Our schedule of workshops is updated seasonally so that we can offer opportunities to meet our visitors where they are each season. Below are some of the past programs we’ve offered. Many of these will be held again either annually or seasonally. Our workshop leaders are all volunteers and bring their experience, learning and guidance to the center as their lives permit. The listings below should give you a good sense of what is typically offered here at The Meaningful Life Center. We hope you’ll take part, join our community and come grow with us as we explore what it means for each of us to have a meaningful life.
The Quest for Meaning
Searching for Purpose, Meaning, and Fulfillment
Along life’s journey do you ever feel a gentle longing, or a vague uneasiness that beckons you to search for something more.
Using stories, poetry, literature, the world’s wisdom traditions, depth psychology, and the natural sciences, we will consider the various ways to invest one’s energy and time. We will explore the journey every person can make in pursuit of a feeling of wholeness, meaning, and purpose.
Workshop Leader: Chris Austin
Beginning a Meditation Practice
Meditation is a skill that anyone can learn. Establishing a meditation practice engenders a sense of inner spaciousness that allows us to act with wisdom and caring; even in the face of challenging interpersonal encounters. The goal of this course is to provide the tools and resources that will enable the participant to establish a daily meditation practice.
Typically meets weekly.
Workshop Leader: Colleen Vaughn and Barbara Roberts
Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
An 8-week evidence based, experiential program designed to provide participants with intensive and systematic training in mindfulness meditation and movement practices integrating into daily life what is discovered and learned through the process of participating in the program. For beginners and advanced meditators alike, this course offers practices that have consistently demonstrated positive outcomes including increased self-awareness and growing capacity for present focused attention.
“In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are same. So if you’re not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you’re not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness towards oneself are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.”
– Jon Kabat-Zinn –
Workshop Leader: Dr. David Patterson
Yoga for Emotional Ease: A Restorative Yoga Class
This yoga class is based on a specific sequence of postures that help to progressively calm the mind, balance energies, stimulate positive thinking and bring quietness to the body. It is an opportunity to rest and renew, and maybe learn a few techniques as your companion to help you out when you meet situations that you initially turn away from.
Workshop Leader: Tammy Kaousias
Connect, Connecting, Connected
Exploring our connections is valuable work when we hope to live a fuller, more meaningful life. This one day workshop starts with exploring how to connect with our true self, moves on to examining how we are connecting with others and finally considers the need to be connected to that which is greater than ourselves.
Throughout this day-long gathering participants listen, discuss, reflect, laugh, meditate, and celebrate connections.
Workshop Leader: Valerie Taylor
Reading Poetry Together
In this program a variety of poems will be presented from wide ranging writers. In teh past we have explored teh poems of Mary Oliver, Hereman HEsse, Jim Wayne Miller, Margaret Atwood and others whose writing brings a passion for prose and poetry to life. There is ample time fro discussion and contemplation of teh poesm each week. We move at the pace of the participants and relish the freedom to explore a poem in its fullness. No prior experience is needed to explore how these works move you.
Typically meets weekly for four weeks.
Workshop Leader: John Eldridge
The Fundamental Questions
Life planning questions that help guide a person toward a clearer understanding of who they are, what their life is about, and how one finds answers to the important questions about living our lives.
In this workshop, Barry will share the Fundamental Questions he used to frame the words for his Journey Charter. This will be a sharing time, with others, or just with your inner Being to consider some answers to these questions that might help you to navigate your individual journey. You will leave with a couple of templates to help you refine your own charter to a more Meaningful Life.
Workshop Leader: Barry Richmond
Sacred Reading
Participants in this workshop will learn the discipline of sacred reading and then participate, as a group, in the practice using texts from different traditions. Join us for an evening of exploring the world of sacred reading.
Typically meets weekly for 3 to 4 weeks.
Workshop Leader: Jerry Askew