In this workshop, participants will bring thoughts and journaling from their home reflections. Home journaling, done in solitude, allows easier connection to all memories. Remembering the influential people who were part of their lives may bring up difficult experiences that they have not thought about in a long time. This workshop encourages participants not to stay distant from painful memories and/or grudges but rather to begin to see them with fresh eyes and learn from them. Confronting difficult memories in the present with the wisdom and insight of the present helps individuals become spiritually stronger. Instead of dwelling in the past, we can use the past as a text of lived experience and learn from it. In so doing, we meaningfully weave the fabric of our lifetime.

This workshop offers a variety of practices and activities that support the spiritual work to be done, including stretching exercises, guided meditation, small group discussion, and creating a visual life map or landscape.

It is possible that participants will contact you after the workshop to tell you that creating their Life Map or Lifescape was painful, because it has brought back sad or difficult memories. They may re-experience a past sorrow or hurt while remembering an out-of-control part of their life. Offer to meet with them to talk about it or suggest that they be in touch with their minister (if that is not you). If meeting with them in person is not possible, meet with (listen to) them on the phone. You (or their minister) may want to assure them that the Hindsight, Humor, and Hope workshops, where others are making the same journey, can help them feel stronger and let a painful part of their past be at rest.

Experience has shown that this program works best when each workshop begins with the opportunity for participants to eat lunch together. Shared lunch, whether individual brown bag or something more elaborate, allows time for community building and sets the tone for what follows. A few days before the workshop, remind participants by email or phone to bring their journal reflections and their bag lunch and a mug or tell them about lunch arrangements you have made.

Goals

This workshop will:

• Invite participants to continue to grow a supportive community
• Invite participants to consider past negative and positive happenings as meaningful parts of lived experience
• Offer meditation and stretching exercises as spiritual tools
• Offer a process for using journaling, color, and line as expressions of spirituality and creativity.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Continue to grow a supportive community
• Consider past negative and positive happenings as meaningful parts of lived experience
• Take part in and learn simple stretching exercises
• Experience guided meditation as a centering technique
• Use journaling, color, and line as expressions of spirituality and creativity.