Repairing our Relationships Saturday,
August 7, 1pm - 4pm.
This program at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation is free and open to everyone. I am excited to bring the skills and consciousness of Nonviolent Communication into Jewish community and into inner preparation for the holiest time in the Jewish calendar. In the
Jewish calendar, the month of Elul, which arrives with the new moon on August 10, is the time to
journey inward, to connect, take stock and deepen your intentions for your relationships, to listen deeply for the still small voice - all in preparation
to create a deeply transformative experience of the High Holidays. This workshop is an opportunity to welcome Elul with an afternoon of Jewish
mindfulness exercises, nonviolent communication exercises, chant, prayer, study, and group and individual work to
prepare for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In Judaism, this process is known as
teshuvah, return, and the central theme of teshuvah is our effort to repair our
relationships and make them more honest and compassionate. Nonviolent Communication and mindfulness are great guides for this work. Please RSVP for this
workshop by contacting Roberta at info@steps2peace.com.
You also are invited, if you like, to attend shabbat services at 10 a.m.and a light vegetarian pot luck at 12, before the workshop. Or just come before 1 pm for the workshop. Woodstock
Jewish Congregation Glasco Turnpike, just west of Route 212,between Woodstock and Saugerties
New Parenting Series in Woodstock, NY August
23 & 30 7:30-9:30 Compassionate Parenting; Parenting
with Nonviolent Communication Bliss Yoga, Demming Street, Woodstock, NY Monday two part series register:
info@steps2peace.com
Basic Empathy Weekend Retreat September 23-25 with CNVC trainer Shantigarbha, assisted by Roberta Wall New
Market, New Hampshire Basic Empathy Autumn Leaves Retreat
Poughkeepsie:
There is an NVC practice group in Poughkeepsie that meets every Monday
evening
at 6. This group has been ongoing since last winter and is welcoming new
members. Contact Ralph Stein, at steinralph07@gmail.com
or 845 590 7997 New Paltz: Susan Reeves continues to host two practice groups a week! http://www.practicingpeace-newpaltz.com/
Roberta 's blog about her two month trip to Israel and Palestine
during
which she offered NVC trainings to Israelis and
Palestinians. Check her blog for experiences offering NVC in Israel
and Palestine and also in Plum Village, the home monastery of renowned
Zen master Thich
Nhat Hanh's community. http://robertaindia.wordpress.com/
Daily Reflection by Robert
Gonzales, Center for Nonviolent Communication
My
understanding of empathy is approaching experience as whatever is
alive, whatever it is. Empathy carries this awareness, "I don't want to
change you, I simply want to invite you to be here and I want to be
present." This is compassion.
From Roberta-What is empathy? What can I do to cultivate this quality in myself- toward myself and toward others? Robert Gonzales teaches that empathy is when we are present with someone,or ourselves, without any pressure-- pressure to fix,correct, improve, solve,educate, enlighten-- because where there is pressure, there is an absence of empathy.
Notice when you are listening to someone, do you feel any constriction in your throat, chest, jaw or belly? Are your shoulders tight? This may indicate that there is pressure within you to change or fix something in the other person--this inner pressure in you blocks the flow of empathy
To open up the flow, you can choose to breathe into the constriction in your body, see if you can identify an emotion it is holding. Then see what need of yours isn't being met in the moment, and breathe into that. (You may ask the person for a few moments' pause in their sharing while you are doing this!)
When you feel relaxation, your presence will naturally open up, and you can enjoy being present without pressure.
"I don't want to
change you, I simply want to invite you to be here and I want to be
present." This is compassion.
More from Robert Gonzales:
When some aspect of ourselves is not in the light of
awareness, it becomes the shadow. And it has power over us to the extent
that we are not looking at it or conscious of it. It becomes enacted
through the protective structures. What is in our shadow experience is
actually life energy itself held in a knot of contraction. When we shine
the light of compassionate presence on it, it starts to relax, open
and release.
From Roberta:
I especially like the first
sentence- the "shadow", and its power, is
not fixed or static, not different in that respect from any dharma; it
is part of the mindfulness process; like Thich Nhat Hanh says, mindfulness is always
mindfulness of something; when we don't bring mindfulness to something inside ourselves,
the shadow is created...
The third sentence is how we work with this with NVC- we recognize and
embrace it as life energy itself held in a knot of contraction. We hold it, listen to it, step into its energetic flow, and give it empathy. And,in turning it inward to ourselves, we shine
the light of compassionate presence on it, it starts to relax, open
and release. It will teach us what is so important to our beingness that it sticks around.
With NVC, the next step is to incorporate the needs locked up in this shadow side into a request of ourself.
This Dream Flow worksheet can help you!
Dream Flow Worksheet
August 7 1-4 pm The Path of Integration- Wholeness-
Shalom- Nonviolent Communication and Judaism: Saturday after services Woodstock Jewish Congregation
