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– Learn more below –
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Feel free to download this Book Club Guide, with suggestions for how to make this book work best for everyone in your group.
If you would like me to do an interview or a reading, host a discussion, or lead a guided activity online or in-person for your reading group or friends, for a class or an activist group, or for your company, work team, or class, please email me.
Contact
info@reclaimingthesacred.net
In a culture and an economic system that are focused on always getting more, producing more, being more – and particularly in this time of so much upheaval, collapse, rebirth – how can we acknowledge and really experience the sacredness of ourselves and the people, creatures, and world around us? How can we make that a foundation for how we live and feel and engage in the world?
These are the questions at the heart of this highly experiential six-week course, which explores these key themes:
Self-Love • Vulnerability • Presence • Gratitude • Our Relationships with Adversity and Grief • Personal Barriers Toward Happiness • Purpose • Our Relationships with Money
The course draws on the work of many people, including Brené Brown, Lillie Allen (and Be Present, Inc.), Robert Holden, Audre Lorde, Kristin Neff, Sobonfu Somé, Tara Brach, bell hooks, Joanna Macy, Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chödrön, and more.
Note: This is a beautiful and powerful course regardless of where you are in your journey related to these topics. This course has proven to be accessible and deeply rewarding both to people who have never thought about these topics before, and also to people who are themselves therapists or other kinds of guides in these areas with decades of experience–and to everyone in between.
I taught this course for four years at Vassar College and have been offering it as a live interactive online course, independent of Vassar, since 2020.
On this page, learn about:
Dates and Timing
Course Overview
Cost
Technology and Space Requirements
Next Steps
– Spring 2018 Vassar student
– Spring 2020 online participant
Each course is limited to 12 participants.
This course requires of people a desire to try activities and explore topics that may be outside their comfort zone. Participants should come prepared to take risks, try new things, be engaged, and be supportive of each other–and to experience the joy and growth that come from doing so.
Each online session will begin with a guided meditation, will move into a group activity to help us ground and connect, and will then flow into a mix of experiential activities, journaling, and discussion, with a brief mid-way break.
Week 1 will serve as an introduction to the course and to each other, and to the topics of Vulnerability and Happiness. This will include a survey of the central findings of positive psychology to understand the core factors related to human well-being. This will help to inform participants in designing their own unique “Personal Journeys,” a series of activities they will engage in to nurture greater joy and purpose in their lives over the 6 weeks.
Week 2: We will dive deeply into the topic of Self-love and Shame, with a guided meditation and letter-writing (to ourselves!). We will also do a reflection and a sharing around Gratitude.
Week 3: We will continue our deep dive into Self-love and Shame, and will also explore Personal Barriers to Happiness.
Week 4: We will explore our Relationships with Adversity, we will continue our exploration of Self-Love and Shame.
After the 4th session, participants are encouraged to share their journals with me (Jeff, your guide), leaving out anything they do not want me to read, and by the next session I will write back a page or two of personalized reflections. For many people this is a deeply meaningful experience where they get to be seen, affirmed, and engaged around their unique thoughts and feelings, but it is entirely optional.
Week 5 will be largely dedicated to our Relationships with Grief and Sadness, and Change and Growth.
Week 6: We will explore the concept of Abundance and our relationships with Money. We will reflect on our experiences and learnings together over the 6 weeks, set individual intentions around ways we want to continue to learn and grow beyond the course, and we will share appreciations for the course and each other.
– Spring 2019 Vassar student
Space: You will want privacy for the time we are on the video conferences, both so you are not interrupted and so you do not feel self-conscious about others hearing you.
Tech: You just need a way to connect to the internet (a decent connection) so you can participate in the video conferences. I highly recommend a laptop, desktop. or tablet so you can really see the other people and what is going on, but people have totally successfully used phones also.
– Spring 2020 Online participant
– Spring 2020 Online participant
It is common for people to feel a little unsure about doing this course–it’s six weeks, and it seems fairly personal, perhaps challenging. Please know that every single person who has taken this online course has been grateful they did. People in the 2025 winter course had this to say to prospective participants:
“Do it.”
“It changed my life.”
“It will nurture you with a gentle hug into these topics and support you in your exploration.”
“You’ll be welcomed into a space that is so thought-provoking, that dives deep into the juiciest topics with a level of discipline and challenge yet such an ease in terms of pressure and safety.”
“A group of 12 people who started out as strangers with very different backgrounds, after 6 weeks are friends with deep respect and admiration for each other and each of our unique journeys.”
If you want to sign up for a course (“Do it.”) please send the following to info@reclaimingthesacred.net.
Again, please send this to info@reclaimingthesacred.net.
I will confirm when I receive your information. Please hold off on sending the $70 commitment fee until I confirm your participation.
Confirmed participants will receive a packet of more detailed information orienting them to the course, including a syllabus of weekly activities, readings, and journal topics, and tips on getting the most out of the experience.