The Hendricks Harken Back to 1990 to Mark a Milestone and Other Spirituality Matters

Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks, the self-help/personal growth/relationship transformation and body-mind workshop leaders, authors of more than 35 books (including the best-seller Conscious Loving), and all-around paradigm-shifting pioneers in the conscious loving and body intelligence fields, based their publishing endeavors and other operations in Montecito for years before relocating to the mountains of Ojai almost two decades ago. Since then, their educational and empowerment empire has expanded, with regular workshops both locally and around the globe as well as a whole bevy of online offerings from the founders and other staffers. 

But they’re slowing things down considerably on Sunday evening, November 23, as the Hendricks are hosting a special event to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the Hendricks Institute 35 years ago, as well as their 44th wedding anniversary. In addition to tasty bites and refreshments and lots of time for connection and conversation, the event will also feature the first-ever live performance of Gay Hendricks’ one-act comedy Phobia Clinic, with actress Kirsten Vangsness coming up from L.A. to star. Vangsness, who has played FBI tech analyst Penelope Garcia on the CBS series Criminal Minds for nearly 20 years, will also present her own one-woman show called Outdated about her online dating experiences for just its second public performance. Also on the slate is a live performance by the duo River and Rose, a harmony-laden husband-and-wife from Ojai. 

The evening is free and open to the public, either in person at the Hendricks Institute or on Zoom. Send an email to [email protected] to get the details or RSVP for the event. 

Meanwhile, the couples’ online offerings continue, with the next weekly gathering of the Hendricks’ Foundation for Conscious Living’s Big Leap featuring Audrey Hazekamp presenting “Big Leap Bridge: Artful Endings,” a no-cost one-hour Zoom where participants will learn simple ways to remedy overwhelm and how to create ease with completions, slated for 6 pm on November 19. The workshop will introduce how endings can be celebrated as a requirement to make space for the new, with the concept that active and artful endings are about curiosity, appreciation and willingness to gather the energy and wisdom needed to move forward from what is ‘now.’

Register at https://foundationforconsciousliving.org/big_leap_bridge/artful-endings

Kathlyn is also continuing her free weekly 15-minute live calls every Monday morning at 9 am called ‘Love in Action’ that combine two practices to support participants in moving from fear to love through presence. The tools of Loop of Awareness and Love Scooping are intended to fill up our own reservoirs, and community members stay on the call for another 30 minutes to explore the concepts through conversation. 

Weininger’s Many Ways to Quiet the Mind 

Also, remarkably prolific and greatly generous in her free or very low-cost offerings is the Santa Barbara’s Radhule Weininger, a teacher of mindfulness, compassion, and non-dual awake-awareness practices, along with Buddhist psychology, since 1981. In addition to all the in-person and online meditation events from Weininger and the other Mindful Heart Program leaders, including Montecito’s Arno Jaffe – currently numbering 17 every week – MHP is sponsoring a special Moonrise Meditation + Sound Bath on Friday, December 5, with Peter Moreno at Santa Barbara Middle School, outdoors if weather permits. Participants will watch the moon rise, meditate, and enjoy a soothing sound bath with crystal bowls and bells. The school’s Lotus Theater will host in the event of rain. The suggested donation is $10. Text Moreno at (805) 453-1813 by noon to RSVP.

The following afternoon, Weininger leads a longer workshop called “Non-dual Effortless Mindfulness,” a mini-retreat to present the philosophy and practice of pointing-out practices, a Tibetan-inspired non-dual meditation series that guides us to experience Awake Awareness. Inspired by ancient Mahamudra and Dzogchen practices, the teaching offers a step-by-step path – led from full-body awareness to concentration practices to emptiness practices, and gradually crossing into awake, natural, loving awareness – with a focus on how to bring these practices into everyday life engagement and loving presence. As the retreat is held at Yoga Soup, the fee is $30. 

Visit mindfulheartprograms.com.

Also at Yoga Soup: Joss Jaffe, Arno’s musician-son, leads a Kirtan session of devotional call-and-response chanting on December 6. The ancient yogic journey is a practice that can quiet the mind, relax the body, and create a feeling of love in the heart. No experience necessary.

Visit www.yogasoup.com/events. 

Moving Music at MoTAC

The Museum of Tibetan Art (MoTAC) hosts Lama Tashi Norbu and Crispin Barrymore of Legacy Art Studios in a Tibetan Sacred Healing concert as part of its official grand opening within the monthly 3rd Friday Art Walk at La Cumbre Plaza on Friday, November 21. The event is timed for entering the holiday season of renewal and reflection and calling upon us to connect deeply with our individual spiritual essence while building everlasting community strength and unity. All are invited to immerse in the mystical beauty of Tibetan culture, art and spirituality, with an art exhibit & sale including works by Lama Tashi Norbu that tell a story of enlightenment and liberation. Live mantra chanting and traditional Tibetan percussion augmented by western instrumentals will take place simultaneously with a live painting demonstration. The event also features a Singing Bowls & Prayer Ceremony and a screening of Lama Tashi’s latest documentary film.  

Visit www.lamatashinorbu.org.