BEING PRESENT, THE ULTIMATE MEDICINE

HOW HEALING HAPPENS

WHEN 'YOU' GET OUT OF THE WAY

A Day with Matt Licata and Jeff Foster

Location: The StarHouse, 3476 Sunshine Canyon Dr., Boulder, CO 80302

Date: Saturday, March 28, 2015

Time: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

Cost: $95

* Don't forget to bring your own lunch! *

 

Join writer/psychotherapist Matt Licata, and UK author/spiritual teacher Jeff Foster for this special daylong gathering, to explore the intelligence, wisdom, and creativity buried in the darkness and the shadows of our experience, hidden in the so-called ‘negative’ and unwanted aspects of life.

 

This will be day of talks, taboo-breaking meditative dialogues and restful silences; a day of laughter, honesty and tears; a day of seeing our struggles, our fears, our sufferings in a fresh new light; a day of resting deeply, of letting go of the exhausting search for ‘something more’. A day of being present with whatever arises in ourselves and each other.

 

Whether you are struggling with your life and are looking for peace and space amidst the chaos, or you are a healer or therapist interested in meeting your clients in a new way, this meeting is for you.

When just for a moment, we make the radical commitment of not trying to fix ourselves and each other, we may just discover that we were never broken, and that everything 'wrong' with us is absolutely 'right' from the perspective of the Universe. Our greatest pain may turn out to be our greatest teacher, our doubts our greatest gurus, our sorrow our most trustworthy friend.

There is such a tendency in our culture to avoid pain, sorrow, frustration and fear, distract ourselves from these very natural energies, label them as ‘wrong’ or 'bad' or ‘negative’ or 'unspiritual', meditate or medicate them away. Sometimes even trying to 'fix', 'accept' or 'heal' something within ourselves can be a subtle form of resistance!

Much of Western medicine is geared towards the removal of symptoms, the calming of disruption, the numbing of chaos and the journey towards ‘normality’. But sometimes we no longer have any interest in ‘returning to normal’! The ‘normal’ was the problem, not the solution! Sometimes powerful energies just want to move in us. Sometimes hearts just want to break wide open to make more room for love. Sometimes dreams need to die, plans need to crumble, doubt needs to rage. Sometimes all our ideas about life, 'spirituality' and even 'enlightenment' need to shatter.

When we turn towards the present moment, however powerfully the storm rages, with a spirit of curiosity, gentleness and honesty, we may just discover unexpected gifts. When we get out of the way, perhaps true healing (the remembering of wholeness) can happen. 

"Let us see once and for all that sadness, grief, depression, and rage are not pathology, but path. Let us go directly into the darkness with each other, willing for our hearts to be shattered over and over and over again..."

- Matt Licata 

"Just to sit, without expectation, with our pain, our grief or fear or loneliness or despair, without trying to 'fix' the present moment in any way .... this is how we begin to heal ourselves - and each other - through love, which is awareness. Beyond our roles, unprotected, unresolved, undefended, we truly meet."

- Jeff Foster