One of the most powerful things we can do as humans is to gather in connection and mutual support. In fact, the antidote to many of our deepest modern day sufferings – isolation, addiction, loneliness, and more – is BELONGING. The remedy is COMMUNITY. And it is connection to Earth.

At Sharing Circles, we gather to co-create an experience that values and helps us each practice essential ways of being human.

For me, the gifts of the circle are many and include:

• Expanding my willingness to drop into my heart with shameless self-awareness
• Sharing what’s true for me in the moment, with vulnerability and courage
• Practicing non-judgement by listening deeply and with compassion
• Witnessing the reality that we each have our own answers that emerge in stillness and communion
• Calling in support when I need it, in a way that calls forth my higher purpose
• Presence to the sacred energy that arises when humans connect this way.

What kinds of things do we do in a sharing circle?

Sometimes, we come together for simple discussion circles, or silence together. Other times, we share music, or healing touch or spiritual practices and rituals. Often a circle is a blend of several of these. And always, the invitation is to come as you are, and leave as yourself.

Here is a little bit about some of the gatherings in recent years that have been really special to me. I share them as a gratitude practice for myself to remember what is good in my life, and to inspire you to think about whether you would want some good like this in yours.

• Meditation. Sometimes silence and presence is the best way to be together in a circle.
• Discussion Circles. Discussion circles offer a little more depth and structure than a typical get-together with friends. We practice deep listening, sharing from the heart, and offering one another insight with permission and the best of intentions. For me, these circles are both deeper and cheaper than talk therapy, and depending on the participants, can become profoundly sacred and healing.
• Fire Circle. This can be both the most simple, and the most profound way for us to come together. We usually start with an offering to the land, gratitude for the fire, and brief check-ins. Then, rather than fill the space with idle chit-chat, we invite ourselves into deeper listening and speaking from the heart. Sometimes this is with a set intention or question in mind, sometimes it is just whatever arises in the group that has convened. Something about speaking (and not speaking) in the presence of one another and the fire offers a deepening, as well as a release or healing of what is spoken.
• Calling in the Beloved. A couple of years ago, some friends and I started a series of gatherings that we dedicated to the Goddess.  We did these in a co-created fashion where the agenda emerged as the attendees felt called to come. We did theses in an expressly yin/feminine/collective way. After a couple, we came to realize that it didn’t feel right to exclude male bodied individuals, so we opened and renamed the event. In a way that both transcended gender, and acknowledged the burden’s that our current cultural norms pile on us, we kept the container YIN, but opened the door to any and all identities.