There is so much going on in the world, so much noise, and so many things that constantly need our attention. It’s easy to get caught up in your day-to-day routine and realizing only when your head hits the pillow at night, that you have unresolved anxiety about the future and the unknown, especially when it comes to the conservation of the planet.
Join Sami Aaron, Founder of The Resilient Activist, on Wednesday, March 10 at Noon CT (10 a.m. PT, 11 a.m. MT, 1 p.m. ET) as she explains the importance of the interconnected relationship, both physically and emotionally, between humans and the health of the planet and how you can bring mindfulness back to your community.
All registrants will receive a recording of the broadcast within 48 hours after the live event. By registering for this event, you agree to receive communications from the speaker.
More and more studies show the powerful benefits – for both physical health and emotional wellbeing – of mindfulness practices and time spent in nature. This event, bringing these two important concepts together, can nurture individual wellbeing while fostering community-wide resilience.
Participants will
receive an understanding of the benefits of nature-centered, community-based mindfulness practices to your physical and emotional health.
learn the simple steps to a nature-based mindfulness practice in an experiential, guided meditation session through the Five Essentials for a Resilient World
receive small group support and insight through discussions about mindfulness practices and ways you can bring them into your everyday life.
Registration for this event is through Turning Point and the University of Kansas Health System.
Turning Point is open to anyone who is living with a chronic or serious physical illness, as well as their family and friends. They provide innovative, educational services and tools to inspire people to take charge of their illness and live their life to the fullest.
Join Sami Aaron, founder of The Resilient Activist for the
2021 Mental Health KC Conference
May 6th & 7th 9 am – 3:30 pm
The Mental Health KC Conference focuses on bringing mental health awareness to Kansas City area businesses, professionals, and citizens. Coordinated by the Metropolitan Council of Community Mental Health Centers (“Metro Council”), this annual event features dozens of speakers on multiple topics related to behavioral health.
“Mindfulness for a Resilient World” will be presented
Thursday, May 6, 10:45 – 11:45 as part of this event.
The 2021 Mental Health KC Conference is a Virtual Experience
The Mental Health KC conference presents information vital to a variety of individuals in our community:
Business Managers and their Employees
Community Health Workers
Educators and School Counselors
First Responders
Health and Social Services Providers
Human Resources Professionals
Nonprofit Managers
Parents
Social Workers
Keynote speakers for this year’s conference are Laura van Dernoot Lipsky and Bruce Franks, Jr.
Is the latest IPCC report keeping you up at night?
Join our next Climate Café for a safe space to process it.
May’s program will include a conversation with Laura Huff Hileman with Fire by Night Dreamwork who will give us tips from her work for the Pachamama Community Climate Action Training cohort.
Dreams, however outrageous, come in the service of healing and wholeness. They arise from the deep unconscious, speaking the language of image and emotion. Dreams carry wisdom not only for the dreamer but for all of us. Sharing our dreams is one way to sustain ourselves with life-giving energies and practical insights.
Come learn how dreamtending can serve the activist community and explore a dream image using “The Six Magic Questions.” Bring pen and paper to practice this simple, profound way to listen to the wisdom of your dreams.
Laura Huff Hileman is a Jungian-oriented dreamworker and spiritual director who believes dreamwork offers us the wisdom, community, and perspective we need for soulful thriving in challenging times. Through her practice, Fire by Night Dreamwork, Laura facilitates dreamwork for groups and individuals. She teaches at The Haden Institute in North Carolina. Fire By Night
The Resilient Activist offers our own interpretation of these gatherings, based on training we have received through the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America, and other resilience practices we incorporate into our programs including short meditations, journaling, nature connection, and breakout rooms.
This is your best opportunity to connect with a community that gets you, with folks who are experiencing many of the emotions that climate change has brought out in your heart and mind.
There is nothing for you to commit to except to gather your favorite beverage, a journal, find a comfortable spot with your Zoom window open, and just be you.
Each session will include facilitators from The Resilient Activist as well as a Climate-Aware Therapist to guide the conversations in ways that are supportive and nurturing.
The Resilient Activist JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) Book Club
Are you interested in learning more about justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in America with a group of like-minded and open-hearted people?
Do you enjoy reading and discussing books that expand your understanding of yourself and the world?
If these questions touch a chord, then The Resilient Activist JEDI Book Club is for you!
In this ambitious successor to The Great Derangement, acclaimed writer Amitav Ghosh finds the origins of our contemporary climate crisis in Western colonialism’s violent exploitation of human life and the natural environment.
A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, Amitav Ghosh’s new book traces our contemporary planetary crisis back to the discovery of the New World and the sea route to the Indian Ocean. The Nutmeg’s Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh’s narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation—of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh’s hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis, revealing the ways human history has always been entangled with earthly materials such as spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels. Our crisis, he shows, is ultimately the result of a mechanistic view of the earth, where nature exists only as a resource for humans to use for our own ends, rather than a force of its own, full of agency and meaning.
Writing against the backdrop of the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, Ghosh frames these historical stories in a way that connects our shared colonial histories with the deep inequality we see around us today. By interweaving discussions on everything from the global history of the oil trade to the migrant crisis and the animist spirituality of Indigenous communities around the world, The Nutmeg’s Curse offers a sharp critique of Western society and speaks to the profoundly remarkable ways in which human history is shaped by non-human forces.
Please feel welcome to attend, even if you missed earlier meetings. This is an open group, and we understand that our lives are busy and not everyone will be able to attend each month!
The JEDI Book Club is facilitated by Resilient Activists Brenda Bennett-Pike and Anne Melia. We hope you will join us!
How can a dream group support environmental activism?
What’s a dream group? It’s a small circle of people who listen to each other’s dreams, trusting that each dream holds collective wisdom for growth, insight, and resilience.
Why listen to dreams?
Dreams are energetic realities, made of images and emotions, that carry transformative innate wisdom from our unconscious to our waking consciousness. As we learn to understand our dreams, share them with others, and live them out through actions, art, and relationships, we are doing courageous, powerful work!
Sharing our dreams helps us all “grow into ourselves” – individually and together…which makes for more resilient activism!
Interpreting dreams is deeply, wildly fun!
How does this work? You’ll learn a way of sharing dreams that goes deep but keeps the dreamer’s personal stuff out of it. (Seriously, this works.) No experience is needed: you just show up ready to dive in and “dream” another person’s dream. You’ll also learn to integrate the dream through active imagination, art, ritual, and play.
Who is leading?
Laura Huff Hileman is a certified Jungian-oriented dreamworker who has led dreams groups for over 20 years. She believes that group dreamwork is a phenomenal resource for environmental and social justice, and she’s thrilled to share this work with The Resilient Activist. You can check out her website and download a free “Field Guide to Dreaming” at www.firebynight.net.
When do we meet?
Come for a free 90-minute Introductory Zoom session on Wed. Jan 18 at 6-7:45 pm Central time. This will be recorded: participants in the 6-week group must either attend the Intro session or view the recording and contact Laura before registration.
Participants will be invited to join the 6-week program that will meet by Zoom 6-7:45 pm Central every Wednesday, Jan. 25th – March 1st. This group is limited to 6 participants: if we have more interest, we’ll form a second group.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Group dreamwork is not therapy: it focuses on the dream and not the dreamer. In order to create a safe space for all participants, the pre-group conversation with Laura will help determine if this group is right for you.
Cost? The Introductory Session is free. The 6-week group is $150 with some scholarships available.
Participants will
