SolturaWorkshops...a heroic journey to personal freedom

Make Joy Contagious

"...The ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death.
When their souls got to the entrance of heaven,
the guards asked two questions:
Have you found joy in your life?
Has your life brought joy to others?"
Carter Chambers, "The Bucket List"

While reviewing the past year and preparing for 2014, I felt it was a perfect time to cozy up and watch one of my favorite movies again--The Bucket List. Morgan Freeman is The Man! As Morgan's character, Carter Chambers describes, the ancient Egyptians had a strong belief on finding joy and making it contagious. We challenge you to find your inner joy this holiday season and spread it to everyone you meet. If you have attended a Soltura workshop, you know first hand how joy's magical energy infects the rhythm of others.

So, here's the challenge: Be spontaneous, out of the box, take risks and snap a photo of your favorite "Make Joy Contagious" holiday experience and post it on the Soltura Facebook page by January 5, 2014. The person posting the photo depicting the most creative and joy sharing incident or experience will win a 50% discount towards their next workshop. How's that for spreading the joy? The winner will be announced on January 7, 2014.

We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and look forward to seeing you in the New Year. We send a special THANK YOU to all our volunteers and donors who helped make this year possible.

Share the JOY,
Carole

Carole Assists Surf House Puerto Rico

You may have noticed a gap in the workshop schedule during August and September of the 2013 season. During this time, Carole traveled to Puerto Rico for five weeks to assist in the development of the personal growth curriculum and staff training for a new gap-year experience for young adults. Surf House Puerto Rico, a holistic community for young people ages 17.5 to 25, assists with college and career readiness and transition to independence. Carole thoroughly enjoyed helping this dynamic project get off the ground and wishes them much success in the future ... five weeks in the tropics surrounded by water wasn't hard to take either!

To learn more about Surf House, visit their website at Surf House Puerto Rico.

Facilitator Spotlight: Meet Lance Drozda

Lance Drozda has been involved with Soltura for a number of years, first as a participant and now as a facilitator. Lance completed the Knight in Rusty Armor trilogy in October 2010 and has been a frequent facilitator in men's workshops since. Lance's commitment, energy, passion, and consistent support for new participants is evident in the workshops he has facilitated to date.

Facilitating has provided Lance the opportunity to share forward the unique and life-changing experience he received as a participant in the workshop trilogy and it has allowed him to give his time and compassion to others who seek the same for themselves. Lance best describes the Soltura experience as having one's DNA re-arranged forever, and realizing that you truly do have everything you need to find true peace and joy in your life once you alter your relationship with yourself.

Living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Lance is currently pursuing his dream as a photographer, providing landscape photography services for key clients across Western Canada. Lance is planning to apply his photographic skills on Mount Everest in the spring of 2014. When not facilitating, shooting or traveling, Lance is busy as a single father with his two boys Connor age 9 and Hayden age 7.

Living Our Dreams - Russell Rhodes

This column features members of our community who are living their passions and making dreams come true.

Ever since grade school he wanted to be a professional actor. Now he is! Russell Rhodes participated in The Knight's Dilemma workshop in January 2013 and credits Soltura with helping him find the self-confidence to pursue his dream. Russell just completed his first professional acting job in an episode of Evil In Law on the Investigation Discovery Channel. Pictured above in character, Russell plays a Detective Looney (really!) modeled after a real detective by the same name. The episode is scheduled to air in January 2014. (Watch Facebook for an announcement of date and time). Russell's next career step will be as Production Assistant to the First Assistant Director on a movie filming in Oregon, entitled Wild Thing, starring Reese Witherspoon. He is excited about the opportunity to expand his contacts and learn more about film production.

Russell explains that he was stuck in survival mode and never able to find the start he was looking for in the acting business. then Soltura helped him find his voice and his power. He explains as follows:

Soltura was a wonderful experience! It came to me at a time when I was ready to let go of the things that were holding me back. I had made a lot of personal growth in the last few years, overcoming a meth addiction, meeting my now wife and repairing relationships with my family. The lifestyle and challenges of the industry, along with a "survival" mentality made it very hard for me to pursue my personal dreams. Soltura helped me find my truth ... that I am a strong beautiful hero!

Confronting my fears was a challenge. Years of telling myself that I wasn't worth success had damaged my self-confidence and led to my depression. I've always known what I wanted to do, I just didn't BELIEVE in me. With the help of the WIZARDS at Soltura, I feel my power now. I've dived deep into my passions and am starting to have success as as actor and film maker. I'm still at the beginning but I feel that I'm on the right path now. My dreams are coming true. I'm off the couch and doing what I love. My relationships are strong and beautiful. I feel the truth of my actions and have the power to confront my fears. I am stronger than my wildest dreams and am thankful to Soltura for helping me find my power! The best is yet to come...

Workshop Photo Gallery View our Photo Albums on Facebook Below are photos of each workshop held in 2013. Click on each photo to visit the photo gallery for that workshop posted on Soltura's Facebook page.

Knight's Dilemma January 23 - 27, 2013	Caught in a Twister February 27 - March 3 , 2013

Caught in a Twister May 8 - 12, 2013	Spirit Wave May 29 - June 2, 2013

Returning Home June 11 - 16, 2013	Castles of Silence & Knowledge June 25 - 30, 2013

Yellow Brick Road July 9 - 14, 2013	Caught in a Twister July 24 - 28, 2013

Knight's Dilemma August 7 - 11, 2013	Yellow Brick Road October 1 - 6, 2013

Caught in a Twister October 23 - 27, 2013	Knight's Dilemma November 6 - 10, 2013

Soltura Foundation

P.O. Box 445

Gig Harbor, WA 98335

Phone: (253) 857-3444

Fax: (866) 399-1861

info@soltura.net

Summer Fundraiser 2013

The third annual Summer Fundraising Auction held last July was a huge success! The auction raised $29,983 and an addition $2,000 came in through donations, for a total of $31,983.

A record number of items were donated to the auction by the Soltura community. We are always amazed by the creativity and touched by the generosity of our community. We send out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated and helped collect items for the auction...and, of course, to all the folks who bid on the auction items and helped make the event so successful.

In addition, we want to offer a SPECIAL THANK YOU to Stephen Joseph Gifts and Karma Gifts for their incredible donations to the auction, without which the auction would not have been possible.

MEN'S WORKSHOPS

Part 1: The Knight's Dilemma
Jan 29 - Feb 02, 2014
May 14 - 18, 2014

Part 2: Castles of Silence

and Knowledge

June 03 - 08, 2014

Part 3: Summit of Truth
Mar 25 - 30, 2014

Men's Spirit Wave
July 09 - 13, 2014

WOMEN'S WORKSHOPS

Part 1: Caught In A Twister

Feb 12 - 16, 2014
Apr 09 - 13, 2014

Part 2: Yellow Brick Road
June 17 - 22, 2014

Part 3: Returning Home

Apr 22 - 27, 2014

Women's Spirit Wave

May 01 - 05, 2014

Please help spread the word about Soltura workshops

Participant Spotlight

Last July, Joyce A. made history when she became the oldest participant to ever complete the Caught in a Twister workshop...at just three months shy of age 84. We learned recently, however, that her health has taken a down turn. Please keep Joyce in your thoughts and prayers. Here's wishing that she is up and dancing real soon.

Share it Forward!

We are kicking off our 2013 Year End Fundraising Campaign. As you consider your end of year giving options, we hope you will consider sending a gift to Soltura. We are a small non-profit and rely solely upon workshop tuition and donations to support our operations.

Have you received a scholarship from Soltura or benefited from a Soltura workshop? If so, we hope you will consider sharing it forward with a one time or recurring donation. It doesn't matter how large or how small the amount, every dollar counts and will help build the Soltura scholarship fund.

Can you afford $10, $20, $30, $50, $100 a month? Just click on the button below or contact us with your credit card number and we will set up automatic monthly payments for any amount over the number of months you designate.

Soltura Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Donations are tax-deductible under Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code ("IRC"). Soltura Foundation is also approved to receive tax-deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under Section 2055, 2106, or 2522 of the IRC.

Feedback Corner

Before Soltura, I was addicted to finding a way to stop all the negative thoughts that were SCREAMING in my head 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I couldn't see enough therapists or read enough self-help books. But the screaming never stopped. I avoided being alone because the screaming only got louder when I was alone. The screaming would only stop when I released the negative thoughts.

Soltura helped me learn skills to do just that. I had a lot of trouble really, really, really releasing my demons during the first days of my Soltura workshop. Only when I could see that Carole and the other facilitators were determined that I would release them ... and that they were working harder for me--both physically and in their hearts--than I was for myself ... I knew, finally, I had to give it my all. And the result was freedom from my demons, pure joy, and knowledge of skills I had within me to keep it that way ... a miracle! Soltura was most definitely life changing.

Laurie Williams, NC September 2013

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