UUCC Women's Retreat

Workshop/Activity Descriptions from 2016

 

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Improv!

Robin Slaw and Alanna Slaw Kiewe

Learn how to think on the spot in this improv acting workshop. Use your wit, your imagination, your creativity, and your daring to build humorous or dramatic scenes in cooperation with other workshop attendees. Find the nascent actress or comedienne or poet in yourself!

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Prayer for the Agnostic

Suzi Gerb

A lot has been written about the psychological benefits of prayer. Psychology Today reports that people who pray show more self-control, are more forgiving, have an easier time trusting, and manage stress better. Studies have shown that prayer can have a beneficial effect on blood pressure, recovery time from surgery, and even the severity of asthma symptoms. One might be tempted to say that agnostics and atheists are frozen out of these benefits, having a distinct lack of someone to pray to. Nothing could be further from the truth. One does not need to believe in a supernatural deity to invoke the power of prayer. Prayer can work very successfully even for those who don’t believe in God or the divine. In this workshop, participants will explore ways to make prayer work for them without having a divine being to pray to. We will discover how prayer can help us with self-discipline, stress management, achieving self-improvement goals, and simply enjoying the pleasures of the moment. Believers are encouraged to attend as well. The techniques we practice work well regardless of whether each participant does or doesn’t believe. The workshop will not make any assumption about the participants’ individual faith. Those who already make prayer work for them will learn new ways praying can help.

 

Tapping the Body's Wisdom: Everyday Tools for Better Living

Steph Lagana

Participants will learn to tune deeply into their bodies wisdom and understand how to connect vibrantly with their intuition. Navigating the present moment is incredibly easy with the body's help!

 

Create Your Ethical Will

Robin Hessey

“Ethical wills are windows into the souls of those who write them”. In writing one, you must look inward and see what the essential truths of your life are, face your failures and strengths and decide what really counts. Join us to get started on creating a non-material legacy for your family or for special individuals. What do you most want them to know? Suitable for any age since each writer will learn a great deal about himself in this exercise. This workshop will help crystalize and clarify how we "live in the moment" and set our intentions for the future we most desire.

 

Meditative Teachings of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach

Liz Bobo and Rae Millman

This workshop will devote itself to the meditative teachings of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. We will explore their teachings through readings of their works, group discussion, and meditations. You will also walk away from this workshop with some ideas on how to incorporate the teachings of Tara and Jack in your own life.

 

Anchoring the Future to This Moment: A Vision Board Workshop

Regina Verow

A Vision Board is a simple activity. Pull pictures and words out of a magazine and glue them together on a piece of art paper, a notebook or a poster board. Alchemy occurs however, when you add quiet focus with intentional thoughts. Vision Boards have long been used to identify priorities, attain specific goals, and clear the clutter of our over-full minds, leaving space for what is truly important to each of us. During this workshop, participants will choose an intentional word or phrase to focus on during the weekend and build a unique vision board around that word to take home when they leave the weekend.

 

Living in the Moment Toward a Vision for the Future

Becky Reese

Using the LEGO Serious Play method (yes, there really is such a thing!), develop a vision for your personal future and share it with a warm community of supportive UUCC women. By the end of the workshop, you will have developed a vision and identified concrete "living in the moment" steps that will bring you joy and satisfaction as you blaze a trail toward achieving your desired ends. Don't miss this opportunity! Corporate groups pay thousands of dollars to bring in consultants to facilitate workshops like this. You can get it right here just by participating in the UUCC Women's retreat.

 

Spiritual Priorities

Becky Reese

Join in a facilitated workshop to get in touch with your spiritual priorities and share them with a small group of others. The workshop will include an opportunity for personal reflection as well as for interaction with others to make connections and provide mutual encouragement. The group will support its members to develop plans for how to deepen or strengthen a high priority spiritual objective. Topics like this don't usually come up in idle conversation, coffee hour, volunteer work or task-focused meetings, so take advantage of the retreat setting to go deeper! Live spiritually in the moment!

 

Women’s Wisdom Writing

Amy Brooks

No more procrastinating on that book you've always wanted to write! We are going to go from blank page to complete book plan in our hour together. This is your moment to focus on your book dream and kick-start your best writing project ever!

 

Moments from a Journey Around the World – A Presentation

Lisa Schlossnagle

From July 2015 through February 2016, my spouse and I traveled all the way around the world with our three children. I will share moments from our travels, our attempts at "regular life" in various countries, and a glimpse behind-the-scenes of some of our Instagram-worthy shots. A question-and-answer period will follow, as will an opportunity for written self-expression.

 

Yoga

 

Kathy Clay

Bring body, mind and spirit into the day, and connect with your inner voice through yoga. All levels welcome. Bring your own mat if possible. Kathy Clay is an experienced yoga instructor.