Into the Eddy:

An invitation to slow down, reflect and recharge. 

Enough!

Professionals of all kinds - whether in an organization with 1,000 co-workers or in a single-person business - are all being asked to speed up, and do more with less. A new book out last week promises to “double your problem-solving speed.” A recent ad promises to 4x your coaching income with “one easy, fast trick.” Health insurance companies are reducing paid client visits to therapists, telling them to get results faster. There are endless new articles in business journals describing the acceleration of business practices as necessary for survival in today’s economy.

But that’s not the whole story. It’s just the headline-grabbing soundbites.

In my work with hundreds of people in organizations over the last year, I hear something different. Everywhere I go, I hear about the deep yearning for a slowing down, more reflective time, and a hunger for the kinds of human connection that can’t be built with speed. Many of them talk about sensing a personal calling to pursue a deeper vision of service that questions some of the traditional and unsustainable myths about serving others. Like, "If you really cared, you'd work even harder." And, "This is all about the people I'm serving, this is not about me."

The pace of our work is about constant doing. Looking for solutions, setting up conditions for success and being aware when things get off track. All that doing creates the path forward. Doing is for others. Being is for yourself. Being requires interior reflection. Being requires a connection to why I am engaged, what’s happening to me in this engagement and how this engagement will help me down my path. Regeneration and health require both doing and being.

We can be tempted to isolate ourselves from others as we hunker down to focus on solving the next crisis. However, once we get beyond our coping “window of tolerance,” our internal systems begin to shut down. We separate from our emotions and feel disconnected from others or we move into a hyper-aroused state of feeling anxious, impulsive, overwhelmed and often angry—or flipping back and forth between shutting down and hyper-activity.

We are so trained to focus on outcomes for others. We forget that our own interior reflection is one of the most powerful kinds of outcome. It is real work. It’s not something to do “if you have the time.” Slowing down, moving into calmness and reflection allows us to move past incremental improvement towards whole new ways of thinking about our life and the life of our organization and how it is choosing to “be” in the world.

Remember: nothing changes sustainably without a change in imagination.

You are being watched. Whether you are part of a workgroup and have influence or are a lone practitioner with clients, the people around you are modeling you. Picking up cues for how they should act based on you. It’s the ripple effect. Energy follows energy. There are two truths about rippling. First truth: no matter how hard you try you can’t conceal how you are rippling. Second truth: Your ripple can only be changed by reflection.

If you are coming from a place of anxiousness, overwork and stress, people will be affected by that ripple. You’ll also likely bypass and not hear people who are coming from a place of wholeness. Why? Because they remind you of how out of touch you are with yourself and their presence challenges you to change. If you are coming from a place of whole-heartedness and clarity, people will be affected by that ripple. Slowing down and stepping back gives us clear insight into how we are rippling. Honestly, how are you rippling these days?

There is good news! A tipping point is happening in the world. A time of upheaval and great change. While there is an abundance of disheartening news, there is also a groundswell of good news on all fronts. Humans are realizing that, if we follow the known practices of how nature regenerates itself—creating conditions for thriving, strengthening roots, healing and renewed action, we can come up with solutions. It's happening in helping work, industry, politics, justice and equity movements and farming, just to name a few.

If you are reading this, we believe you are one of the people committed in your own way to this regeneration and healing.

It’s why we are inviting you Into the Eddy.

“If we are going somewhere different, let’s go there differently."

Nora Bateson

Why is this called 'Into the Eddy'?

Eddies are a rivers way of restoring health and regenerating energy. Usually created as a result of a natural obstruction like a rock, fallen tree or bend in the river, eddies are a circular pool that dissipate the chaotic energy and turbulence of the river and create a place of stillness. Eddies are the rivers way of slowing down.

Plant life flourishes, food is available at different depths and river creatures of all kinds use eddies to rest and get ready for the next push up or downstream.

Humans need “human” eddies to continue thriving. Eddies get us out of crisis-thinking patterns by slowing us down and moving us towards the clarity and wisdom of our whole self. They offer us the kindness and wisdom of others resting in the eddy. And prepare us to re-enter the rapids with renewed ideas and courage.

“The art of being human is in uniting fruitful activity with a contemplative

stance—not one or the other, but always both at the same time.”

Richard Rohr

What is the invitation?

This small-group experience invites a maximum of 12 participants who value reflective time with others as an essential part of their health and growth. We'll meet every two weeks—eight short sessions over four months. We welcome individual business owners as well as employees of any size organization. Each session, we'll offer different reflective activities designed to help you slow down and access wisdom and knowledge that's not usually available in the rush of everyday life. The activities are drawn from a wide variety of modern and ancient practices from the fields of dialogue, embodiment, storytelling, ritual, shadow-work and the thriving principles of nature. Each activity is carefully designed to encourage each participant to engage in ways that feel exciting, energy-building and safe.

Typically, participants share most or all of these beliefs:

You are being called into deeper work—inside yourself and with the people around you.

You know in your heart and your mind you need more reflective time to

build courage and find the direction you are seeking.

You are out there "doing" each day, working hard towards what matters to you.

But you also know that DOING is for others and BEING is for yourself.

You desire more time to BE with yourself.

You know that reflective time with others produces insights, sometimes

surprising, that can't be accessed during the pace of your daily work life. 

You desire time to feel more of the belonging that happens when a small

group commits to listening to each other carefully, responding with compassion

and insight, and offering the kind of encouragement that births genuine hope

“…the process of reflection utilizes knowledge that lies deep within…so deep it is often taken for granted and not explicitly acknowledged, but it is the data humans use to make instinctive decisions based upon accumulated knowledge from past actions and experience.”

Ruth Helyer. Learning Through Reflection:

The Critical Role of Reflection in Work-Based Learning

The four-part flow of each 'Into the Eddy' session:

These sessions are designed to follow nature's pattern of being in the rapids, entering the eddy, being in the stillness, and re-entering the rapids. In the eddy, we are released from usual constraints and stress so we can focus on staying balanced and responding from wholeness. With our sight and senses not blurred by the rapids, we can more clearly see both who we are and what is ahead of us. It is both calming and energizing as we receive nourishment from what is around us. In the eddy, our group will experience laughter, serious inquiry and silence as we move through each session together. We want you to feel energized and refreshed as a result. 

Out of the Rapids

Opening with a group centering meditation to enter the stillness of the eddy to quiet your mind and center in your wholeness. We'll use a variety of breathing, visualization, embodiment, and meditation practices during our sessions openings together.

Finding Center in the Eddy

Each session, a new reflective activity designed to support your growth as a human and change-maker. Generally, this activity will begin with a description of the activity and purpose, some individual time to gather your thoughts/feelings and then an opportunity in a small group to learn together and share your new awarenesses. We have gathered an inspiring variety of reflective activities drawn from the practices of presencing, embodiment, storytelling and metaphor, shadow, question-sensing, rituals of endings and beginnings and nature's patterns of thriving, composting and regeneration. 

Noticing the Turbulence at the Edges

Participants who desire will have the opportunity in a small group to describe a current issue they are facing in their work life. The group will listen carefully and, after a period of quiet reflection, offer the gift of a variety of questions to take out of the session with you. We'll orient you to the powerful blend of Strategic Questioning and Question Sensing, which will open us to often surprising questions and insights. Participants will be able to share at the following session which questions were most helpful as they moved forward with the issue they described. 

Leaving the Eddy

We will close each session with the opportunity for each person to embody their new awarenesses, offer gratitude, and recognize the strength and nourishment they have received to re-enter the rapids.

Bonus: Participants will receive a one-page pdf describing the activities for each session that they can take back and use with co-workers and/or people they are working with. 

Eddies are 'nourishing breaks'

So what is a nourishing break?

A nourishing break begins by being a loyal friend to yourself by building in structured time to enter a calm state, being aware of your mind/body/spirit responses to what’s happening around you and being open to what emerges. Modern science and indigenous wisdom both tell us that resilience and hope is built in moments where we make meaning out of life events. Resilience and hope DON’T come from action, it is the result of reflecting on our action—past, present and future. Nourishment happens when we feel the resulting energy from reflection. Our body, mind and heart thrive on this as essential food for our health. 

What can happen during a nourishing break?

• Nourishing breaks help us access hidden beliefs and be open to solutions usually drowned-out by the pace of our lives.
• Nourishing breaks offer us the gift of being present to what emerges without the pressure of immediate outcomes or solutions.
• Nourishing breaks increase compassion as we are able to see ourselves in others and others in ourselves.
• Nourishing breaks offer us the comfort of being witnessed as we tell our story.
• Nourishing breaks help cure the loneliness of the helper. Making time for people who care about belonging to belong to each other.
• Nourishing breaks give us permission to do the essential work of our adult lives - to get done and re-done over and over again as we follow our true path home.

“Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.”

“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight..."

e.e cummings

Format

8 sessions (approx. once every two weeks for 4 months)

Kickoff session: 2.0 hours

All other sessions: 1:15 minutes

The frequency and length of sessions is specifically designed so it will not be overly burdensome for you to integrate into your work schedule.

Show up as you are. Whatever we do can be done successfuly with no preparation. There will be no homework or quizzes:)

What if I miss a session? And what about recordings?

The value of this offering is balanced between content, confidential live conversations, and the belief that making this time for yourself is a priority. It doesn't work on a "drop-in if I've got time" basis like some other events. Because of this, recording of each session will not generally not be available without special request due to emergency. Of course, you will always receive the content slides and activities sheets for that session, and you are welcome to contact another participant for an update on the session.

Participation requirements:

Participants must be able to connect to Zoom with both audio and video so we can hear and talk to each other. 

This is a highly interactive learning event. It is not the kind of session where you can do other tasks while engaged with us.

Dates

Eight sessions:

March 5, 19

April 2, 16

May 14, 28

June 11, 25

Times

US/Canada/Europe:

9am PST, 12pmEST, 5pmGMT

Session Lengths:

Kickoff Session: March 5 is 9:00-11:00PST

All other sessions are 9-10:15PST

Questions?

Contact us for more information.

Registration fee

Single participant rate: $399 USD (or 5 payments of $80 per month)

Want to do this with a group in your organization?

Organization rate: $4000 (or 5 payments of $800 per month)

Contact us to arrange dates, times and size of group.

Note: Limited partial scholarships based on financial need are available, particularly for individuals and groups working predominantly with marginalized individuals and groups. Contact us for more information.

Learning host

Bruce Anderson (Find out more about Bruce here)

“Reflection opens the taproot to the vein of remembering that leads us

home to be woven into the remembering that surrounds us all. Wisdom

abounds in this full-of-awe place—a path open to willing seekers.”

Bruce Anderson