Dear Jamily,
How are you doing? Have you had time to practice checking in lately?
At a Jam, we practice checking in as a matter of peeling back the layers and getting real. A good deep check in allows us to get present with what we are moving through in any given day, and it is a practice that invites vulnerability both in sharing and in witnessing. Doing so may bring awareness to the Zone we are operating in, and help us to slow down. Or, it may invite a new connection if we are able to lean into a stretchy share with a friend, loved one, or collaborator.
As we come into the start of this week, take some time to check in with yourself: what is alive in your head at this moment? Your heart? Your gut?
We recognize how practices of vulnerability can help us to form deeper relationships, but doing so does not come easily. Our past experiences or inner critics may get in the way of expressing ourselves fully.
To help unpack this, on July 26th at 9 AM PST/12 PM EST, Alexis Slutzky, an alumna of the 2019 HOME Jam, will be offering a space for Jammers to come together to explore the emotional toll that shame has on relationship building. The course, Shame and Belonging, asks how authentic relating, mindfulness and nature connection help us open to a sense of belonging as well as dismantle the obstacle shame presents to participating in collaborative living culture.
To learn more about the 90 minute course, and about Alexis, check out the Jammer Spotlight below! You can register for the session through this link.
With warmth,
The YES! Team
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Alexis Slutzky, MFT, is a mentor, educator and guide whose work focuses on cultural restoration through listening and mindfulness practices, nature connection, grief tending, dream work and community ritual. Alexis has over twenty years of facilitation experience in the transformative healing arts. She holds a Master’s Degree in Depth Psychology, is Adjunct Faculty at Antioch University and offers programs, retreats and one-on-one mentoring at the intersection of ecology, social justice and healing. She enthusiastically attended the HOME (Healing Our Movement Ecology) Jam in 2019.
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Where are you now?
(and how are you faring as we emerge into the hybrid newness of "post" Covid? times)
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The COVID-19 Pandemic gave me a much needed opportunity to reset, heal and come through my own second half of life initiatory time.
I recently moved from living in the middle of town in Santa Barbara, CA to living with the forest along our local river. I am adjusting to the newness, still coming out of isolation realizing the need to more intentionally engage community connections. I am just now finding my way back into in person teaching and community group work.
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What projects are you currently working on? |
My work has always been about creating spaces and opportunities for people to connect from the heart with each other and nature, whether with combat veterans, youth, mothers, change agents. I am currently designing a facilitation mentorship program and working on a community water project - a community pilgrimage along our local river as an educational journey and prayer in action to engage folks from different sectors around water awareness and honoring place. I am also about to host an online community forum around Belonging and Gestures Toward a Living Culture. |
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What is your vision for the next year, for yourself, for the world? |
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As part of my re-engaging community connection and work I am excited to host seasonal rituals, find more time to use my hands to make beautiful gifts to the divine and for others, and deepen in collaborations of all sorts. For myself I am moving from isolation to connection, from separation to communion. I hope this also for the world, that one by one we meet each others humanity, that our grass roots, and community based gestures towards healing and liberation, peace and justice and incredible imagination, creativity and ingenuity overwhelm the current systems of power, domination, oppression and destruction. We create a culture where our birthrites for dignity, clean water and air, time for joy and rest and healing are manifest. |
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Can you share a quote that inspires you? |
“Being naturalized to place means to live as if this is the land that feeds you, as if these are the streams from which you drink, that build your body and fill your spirit. To become naturalized is to know that your ancestors lie in this ground. Here you will give your gifts and meet your responsibilities. To become naturalized is to live as if your children’s future matters, to take care of the land as if our lives and the lives of all our relatives depend on it. Because they do.”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer
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What is the best thing you took away from your jam? |
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So many things: the trust of the facilitants holding the container in the emergent experience, the unbounded creativity unleashed in communion, the truth of how easy it is to connect heart to heart in truth and vulnerability, and mostly, the orientation towards radical and delightful gift giving! |
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- One of my many jobs was driving an 18 wheel double trailer truck hauling tomatoes.
- I spent a year at a meditation center on a silent retreat.
- Children I love come to me in dreams to let me know what is going on with them.
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Any time sensitive annoucements? |
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I will be offering a 90 minute course on Shame and Belonging to the Jam Alumni community on July 26 at 9 AM PST/12 PM PST.
Course description:
Shame is the recurring feeling of being unworthy of connection, that something is wrong with us, and we dwell outside of the circle of belonging. One of the most common experiences of living in these times within the dominant culture of oppression and separation - from ourselves, each other and the living earth, is an internalized feeling of defectiveness, resulting in isolation. The nuances of this universal experience vary, depending on our histories, identities and lived experience within supremacy culture. The remedy is an understanding of our historical legacies, a willingness to relate in present moment authentic connection, and a commitment to doing our part to create communities of safety and care.
In this 90-minute online course we will briefly explore the territory of shame from our individual and collective identities and focus on nourishing our sense of connection through heartfelt sharing, writing, present moment awareness (mindfulness) and an orientation towards the enchantment in the natural living world. In the healing presence of each other and the sacred, we find our way together into the gratitude and joy that often accompany honoring the places of separation, remembering who we are and the gifts we carry to contribute towards the healing of our world, and a living culture that is just and reverent towards all life.
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Answer: Two Truths and a Lie |
I only spent 5 weeks on silent retreat! |
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YES! connects, inspires, and collaborates with young and intergenerational leaders for thriving, just and balanced ways of life for all. Our weekly JAM is meant to serve the alumni of our programs and our wider community of supporters and partners. We have four features in rotation: a profile of one of our Jam alums,a program promotion or update, a process/activity from our facilitation toolbox, and an artistic creation or secret angel presentation from a Jam.
(And, if you'd like to only get the twice-a-year update from YES!,
please update your preferences below.)
To support programs like this
link to help support YES! with each purchase:
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you can securely add a card to do so through Round Up.
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3240 King St, Berkeley CA 94703
510.922.8556
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