• This workshop will run for 5 consecutive Thursday evenings September 21 – October 19
• First session on September 21 will run 6:30 – 8:30pm (2 hours) and subsequent sessions will run 6:30 – 8:00pm (90 minutes)
• Sessions will be recorded with Zoom replays available to watch for up to 2 weeks after each session. They are not downloadable.

We, Judy Bousquin and Elise Brenner, were looking for inspiration on ways to serve our community having witnessed many people suffering in response to these uncertain times. 

‘What do people need right now?’ we wondered and felt strongly that people are seeking learning, growth, and experiences around the theme of cultivating presence as a way to feel strong within themselves and better able to helm their personal journeys.  

‘Cultivating Presence’ is a 5-week participatory and interactive program offered on Zoom, that includes breakout room sharing, meditations, contemplations, journaling, and exercises. Participants engage in mindfulness and compassion practices that cultivate a deep presencing and connection with all things, beings, and processes. 

Brief week-by-week synopsis:  

• Our first two weeks together focus on becoming allies with our own selves—all parts of ourselves—with warmth and care. We will engage in meditation practices, discussion, journaling, and interactive exercises that allow us to return to ourselves and melt the ice within.  As Mother Theresa taught: “If each of us would sweep their own doorstep, the whole world will be clean.”    
• Moving forward into the third and fourth weeks, we cultivate embodying presence and awareness of the interconnection of all things and beings. We touch into that dimension of ourselves that deeply knows and feels that there is no separation between us.  We expand beyond the confines of the self, and tap into that innate sense of a multidimensional bond with the entire world. “What ultimately soothes our souls is an innate connection to something greater than ourselves.  This something keeps trying to enter the world through our lives.” -- Michael Meade 
• As we move together into our final week together (week 5), we explore the responsibility we may feel, and the natural wish we may feel, to serve humanity, all beings, and the planet.  We discover how each of us, from where we are, and with what we have, might show up in concrete, do-able ways that reflect our conscious presence.