just be it It’s about the work involved in establishing a dedicated practice to feelings of a bigger belonging through practices aimed at increasing feelings of compassion, gratitude and forgiveness
March, 2017

Vision

Saturday, March 25th, 2017

Vision Poster

Finding Balance, Finding Peace

Friday, March 24th, 2017

Complete balance is found when we’re in complete presence. Full awareness to the unfolding present moment comes in that space between thoughts. Thoughts are verbal and by nature, dichotomous. There’s a subject/object division that’s working. The felt experience of complete balance comes when we’re free from the thinking mind, free from judgments, totally engaged in just being here and now. However, it’s of our nature to continuously move in and out of this experience of presence. It’s why a dedicated practice is so important. The more we work with opening this nonverbal space, the more we can extend it, the more solid our life experience is. While the stress in our life is the space between where we are and where our dissatisfied mind wants to be, the peace in our life is found in the gap between thought. While our thinking mind is forever busy chattering away, the stilled mind is solid, fresh and spaciously settling into something much bigger than our typical small identifications, the ones which have led to the illusion of our separateness.

Within the event of present moment awareness comes a deeper knowing. Not only do we find balance, but we touch the yoga moment, that instant where we break past our illusions of separateness. One teacher describes this as a ‘bounce’, because as soon as our conscious mind recognizes this awakened state, poof, we’re back in the dual world. Yet, the more we meet the present moment fully, the more we smash the illusion of division, the more our faith brings us back to dedicated practice. There’s no notion of attaining an end to our restless, verbal mind. That kind of grasping just works against the peace we so enjoy. Rather, there’s an urgent sense to be more careful with a deeper commitment to not cause harm. This moment of awakening brings us to realization that we are each other, that everything is connected, and when we cause harm to any thing or being, we’re causing harm to ourselves. It’s within a deeper awareness of the arising present moment we find our best action. Finding balance and rhythm is finding that spaciousness between thought, touching the nonverbal in a deeper awareness.

A ‘verbal detox’ is about being our best in action, thought and emotion because we’ve deepened our sense of awareness to the interconnected nature of all things. It’s about rhythm, balance, harmony and moments of stillness as we witness the opportunity of each arising moment. It’s about cultivating skills in dismissing the storehouse of negative thought and emotion and growing the storehouse of positive action and thought in deepening experience of gratitude, forgiveness and compassion.

Gravity from the negative mind of dissatisfaction works us throughout our day. A ‘verbal detox’ retreat is meant to be your opportunity to heal from the energy drain of these thoughts. It’s designed as a space to refresh, clear, and build an inner confidence in facing what’s coming up, no matter what, with a new found grounding. That’s our vision, to ‘show up, deepen our attention, be our best, and let go our grasping for control of the results’, touching a deeper balance, a deeper peace.