Preparing for the concluding session
Here are some questions and exercises to help you prepare for our concluding session:
- Review the experiments you undertook over the past 12 weeks. For each one, note:
- What you tried.
- What you learned.
- What you are still learning.
- Consider a time over the past 12 weeks when your body spoke to you. How did you recognise that it was speaking to you? What did it tell you? What did you do? What happened next?
- How do you recognise moments of joy?
- Has anything changed in your relationship with time?
- Over the past 12 weeks, has anger ever been your friend?
- What are your priorities?
- Can you connect each of your priorities with one or two of your fundamental values?
- What is next for you?
- What is your commitment to yourself?
- How will this commitment serve others?
Preparing for the opening session
I suggest you use the following questions as journaling prompts. You might address them one by one, or you might just consider them holistically, choose a place to start, and see what emerges:
Reflecting on the work you’ve done since we began together in January…
What are you proud of?
What do you appreciate about yourself?
What would you like to encourage in yourself?
What would you like to let go?
As we embark on another period of working together…
What would you like to experiment with?
What would you like to explore?
What might be the knock-on effect of these experiments and explorations?
Books
10th May: Sebene Selassie, You Belong (HarperOne 2020). I’m suggesting a focus on Chapter 3, “Ground Yourself,” as it picks up the theme of embodiment we’ve been working with, but the whole book is terrific. Selassie is a Brooklyn-based meditation teacher. (MB facilitates.)
24th May: Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage (Picador 2018). This is a very US-centric book, but I still think we’ll get some juicy stuff out of it. I suggest we focus on “The Problem With Sass,” “Capital B, Capital F,” “Strong Female Leads,” and “White-Girl Tears.”
14th June: adrienne maree brown, Pleasure Activism (AK Press 2019). Let’s discuss the introduction and Section One. I also suggest taking 20 minutes to listen to Audre Lorde’s 1978 talk “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” which is on YouTube. It’s included in the book, but so powerful read aloud.
28th June: Laura Vanderkam, I Know How She Does It (Portfolio 2015). (EL facilitates.)
Additional recommended reading:
Edith Eger, The Choice (Rider 2018). Recommened by MB.
Brené Brown, Dare to Lead (Vermilion 2018). Recommended by SM. Podcast recommended by MB.
Experiments
Cultivating Foundational Attitudes