2:55 p.m. - 2006-07-12
Happy entry - Finally!
OK. This one is going to be totally happy.
I got an email about Kripalu (a yoga retreat center in Lenox, Mass.) today. My aunt in Mass. sent it. She's been going there for years for regular classes. There were a couple of retreats that she thought I'd be interested in.
Attracting Love:
-Clarify what you want in a partner
-Learn to dissolve fears of closeness
-Let go of beliefs that are limiting your ability to attract the right partner
-Discover creative ways to manifest the relationship you want
-Explore unconscious barriers to intimacy and how to release them
-Create an opening for partnership.
and
Internal Family Systems:
All the esoteric branches of the world�s religions teach that there is within us an untarnished essence, a Self from which flows wisdom, healing, and spiritual energy. We rarely experience this Self because it is obscured by subpersonalities�parts of us that have absorbed extreme emotions and beliefs. Some of these parts try to protect us by controlling the external world or getting us to withdraw. Others swim in the fear, pain, and shame of past traumas. As a result we try to exile them, locking them away in inner closets.
Richard Schwartz�s Internal Family Systems (IFS) model provides a safe, sensitive way to help you access the Self and bring the natural compassion and confidence of that state into your life. People who have used the IFS model report profound shifts in the feelings and beliefs that previously tormented them, noting that as their lives became more Self-led, they were able to find increased harmony not only within themselves, but also with family, community, and planet.
Me Again:
Its funny how she's so far away, and we don't get to talk much, but she has known my mother since she was born and understands that I must be somehow damaged from the experience of being raised by her. Not to mention the bullshit that offered a side helping of misery along the way.
She is a wise, intuitive woman. She's actually the one who got me into yoga in the first place. She's my favorite relative. My mom hates her. Go figure...
I think the first one would be good for me. I definately have issues with combining sex and intimacy and love. I can have one or two together, but not all three. Or at least, I haven't managed it yet. Sex is so easy and fun when you don't love the person you're with, and don't reach that sacred level of intimacy. I loved H, but we weren't in love, and we weren't intimate, so it was OK. I was infatuated with Max, but we didn't love eachother, and we were only slightly intimate, so it was OK. I love my northern friend, and we're very intimate, but we haven't had sex so its OK.
But I'd really, really, really like to have a relationship with a man that combines all three and ties them together. I have become so adept at segmenting emotion, physicality and spirituality that I have no idea where to start.
The second one, though, I feel like I've already accomplished.
But, there are many, many other programs that look cool, like:
The Buddhist Path of Rebellion:
Noah Levine teaches that the spiritual path is one of revolutionary acts of nonviolent rebellion against greed, hatred, and delusion; the Buddha himself referred to his awakening as having been "against the stream." And few contemporary Buddhist teachers can speak to the path of rebellion as clearly as Noah. Jailed for drugs and violence at the age of 17, he learned to meditate while in prison, instructed by his father, author and Buddhist teacher Stephen Levine.
In this weekend workshop of meditation, teaching, and discussion, Noah will speak about both positive and negative forms of subversion of the dominant paradigm and elucidate the Buddhist path of wisdom and compassion that leads to freedom.
Meditation instruction will be offered in this program that is both a solid introduction to Buddhism and an opportunity for experienced practitioners to deepen their awareness and kindness.
Though these are classes offered on this year's schedule, I might make a point of saving some travel dollars next year to do a trip or two to Kripalu. They have top notch teachers.
And there's my happy entry for the day.
