Director's Message for June

June 1, 2009

Greetings,

I wanted to go over a few announcements about upcoming events. Next Saturday, June 6th, I am facilitating the second Mindfulness Practicum for women at Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino. At this point there are still some open spaces. It’s not necessary to have participated in the first Practicum in November to benefit from this one. I will be covering the six practices that I believe are very helpful in conditioning oneself to be able to successfully deal with the stressful challenges that we seem to be confronting on a day-to-day basis now. Even though we may not be able to control what happens to us, we can have a measure of control over how we relate and interact with it.

Additionally, we’ll experience different Mindfulness meditation techniques and dyadic conscious connected breathing sessions also called Rebirthing. There will be ample opportunity to share in talking stick council and open forum format. This will be an intimate experience in which Rich Manners and perhaps one of my other Wisdom Council men will assist me in fully supporting the women. If you have been considering signing up for this event or if you know someone that you feel can benefit from this program please see below for further information and registration form.

The next one-day event for men will be a Mindfulness Practicum to be held on Saturday, July 18th at Holy Spirit Retreat Center. The information and registration flier for this program can also be found on our Blog. I have been revising the information that I have presented during the previous Mindfulness Practicums to refine it and make it as user friendly as possible.

We will be going to South Central Los Angeles on Saturday, June 20th to present the Certificates of Achievement to the boys that participated in the Sacred Path Call to Adventure Retreat held in April. All are invited to attend this event at Helen Keller Park commencing at 11am. There will be a two-day basketball tournament getting underway at 1pm to commemorate Father’s Day It’s easy to get to the park and there is ample parking. The address is 1045 W. 126th Street. Just exit the 110 Freeway at El Segundo, head west to Vermont, turn right and head north. The park is on the left. I know that there are a number of people that are interested in helping with the expansion of Call to Adventure. We will be holding a brief meeting following the presentation to speak about the evolution of the program and how each person can be of support.

The next Sacred Path Men’s Retreat will be held at our camp north of Malibu from Thursday, October 22 through Sunday, October 25, 2009. The theme for the retreat will be on Mindfulness and Positivity. Please mark your calendars now to hold the dates. Further information will be out in July.

Looking forward to seeing you,
Stephen Johnson