Tag archives: spirituality
Martha Alter Hines, MSW, CMT, who counts 20 years of experience in the grounded world as a psychotherapist, clinical social worker and body worker, now assists people to navigate the experience of awakening to their ultimate, cosmic selves and souls as a channel and a cosmic healer. Her new Meetup group, Deep Relating Within Ourselves, […]
Sarah McLean leads a meditation immersion/mini-retreat at Montecito Meditation from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, January 25, that serves as an opportunity to unplug from the bombardment of sound, take a respite from technology, put aside to-do lists and dive deeply into your interior. Offerings include silent meditations, a walking meditation, a guided […]
The Santa Barbara Buddhist Meditation Meetup, which frequently holds its events at the American Buddhist Meditation Temple on Orchid Drive near More Mesa, is branching out beyond that site to include more gathering outside and at other locations. The group will gather for a Half Moon Morning Retreat this Friday, January 17, from 8-10 am, […]
Bodhi Path Santa Barbara is part of an international organization of Buddhist centers and groups founded by Shamarpa (the 14th Shamar Rinpoche) with the expressed purpose of exploring the methods and wisdom of the timeless teachings of the Buddha in order to better understand and work with our mind and emotions. Shamarpa, along with the […]
While decades ago, meditation and mindfulness might have been considered a New Age distraction for woo-woo Californians, the practices have clearly been adopted as mainstream by individuals, businesses, families and other organizations. The medical, emotional, and spiritual benefits are palpable, but perhaps still somewhat difficult to grasp. Integrating those two has been a two-decade-plus passion […]
The FireTenders men’s groups were founded several years ago by Timothy Tillman to be a self-sustaining community of responsible men committed to wakeful living and willing to support other men in the process of self-discovery, true masculine embodiment, and open-hearted relational engagement in the world. There are three such ongoing groups in town, plus several […]
Elizabeth Schwyzer developed Write from the Body – a creative writing workshop that explores the intersections between language and physical experience – back when the Santa Barbaran was practicing dance and serving as an arts writer at the Independent before moving, marrying, and starting to raise children. Now Schwyzer – who holds degrees in art […]
Like many spiritual leaders, Madeleine Marentette came to her practice via finding healing through metaphysical experiences. The Toronto native had been in a series of health crises throughout most of her 20s, so sick that she almost skipped an invitation to a discourse from the Dalai Lama at the University of Toronto. “But something just […]
JourneyDance is a dynamic, conscious dance form that combines freestyle and structured movement to inspire participants to move from the mind into the body. Lisa Buell, who boasted a decade of experience as a life and business coach before adding dance and intuitive painting to her repertoire, brought the practice to Santa Barbara from the […]
Sarah Taylor has been acting since high school, but was always interested in the serious roles. She didn’t get into performing stand-up comedy until many years later, right around the same time her own struggles led her to investigate Buddhism. “It was very odd, because I had a real pull to just sit and practice […]
Last August’s debut of NEST Fest – produced by the collective known as New Earth Star Tribe – was a deep, one-afternoon immersion in all kinds of healing and transformational modalities, from ecstatic dance to conscious talks, sound healing and movement and plenty of partner play. The event was hosted at a private East Side […]
Taking a mindful pause is one of the most important tenets of Relational Mindfulness, according to Deborah Eden Tull, the veteran meditation and mindfulness teacher who wrote a 2018 book of the same name. Even so, it was almost surprising when it took a moment for the words to emerge in response to a question […]
It might seem counterintuitive to consider as a spiritual practice a healing modality that looks like it largely consists of massage-like touch with a little bit of talking. The Rosen Method, after all, was developed in the early 1980s by a former physical therapist named Marion Rosen. The bodywork is based on the concept that […]
FireTenders is a self-sustaining community of responsible men who are committed to wakeful living and are willing to support other men in the process of self-discovery, true masculine embodiment, and open-hearted relational engagement in the world. Normally the meetings are in closed, ongoing groups that are formed following a weekend or other immersive training. Now, […]
The Magic Castle Cabaret opened earlier this year just off Cabrillo Boulevard by the Andree Clark Bird Refuge. But even more magical moments might soon be taking place next door at the just-opened Montecito Meditation. The new center is designed as a non-denominational destination for the local meditation community as well as a retreat and […]
The Marjorie Luke Theatre, which earlier this month began its own ongoing series on spirituality and healing called Mind, Body & Soul, is now also the home for events from the Santa Barbara Consciousness Network. Next up is Dr. Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., the famed author, personal growth and relationships expert and speaker who, alone or […]
Mindvalley received an unexpected boost when 19-year-old tennis player Bianca Andreescu defeated Serena Williams, one of the all-time greats, in the final of the US Open in New York earlier this month. Asked by journalists how she remained so focus during the raucous tournament, where countless competitors have succumbed as much to doubts and derision […]
By his own admission, Dave Mochel was a victim of restlessness, boredom, frustration, anxiety, fear, and anger and suffered such debilitating anxiety in his mid-20s that he could barely leave the house. Now he runs Applied Attention, a Carpinteria-based mindfulness consulting company that teaches people simple and powerful practices to focus thoughts in ways that […]
Until two months ago, your faithful correspondent had never experienced Authentic Movement, a simple form of self-directed movement in the presence of at least one witness, with attention directed inward. As movers follow present-time inner impulses to produce spontaneous gestures and movements as well as moments of stillness, the witness watches and tracks his or […]
“1 + 1 = 3?” is the title for round three of the recently revived Authentic Relating Games at Yoga Soup, which doesn’t mean co-leaders Jenny Calcoen and Damian Gallagher can’t perform simple addition. The inquisitive equation refers instead to the Vesica Piscis, a mathematical shape formed by the intersection of two disks with the […]
