Reflective practice workshop

• Do you feel the need to slow down, pause and re-set for the last quarter of 2023?
• Are you feeling caught up in the manic machine of the modern world?
• Is there tension gathering in your belly, back and shoulders that indicates a need to breathe?
• Would you like to build your reflective skills, observational muscles and sensitivity to social and ecological processes?

Come join us for a one-day workshop in embodied reflective social practice from 9.30am-4.30pm on Friday 20th October 2023 in Maleny which explores the question of how we engage with living processes in our lives through a series of embodied and reflective practice activities.

As a way of both doing and being the workshop supports people's inner and outer development through a number of practical activities based on the themes: observation and attuning to aliveness.

These activities take many forms including but not limited to:

• reflective observation that develops intimate encounters with other (both human and more-than-human),
• art journalling that develops the capacity to pay attention and to work with living ways of seeing
• gentle movement that connects mind, body and breath together to support participant's body observation and awareness
• mindfulness meditation enables observation of the mind without reaction and a deeper connection to the present moment

The workshop will be based on experiential activities combined with individual, small group and larger group reflection processes. It will support a deepened and renewed sense of self and provide an opportunity to practice a new form of individual and collective activism to bring healing to the world.

Morning and afternoon tea are provided. Please bring a vegetarian lunch to share.

The ideas in this workshop come from Peter's new book which can be pre-purchased (for the extra $50) or bought at the workshop.

About your facilitators & hosts:

From the age of 20, Peter has been on a journey of social practice, deeply shaped by three powerful rivers. The first, a river of dialogue, has informed decades of community and social development practice. This river still flows strong. The second, the river of soul has taken Peter into the depths of personal and social worlds, inviting an understanding of the ritual and mythic elements of social change. The third river, of phenomenology is the flow that most informs this poetic and delicate activism river, one that is most alive to Peter now.

Peter has been a writer or co-writer/editor of 15 books and over 60 professional journal articles on community development.

But more importantly, he loves reading, walking, sitting by a fire under the moon or stars, wandering daily in Mary Cairncross Park, exploring his bio-region, being with friends, sipping a coffee at dawn, and going to bed about 8.30pm (yes, he’s a lark, not an owl).

At this present moment he is:

• Director/consultant at Community Praxis Co-op;
• Part time practitioner at Hummingbird House;
• Custodian of Camellia Centre for Soul-Work & Reflective Practice;
• Associate of The Proteus Initiative, South Africa;
• Honorary Associate Professor, Deakin University; and
• Visiting Professor, University of the Free State, South Africa.

As an advocate and community practitioner, Rachael has worked with women, young people and communities for the last two decades. Through incorporating the traditions of meditation, yoga and circle work, she has facilitated women’s circles and retreats to support people to reconnect to nature, presence and their inner wisdom. She is a qualified yoga teacher and has explored the world of Buddhism, Advaita and other eastern spiritual traditions throughout her life. She is currently immersed in the practice of phenomenology to grow her observational skills through a deep relationship to the natural world. Her greatest joys are being immersed in nature and the embodiment of yoga, both of which she practices regularly. Although she has been fortunate to explore (and live) in many parts of the world, her most favourite place is Girraween National Park, or, place of flowers, in the granite belt region of Queensland