Evergarden Session

Tension is a life force energy of growth, and, a force used to suppress and repress what we think feel and otherwise do not want to encounter. Tension is essential. It can be destructive. It’s a source of much pain. It’s a catalyst pooling power. Our work is to develop our capacity to relate to our embodied experience of tension skillfully.

In Buddhist psychology there is an understanding that pain plus resistance equals suffering. There is another idea that what we resist persists. Mary O’Mally has reminded us that what is in the way is the way. And our friends at AA remind us that we often won’t change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. All of these offer insight into what is needed to relate to tension.

Did you know, that it is those brief hot dry spells of summer that creates the sweetness in a tomato? It’s the winter that drives the roots deeper ultimately supporting the next seasons growth. And, I imagine the bulb buried deep in the soil feels something akin to the tension of longing as the warmth stirs it to reach for light. It’s the tightness of the bow the resounds the song. The symphony and complexity of tension is alive in the natural world.

I notice that many of us have been taught and then practiced from our earliest years to suppress a natural relationship to deciphering the messages within our embodied tension. Our capacity to relate to this is like a muscles atrophied without use.  

This month, in each of the community sessions, we will engage a gentle kind compassionate way to invite realignment with this embodied wisdom. This starts with being able to listen in a collaborative way with your tension. You and your tension are on the same side. What's in the way is the way. In our session this month we will explore the messages within our tensions. What are you tensing from? What are you tensing towards? We will befriend tension as an evolutionary life energy that wants to help us. We will embrace no-big-deal energy as we learn to listen.  In morning medicine we will deepen our somatic listening capacity. In Sunrise session we will continue with the energy of awe as nourishment for tension. In the mud session we will hold what is suppressed. In creative session we will learn the joy of playing with what we hold.

Morning medicine session - Monday at 8:30am EST to 9am EST each week.

In-person at Evergarden and on zoom, $25 drop via Venmo or with Evergarden community subscription

This session is a weekly practice group that happens on zoom and in-person at Evergarden. We meet at Monday 8:30am EST to 9am EST each week. In the session you will be guided through a practice from various psychotherapeutic and healing traditions including; mindfulness, somatic, depth, systems, expressive and creative arts and more. This group will help you to; navigate stress, build mind-body connection, develop insight into yourself, deepen your capacity for grounding, cultivate positive emotional states. The group is come as you are, no prior knowledge necessary, the focus is on practice, you will not be asked to share, most participants keep camera off and settle into their own process. If you cannot make the live time a recording will be uploaded to morning medicine archive on our community portal. Our practice community is global, we have people joining from around the world, allowing for a rich collective experience

Sunrise session Wednesday 6am - 6:30am EST each week

Virtual by zoom only, with Evergarden community subscription

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

-Rumi

In our sunrise session we welcome the new day with first words. After a practice of of welcome and gratitude cultivation we listen to our first words of the day. From these words we weave together poetry from the session. Come and give it a try. Bring a pen, some paper and an openness to gratitude for a new day.

I open the zoom session at 6am, with weather permitting the camera facing the rising sun, join at 6am and settle in, breath and settle into the intention for the sessions, the guided reflection will begin at 6:15 am for 15min. We then each take the words collected and make our own poem. Our growing collection of poems can be found here.

Mud sessions - Thursday March 12th 5:30pm to 6:30/7pm EST

In-person at Evergarden, zoom by request

Working with our own mud, I’m very excited to bring this session to our community. This session is an intentional deep dive into that inner mud that wants to transform into life giving nutrients. We will offer time to our own mud, our fear, jealousy, aggression, pride, angst, those parts of each of us that need loving care. We will be guided through a gentle process to connect with our inner experience, and then engage in an expressive arts process for release expression and support. The value and importance of this session comes from the knowing that, what is in the one is in the whole and what is in the whole is in the one. Together we can contribute the transformation of our communities and societies with small acts of personal transformation.