Creative Relating Salon : Pride!

Do you ever find yourself looking for more from your relationships? Or finding that relating with others is challenging, and wish you could have help?

This event may be for you. We’re having an afternoon of organized discussion about what it means to be human and to relate with others, followed by some connection exercises to practice skills and techniques.

The theme this time is "Pride," in honor of Pride month.
Pride is an interesting Janus-like word, with both positive and negative connotations. On the positive side, it's about appreciating oneself and one's accomplishments (or those of loved ones), and self-acceptance, self-esteem, and self-love. But it's also the first of the 7 Deadly Sins, and evokes more discreditable feelings such as vanity, haughtiness, arrogance, hubris, and narcissism. We're going to dig into Pride in all its guises with exercises chosen to explore this theme. And in our open discussion section, we'll delve into how we see pride show up in our lives, for good and for ill.

The discussion salon will include opportunities to share feelings in groups of different sizes. It’s a chance to feel heard and connected, and to practice openness and compassion and empathy.

The connection exercises, following the discussion, will provide an opportunity to learn and practice skills that are helpful for open relating. These exercises may include opportunities for gentle, non-sexual touch and may tenderly touch on challenging edges for some people, including the possibility of some clothing optional exercises towards the end. Participants are always at choice, including choosing to observe the exercise or leave this part of the program.

After the salon there will be a small casual gathering with snacks and a chance to connect informally. The duration of the event is about 3 hours.

There is a suggested donation of $15 to cover the cost of snacks and materials. A donation jar will be available at the event.

I will be asking registered participants and people wanting to be on the wait list for contact information other than Meetup, either a phone # for texting or a Facebook contact for messaging. This is because often things change at the last minute (e.g. spaces open up for the waitlist, people have questions about parking, etc., etc.) and I want to be able to contact you quickly, and experience has shown that most people don't check Meetup messages frequently enough to communicate quickly enough. Unless I have this contact information from you I won't add you to the list of attendees - so if you're new, please send me a message with your info when you sign up, and I'll send you a confirmation that you're registered.

I will send information about address and logistics to registered participants a few days before the event.