NEW! Part II of Building Spirit & Resilience for Coliberation

*Currently accepting interest forms*

First Session: Thurs, Oct 14, 2021

1 pm – 3 pm EST / 10 am – 12 pm PST

Our Bodhi Project is thrilled to announce our next offering for Fall 2021 as part of our Building Spirit and Resilience for Coliberation project. This offering is a *free*, six-part series for a small group of racial equity and social justice practitioners who identify as white – those who are supporting other white people within institutional, organizational and other spaces (see more below). These offerings for people who identify as white are a small component of the larger Building Spirit and Resilience project, which is focused on BIPOC racial equity and social justice practitioners.

What gives us breath? The capacity to hold complexities? What limiting beliefs, conditions, or patterns contribute to our disconnection from ourselves and each other, our complicity in white supremacy, and our inability to show up for BIPOC?

 
 

In our work to honor our Earth, to care for each other and carry our weight as white people taking accountable action for racial and social justice:

  • What sacred practices, grounding beliefs, and traditions of care and wisdom gained over millennia, do we, can we, and should we carry into our organizing as white racial equity and social justice practitioners?

  • What furthers our health, elevates our joy, and contributes to our spirit, resilience, and ability to show up in relationship and balanced accountability?

  • How do we create the spaces we need for ourselves and each other to witness, hold and release our shame, blame, anger, grief, and fear and to rest, restore, reground, and revitalize our organizing efforts with love?

who we are

Our Bodhi Project is a spiritual and political project that centers collective wellbeing and coliberation. Bodhi grounds its relationships and engagements in the Embodying Belonging and Coliberation Frame, a series of guideposts and ways of being that center the collective health and wellbeing of all living systems. Bodhi works with individuals and groups to facilitate creative learning spaces and strategies for healthy movement-building that elevates the whole of our experiences and sacredness of our stories. This series will be facilitated by Building Spirit and Resilience project team member Diana Falchuk.

Initially, to shape the Building Spirit and Resilience sessions, we engaged health and spirit practitioners Dr. Kelly Gonzales, Dr. Keivan Jinnah, Misako Yamamoto, Lyra Butler-Detman, Kate Morales, Dr. Sará King, and Zeenia Junkeer. They offered their practices and concepts for us to incorporate into the project as sources of inspiration and to give greater grounding, enhance what Bodhi is already doing, and provide new openings for understanding and being in our work and lives. This opportunity is made possible through a generous grant from a collective of social impact funders who prioritize healthy relationships with spirit, communities, ourselves, each other and the natural world. 

this experience is designed for racial equity and social justice practitioners who identify as white and who:

  • Provide support, guidance, coaching, and/or facilitation that is rooted in an antiracist approach and may cover topics such as addressing institutional and structural racism; white supremacy culture and relational culture; accountability; and economic, gender, environmental, and/or disability justice 

  • Are more than supervisors or project managers attempting to move in antiracist ways, but are “the people who support the people” – those who build others’ capacity, in particular that of white people

  • Engage with liberatory practices personally and in their work (for example, mindfulness, embodiment, creative engagement, queering practices, and others)

  • Work across and/or with various sectors, levels, and collaborations (for example, health, education, government, art, community based organizing, your own families, etc.)

  • Are called to work at various levels (such as supporting frontline activists as well as executive leadership and organizing groups)

  • Have familiarity with and ongoing commitment to some form of spiritual, reflective, and/or contemplative practice, and/or

  • Deeply desire dedicated time and space to further practice and to embody ways of being that center collective health and wellbeing

in this series, we seek to create

  • A loving, critical space to create deeper and more holistic analyses of both our struggles and our pathways for greater authenticity, presence, and action for racial and social justice as white-bodied people who are positioned to benefit in particular ways from the system and culture of white supremacy 

  • An overview of and experiential exploration of Our Bodhi Project’s Embodying Belonging and Coliberation Frame, with each session inviting a deeper exploration of one or two of the five guideposts

  • An emergent experience structured around the Bodhi Frame and a sampling of antidotal practices, beliefs, and ideas that build spirit and fortify health, and have been offered to participants by health and spirit practitioners engaged in this project

  • An intimate and connective space to learn with white-identifying peers who hold complex other social positions (gender, sexuality, class, ability, religion, ethnicity, etc.) and varying functions supporting both white and multi-racial antiracism work in a range of settings

  • A restorative, contemplative, and nourishing space for those who desire and are open to engaging in deeper storytelling and self- and community-reflection in support of accountable, antiracist organizing (in all kinds of contexts, including within institutional spaces and as external consultants)

  • A medicinal space that values all of our relationships and recognizes our interconnection by elevating balance and health not just for ourselves in our work and with our colleagues, but also with family, community, and non-human living systems

  • Experiences that integrate creative, mindful, and body-based practices, storytelling, connecting with non-human living systems, silent reflection, and time to connect and reflect in small groups and as a whole group

specifics of the series: what to expect

In this series of six two-hour sessions, participants will experience each guidepost of the Bodhi Frame in depth with a group of white peer practitioners from across the country; the Our Bodhi Project team will learn more about how our model can support racial equity and social justice practitioners who identify as white and use that to inform future offerings. This series is in part shaped by reflections on and feedback from participants in a three-hour creative pilot session for white practitioners that took place in July. (Participants from the July pilot session may also choose to participate in this series.)

what are the dates and times?

  • Session 1: Thursday, October 14th, 1 pm – 3 pm EST / 10 am – 12 pm PST

  • Session 2: Monday, October 18th, 12 pm – 2 pm EST / 9 am – 11 am PST

  • Session 3: Thursday, October 21st, 1 pm – 3 pm EST / 10 am – 12 pm PST

  • Session 4: Thursday, November 4, 1 pm – 3 pm EST / 10 am – 12 pm PST

  • Session 5: Monday, November 8, 12 pm – 2 pm EST / 9 am – 11 am PST

  • Session 6: Friday*, November 12, 1 pm – 3 pm EST / 10 am – 12 pm PST

*This session is on a Friday while all others are on Mondays or Thursdays

will there be engagement outside of the sessions?

  • Participants will be asked to do some preparatory learning and reflection before our first session. This will include watching a video about the Bodhi Frame and spending some time with the Frame and the Bodhi website. 

  • Participants will be invited to do creative, reflective exercises that support deeper engagement with the Bodhi Frame. These should take around 60 – 90 minutes. 

  • We are developing a practice partner structure so that each person is paired with someone to meet with to expand upon what is emerging for themself and their practice in connection with the guideposts. Practice partners will be asked to find time for two – three one-hour meetings during the series. Practice partners also may be invited to pair up during sessions.

how many participants will be in the series?

We are intentionally keeping the group small to support trust building, intimacy, and time for storytelling and sharing among the group. The July pilot session had 10 participants and we likely will have somewhere around that number in this series.

how much of this is about my personal spirit and resilience and how much is about applying the Bodhi Frame in my work?

The personal is political. Who we are and how we show up for our communities is intertwined. Naturally, we want to bring forward queries about our work into the reflective spaces we're able to access, out of love for our communities and ourselves. While we will explore connections between our own spirit and resilience and the presence and impact we can have in our organizing in institutional, organizational, and grass roots spaces, applying the Frame to our organizing will not be the focus of these sessions.

These particular spaces in the Building Spirit and Resilience project are designed to focus on your health, spirit, and resilience, recognizing that these learnings and practices are essential to support sustained, accountable white antiracist action. We will meet together in the fall and early winter, mirroring in many ways the seasonal offerings to slow down, reflect, and even pause. These personal, more intimate spaces allow us to unfold, notice what we are not noticing that gets in the way of living out our commitments to racial and social justice, and reconnect with what we love, what we struggle with, and what we want to protect. They allow us to go deeper with ourselves and with peers who can relate to our experiences and offer us alternative perspectives. 

If you would like to talk about other consulting opportunities that can more specifically focus on your organizing or work efforts, including work with your teams and organizations, please feel free to reach out to Bodhi here.

 
 

logistics / how to express interest

  • Please complete our interest form. (Participants from the July creative pilot also need to complete this form and can choose to have us use their July response for one of the longer questions rather than write it out again.)

  • If you have any questions about this free series, you can either put them in the interest form or contact Diana directly at diana@dianafalchuk.com