Smartview Conversations

Are you looking for a community that commits to creating a fun and safe place for each member to improve their skills at navigating life situations of all kinds?

A place of radical acceptance where all of you is welcome?

Smartview Conversations is a place where we intentionally practice support for ourselves and each other in living a Focusing way of life, even when our environment is challenging. We will use individual and small group invitations, role play and embodiment exercises to improve our ability to access and act from felt sense awareness in more of our daily interactional life moments. We will improve communication with our own bodies and brains to understand how to support our own sense of thriving in today’s world. We will explore Resonance and Interactive Focusing concepts to bring them into our daily interactions. Our online community is modeled off of the intentional Focusing community created in Smartview Stories. We will cross concepts from the stories with our real life situations. We will deepen our understanding of our own brain neuroscience by becoming familiar with how it is embodied by the three Inner Companions in Smartview Stories.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR YOUR INDIVIDUAL GROWTH

We will not be utilizing partnership exercises between classes here; however, we will form 'accountability triads', a small group we touch in with during class each time we meet. We will also utilize small group listening and embodiment activities such as writing, art, movement and role play, to expand your sense of empowerment to show up for your self, your family and other communities in your life. Other than maybe 10-30 min of reading, and individual goals you set to practice for yourself, your time commitment will be our 1.5 weekly hours together.

REWIRING TO MOVE BEYOND DIVISION

The average human brain is strikingly divided. Our corpus callosum, connecting our two hemispheres is smaller now than ever in our evolutionary awareness. On average (and Focusers are rapidly changing this), only 2% of the LH-RH are connected. The majority of these connections are inhibitory. The owl, Ashamaya, is an incredibly powerful reminder that 'space' is our super power. When we show up to be our own listener, in a way that welcomes all with clear boundaries around safety, we rewire the nature of our inner world. We literally create within us the world as we would like it to be around us. The world around us, is of course, a co-creative effort; however, our environment will respond over time. 

LIVING IN RHYTHM WITH NATURE

One of the concepts we will practice passionately is something we call the power of the pause in Focusing. Nature is one of our best teachers here and we will find ourselves paying more attention to the nature around us. Neuroscience has a lot to say about rhythms of rest, movement and eating that support a healthy brain. I also know this concept personally as ‘alaha nyach’ or the blessings of work and rest from my Sufi practices. 

CULTURAL NORMS ARE FALLING APART

All around us, cultural norms are falling apart. Aspects of being human such as hierarchy, ways of making a living or contributing to society, family traditions, energy sources and more are in transition. What had worked for sometimes thousands of years, is no longer working. This is incredibly exciting to be here, in these bodies, contributing to how humanity chooses to evolve. It is also often overwhelming to have so much of what we relied on as ‘normal’ not working.

NEUROSCIENCE AND THE INNER COMPANIONS

Understanding our brain, how it works, how to stay in relationship to it, how to support thriving, will ground us again and again. I am a long time neuroscience geek as well as a Sufi mystic. The combo has given me the tools and inspiration to explore my own experience of living in a body/brain. It is Iain McGilchrist’s work looking at the evolutionary patterns of the human brain and crossing this with Gendlin’s patterns of philosophy (Three Types of Theories), that is the ground for the development of the Inner Companions in the Smartview Stories book series.

SPEAKING FROM OUR CENTER TO THE CENTER OF OUR CIRCLE

This is a skill I first learned from Parker Palmer and the Courage and Renewal folks. Essentially, we are putting Gendlin’s ‘situation’ or ‘topic’ spatially in the center of our interactive space. We speak our truth to this center and not directly at each other. In addition, we'll practice skills from Interactive Focusing where the relational space between Storyteller and Listener is explored. All of this is HUGE in terms of creating space and safety to explore life’s challenges together.

LIFE FORWARD KNOWING

Gendlin’s philosophy reminds us that all of life has its own forward knowing, its own next step toward thriving. In times like these, we can only find this if we are freshly pausing. We might say, pause until your soul can join you. Or wait to sense the spirit in this situation. Trying to express this something new often needs a new way of communicating. THIS, this new way of communicating is what we’ll cultivate here in our community. We will become skilled at finding symbols to live forward with, and reframing or rephrasing that invites this something new.

ACTION

Gendlin was clear that Focusing is not just listening within ourselves or holding space for others. We are finding our own right actions and acting in the world. What is a right action for us in this situation, won’t always be appreciated by others. Especially in these times of cultural norms changing. Many people will insist that the old patterns worked and will work now if we all just follow them. A huge aspect of how we will support each other is in recognizing that our personal right actions often still come with doubt or fear. No wonder! We are being called to do something brave or courageous.

RELATIONSHIP CHECK

We will borrow this valuable practice from Interactive Focusing. Essentially, we are inviting appreciations about how we are with ourselves as well as what we appreciate about 'the other' that we are in relationship with. Always there is room in our space for fears and what is asking for improvement; however, we intentionally bring together those with our appreciations. In general, appreciations are something to share and celebrate now. Fears or judgements are something wanting more of our attention and we promise to come back to these until we are clear on whether they require action. 

SELF-MENTOR

We'll begin and end this course by checking in on how we are mentoring ourselves and what kind of support is most needed from us for this part of our journey. Our goal is to experience a greater sense of flow around doing 'hard things'. The owl, Ashamaya, models this for us with how it brings trust, humor, humility in holding space for life situations that unfold in the stories. A significant part of this is understanding how 'sticky' our left hemisphere is. Our LH likes to hold on to patterns it knows from the past. We will become more efficient at recognizing when this is holding us back by studying left-right hemispherical views that are outlined in Iain McGilchrist's research. For the older patterns that humans have been doing for a long time (older than this lifetime), our LH often becomes quite confused. Acknowledging to ourselves that change is a risk and we are ok with that risk, can open the path forward. 

Skills you will take with you: 

* a greater understanding of Gendlin's Three Types of Theories, the correlating neuroscience and how this can help you in being with yourself and the world around you in any moment. 

* our left hemisphere is 'sticky', it likes to hold on to patterns it knows from the past. We will become more efficient at recognizing when this is holding us back by studying left-right hemispherical views that are outlined in Iain McGilchrist's research. Simply acknowledging that change is a risk and that humans have been doing 'this' for a long time (older than this lifetime), can open the path forward. 

* the ability to pause and move into your body, into the present moment, or over to your right hemisphere to access a bigger picture and potentially do something new here. 

* experience a greater ability to 'do hard things' as your own self-mentor. 

* become more fluid in creating space for yourself when life is too much.

* via role play in class, improve your ability to interact with others with kindness and clarity that everyone and everything is safe and with a sense of we're in this together.

* develop more ways to support yourself and those around you in processing challenging interactions. 

* possibly continue community listening and accountability support with the Triad you are part of during this course. 

SMARTVIEW CONVERSATIONS SUMMER SESSION – 2023

Featuring Smartview Stories Book 1 ‘Awkward Moments Bloom’ as curriculum for us to improve our skills in authentically interacting from our center in group dynamics where we sometimes lose our sense of worthiness. We often find ourselves in freeze, avoid, or rebel patterns. A pdf of the book will be provided with the course. 

9 Tuesdays via Zoom videoconference
12 pm – 1:30 pm EDT, 11 am – 12:30 pm CDT, 10 am – 11:30 am MDT, 9 am – 10:30 am PDT

May 30, June 6, June 13, June 20, June 27, (skip July 4), July 11, July 18, July 25, Aug 1

*note this time works well for most European countries as well

Prerequisite: Guided Focusing Session with a Certified Focusing Professional 

Course fee $225 

Register By: Tuesday, May 23

OR

SMARTVIEW CONVERSATIONS SUMMER SESSION – 2023

Featuring Smartview Stories Book 1 ‘Awkward Moments Bloom’ as curriculum for us to improve our skills in authentically interacting from our center in group dynamics where we sometimes lose our sense of worthiness. We often find ourselves in freeze, avoid, or rebel patterns. A pdf of the book will be provided with the course. 

9 Tuesdays via Zoom videoconference

7 pm – 8:30 pm EDT, 6 pm – 7:30 pm CDT, 5 pm – 6:30 pm MDT, 4 pm – 5:30 pm PDT

May 30, June 6, June 13, June 20, June 27, (skip July 4), July 11, July 18, July 25, Aug 1

*note this time works well for most Australian and Asian countries as well

Prerequisite: Guided Focusing Session with a Certified Focusing Professional 

Course fee $225 

Register By: Tuesday, May 23