Want to get nothing done?

Really, who am I to teach a workshop titled Cultivate Being?  Me, the living embodiment of all things doing.  With the never completed to do list.  Whose sure indicator of illness is a reclined posture of nothingness on the sofa.  Well, actually, given all that, I’m probably a good person to offer this particular workshop.  I was born this way and moved unconsciously through the early years with this drive. What an incredibly mixed blessing.  I got a lot done at a significant cost.  Slowly awakening to this tendency over time has been humbling. 

For many years I was frightfully aware of this formidable attribute yet felt helpless to make a shift.  Struggling to be in honorable balance with a non-stop task master, learning how to healthy harness this trait….this has been my work the past couple decades.  I know a lot about how to cultivate being.  I certainly know when I am not doing it.

Funny, the decision-making process around offering this workshop is actually a case in point about this shift.  There was never a question Majica and I would offer this one-day final segment, fifth in a series, focused on stillness, weaving together the rhythms and the artistry.  That was a given.  But when she suggested making it a three-day retreat, I hesitated.  And every wise bone in my body attended to that hesitation.  I told her I needed time to be with the notion.

The old me would have just barreled ahead with this innocent proposal.  The old me knew how to run with her gut, say yes in a flash and then just do whatever was needed. The old me brought this community to Harbin on a three day retreat six years running.  And it was good.  In many ways, this yearly event, this retreat brought to finality with the 2015 fire, was instrumental in creating the community we now enjoy.  There is just no substitute for the residential experience: shared stories, breaking bread side-by-side, laughing and crying together, communal being…it is a very good thing.

And yet…where would we go if not Harbin?  And the timing seemed challenging.  And the amount of work seemed daunting.  Slowly, slowly I let it in.  I watched my willingness begin to emerge.  We found an awesome location.  We dialed in some good timing.  And the work?  Now split with someone else!  By pausing, by allowing time to be with, by sitting with the not knowing…this is how commitment and clarity arose.  And a big yes dawned with zero effort and no pushing.  

So we’re going and I’m super-excited and I hope you can join us May 29-31 in the oak-studded forest of residential Four Springs Retreat Center. Early bird pricing until March 15. Together we’ll cultivate being with mandala-making and 5Rhythms dance.  No doubt there’ll be optional Bella-style yoga in the mornings.  And here’s the kicker: Harbin Hot Springs is right next door…so you have a big invitation to soak all day Friday before we begin and/or spend the night Sunday, continue soaking through Monday. 

And because I’m so in love with Harbin and have been there several times since it re-opened (no conference center, no communal kitchen) and I’ve taken the time to pause and consider how to incorporate this incredible resource…I’m thrilled to offer some bits there before and after our retreat at Four Springs.  Consider extending your stay and join me: 

Friday      May 29     1:00-2:30pm
Roll & Release w/ Bella in the outdoor events tent. This is just the ticket for those pre-soaked bodies. Open to the Harbin public, by donation.

Monday      June 1      9:00-10:30am
Chakra Immersion w/ Bella in the tubs. In 2014, our last time at Harbin, 25 of us hot/cold immersed seven rounds, one for each chakra. It was stunningly memorable.  This is a ritual I do each time I go to Harbin. It’s a way to embody these unique energies and an experience you’ll treasure for a lifetime. No cost.

So what would happen if you got nothing done today?  If the ‘to do’ list turned into a ‘be’ list?  We can lose ourselves in the hundred details that keep life in forward motion.  We’re so busy fixing we can stop noticing how perfect most things are. Life’s treadmill  overwhelms. Maybe hop off a moment, move just a little bit away, feel perspective ripen.  Take this opportunity to drop the doing.  Retreat in the cradle of community for more than a few breaths as we give ourselves collective permission to just be.

Love, Bella