What it is: “A Guide To Rational Living” is the first book the great psychologist Doctor Albert Ellis wrote on Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy ( REBT – later known as “cognitive therapy”)

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What it is: A book about how to recover lost parts of yourself and become more whole by paying attention to somatics(tendencies of the body). There are fun and engaging tools to play along as well, like the “which animal are you when you get defensive” cheat sheet (which I describe a little further down this review).

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What it is: A brilliant book distinguishing relating with others consciously and unconsciously.

Description: This book helps the reader learn how to create structures for conscious relating. These ideas assist in dealing with breakdowns by helping people understanding how to honor each individual as well as the relationship as a whole.

Anecdote: Before being introduced to the ideas in this book, I somehow didn’t realize that we each have our own way of “expecting” other’s to be in the world. I’ve found so much freedom through the implementation of these ideas in my life — what a brilliant gift!

Potential Turn-Offs: Dense material.

Continue reading ‘RelationDancing: Consciously Creating What You Really Want In Your Relating by Mark Michael Lewis’

Location: 953 Mission Street, san Francisco
What it is: Learn to dance with fire while engaging in a developmentally focused community. The classes are just as much about a non-judgemental learning philosophy, getting in touch with your body, self-expression, and relaxation (being in flow) as they are about dance.

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What it is: Sex Ecology and Spirituality is the breakthrough book where Ken Wilber first described his All Quadrants, All Levels approach to Integral Thinking. This tour de force of scholarship and spirituality differentiates the pre-rational (magic and mythical) conceptions of spirituality from the rational and the trans-rational (phenomenological and experiential) conceptions of spirituality. He then places the various ideas of spirituality on a developmental spectrum from birth to enlightenment, examining each phase of development through 4 “quadrants” or perspectives that contrast interior and exterior on the one hand, and individual and collective on the other.

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Location: Various locations in the U.S. and Europe
What it is: At the School for The Work, participants spend nine days and nights “learning to unlearn” the stressful thoughts that cause fear, anger, stress, and suffering. Exercises are based on Katie’s personal experience of “waking up to reality” to ground participants in practical applications of The Work’s four questions and turnaround.

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Location: North Fork, CA (and others)
What it is: A ten-day silent retreat to learn Vipassana meditation. The course is designed for all levels, even people who can’t sit still for longer than it takes to check email. The instruction leads you bit by bit to the first real sit a few days in. Don’t expect to show up, shut up, sit down, and deal with it. This course gives you tools that build, so you can feel some progress and be able to make that first sit, at around day 5, a real one.

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What it is: This book is Ayn Rand’s greatest work and culmination of her artistry and philosophy – a philosophy that celebrates human, earthly life, and the power of human rationality and creativity. It is also a mystery novel that is gripping and exquisitely crafted.

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Location: 2323 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA
What it is: Gosh…InterPlay is one of those experiences that defies description. But I’ll try anyway, if you promise to do your best to imagine what I’m talking about! By definition, InterPlay is a community-based, improvisational arts practice. Gather a bunch of regular-ish people in a dance studio and invite them to play together…being as silly or serious, goofy or silent, as they care to be. Mix together some clearly led structures for storytelling, movement, and singing, and you get…InterPlay!

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What it is: Originally made in the 1970s, during the renaissance of the women’s spirituality movement, this tarot deck is unusual in that the cards are round and the images are women, and goddess-based. Symbols are taken from women-centered rituals and based in non-western (and some western) global cultures.

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