets and coffee and fresh water and hot showers and electricity and baby toes and cloudscapes and snowflakes and poetry and the sound of a cello and the eyes of a beloved. How often do you say thank you?
Praise is one powerful way of giving back - of stepping into reciprocity and offering lavish thanks for all we've been given every day of our lives. Praise feeds the holy in nature, feeds what we love, feeds life. Praise is soul activism. Praise practice trains us to be more permeable to the beauty we're surrounded by. Praise practice is oh so necessary and oh so heartening. Let's do it!
Do you sing praise songs?
Offer love talk to the trees?
Kiss the mountain trail with your feet?
Do you make little altars?
Do you speak tender words into the soil?
Do you pile flowers and fruit and give them back to the ground from which they came?
Do you dance?
Do you whisper words of love?
Make art as gratitude offerings?
Do you stroke the herbs and flowers as you walk by?
Do you send prayers of thanks up to the sky on sacred smoke?
Do you spread seeds for the birds and the critters?
Do you yell "YES!" and "THANK YOU!" at the top of your lungs to start the day?
On the day you die, will you wish you'd have offered more thanks?
Do you never think about any of this and want to come to be inspired?
Please do!
Click below to pay 3 monthly payments of $100
Click below to pay in full $295
Wondering who is teaching this class? Read more about me here.
