- $45/class, sliding scale. Pay what you can, no questions asked.
- 90 minutes each on Zoom
- Click “join a class” for current dates and times
COVID-19 Risk and Vigilance: Navigating Differences
Have you found it difficult to manage your outrage when individuals around you seem to underestimate the danger of COVID-19, or don’t seem to take public health measures seriously? How about when others seem unreasonably fearful, rigid, or extreme? If so, you are in good company. Differences in response to COVID-19 can be particularly difficult to navigate. The impacts of that difficulty are psychological and social, but the reasons are biological.
In this class we’ll discuss those reasons and we’ll talk about our experiences In the context of that discussion. We will practice ways to anchor ourselves in steadiness in the face of reactivity in ourselves or others. We will aim to build connection and resilience together.
COVID-19 Risk and Vigilance: Navigating Differences
Have you found it difficult to manage your outrage when individuals around you seem to underestimate the danger of COVID-19, or don’t seem to take public health measures seriously? How about when others seem unreasonably fearful, rigid, or extreme? If so, you are in good company. Differences in response to COVID-19 can be particularly difficult to navigate. The impacts of that difficulty are psychological and social, but the reasons are biological.
In this class we’ll discuss those reasons and we’ll talk about our experiences In the context of that discussion. We will practice ways to anchor ourselves in steadiness in the face of reactivity in ourselves or others. We will aim to build connection and resilience together.
Zoom: More Connection, Less Fatigue
Do you find video calls more draining, or differently draining, than in-person meetings or audio calls? You are not alone. Video calls are confusing to the nervous system. You are focused visually on the people on the screen, but you don’t share their physical environment. This means your brain receives incomplete and/or conflicting information about safety. You have to manage the tasks of the call and the state of stress the call itself generates. Even if you are well able for it, it’s tiring because of your human neurobiology.
In this class, we’ll practice techniques for orienting our vision and attention where safety information is clearer and more complete: in our own bodies and physical environments. When our brains register safety, we can relax and experience more of connection.
Zoom: More Connection, Less Fatigue for School Teachers
To teachers in the school system: You are under enormous and unique pressure to make distance learning work for your students, their families, and let’s not forget, yourselves. This class is for you.
Using a screen all day is hard on the body and confusing to the nervous system. By interacting differently with and through your screen, you can prime yourself for calm and connection. Knowing you can access this state increases resilience. In addition to the visual and attentional techniques that help everyone on zoom, we’ll do brief individual ergonomic assessments, and we’ll try out ideas for interactive physical play to boost engagement and energy. You’ll be able to share all or part of what we do with others you think could benefit, including your students.
This class is still in development. For now, it is being offered to teachers at no charge in exchange for thoughtful feedback. My goal is for it to be a resource for school systems.
Coping with Touch Hunger: Social Distancing Alone
We all need human contact. Connection at a distance and through social media have to be enough for now if we live alone… but when we don’t have the touch we need, the longing and want can be hard to bear. In this class, we’ll meet that feeling with kindness and curiosity. In this experiential class, we’ll bring skill and nuance to the (nonsexual) touch we can receive from our own hands. Even when the touch of another isn’t available, with the resources of our own body/mind/self we can feel held.
Touch Skills for Connection, Calm, and Co-regulation: Support Your Loved Ones in Stressful Times
We all have the wiring to soothe and be soothed by touch. Non-demanding touch produces oxytocin, the hormone associated with bonding and stress relief. However, what feels good or neutral in times of ease can aggravate in times of heightened activation. Practicing non-demanding touch as a skill makes soothing touch more available even when we’re not quite sure what to do. Knowing how to attune to each other through touch can help us meet complex situations with patience and continued openness to connection.
In this class, you and someone with whom you can practice will do less, and sense more. You’ll take time to notice and find words to communicate about subtle ways you respond when you give and and receive simple hands-on-shoulders touch. Each pair will have the opportunity (but not the obligation!) to be coached.
Please note that the class fee is per person, not per pair.
New Group Forming
Weekly Group for Somatic Practice, Support, and Connection
In the single-meeting classes described above, some folks wanted a chance to practice together and connect and learn more. Each meeting will start with a body-based meditation. Then we’ll check in individually. We’ll do a new practice together, chosen and tweaked based on what participants bring to the group. Nothing is off limits. Somatic self care practices aren’t separate from life – work, activism, learning, health, exercise, relationships, etc. Whatever you bring in, we’ll figure out a body-based way to be in it together.
We’ll meet for an hour weekly for 6 weeks and then decide if and how we want to keep going. The fee will be $30 per meeting ($180 for the first 6 weeks), sliding scale, pay what you can no questions asked.
