Barbara Reiner
LABOR DAY BLOCK-LONG GARAGE SALE & SILENT AUCTION
“ADOPT A HOMELESS SENIOR” PROJECT
Keeler Avenue
Labor Day Garage Sale & Silent Auction
September 3
Garage Sale: 9 AM – 1 PM, between Grizzly Peak & Marin Ave
Silent Auction: 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM, between Forest & Miller
Proceeds to support the Keeler Avenue “Adopt A Homeless Senior Project”
Date & Time Change for the Coming of Age Group for Women 60+
THE COMING OF AGE GROUP FOR WOMEN 60+ WILL BEGIN ON MARCH 1ST AND MEET EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY FOR 9 MEETINGS, BEGINNING AT 6:45 PM AND ENDING AT 8:45 PM.
Explore the spiritual and psychological effects on our souls to be an older woman in today’s culture.
This December the pilot Coming of Age Group completed its 7 meeting cycle. We explored stereotypes and how we are affected by them, our sense of value and where it comes from, the current political culture and its affects on us as well as our personal experiences of grief and loss. We ended the series with a Rite of Passage ceremony.
Among many things I have learned during this pilot program, one of the most important is how personally enriching it has been to do inner exploration in the company of women in my age group. For the most part, the issues and experiences we addressed reflected the issues and concerns experienced by everyone in the group.
The 2017 Coming of Age Group will be structured so that participants can delve into topics related specifically to aging as well as other issues that are are important to each individual via a combination of spiritual and psychological inquiry.
Some of the tools used for self-exploration in the group are:
Body-centered Inquiry, Interpersonal Exercises, Group Sharing, Creative Expression and Ceremony.
As with all transitions, aging requires a continuous integration of the changes we are experiencing in our bodies, within our families, our communities and within our lives in general.
Grief and loss, physical challenges, devaluing cultural beliefs, changes in self-image, feeling without purpose and approaching death are some of the difficult issues that we face as aging women. Addressing these issues in a supportive environment can help us to re-engage with our deepest nature, discover our purpose, uncover our vitality and express the beauty and the wisdom of our unfolding souls.
The Coming of Age group provides a kind and loving environment in which to identify and dismantle the false and debilitating beliefs we carry about aging and allow for a spiritual unfoldment into the deeper truths of our lives.
I have found that groups like this one are best developed through word-of-mouth referrals from and to the people we know and love. Would you please pass this email onto the women in your life who might benefit from participating in the group. Thank you!
Appreciatively,
Barbara
For more detailed information about the Coming of Age Group, visit:https://www.embodyingspirit.org/groups/coming-of-age-group
For information about Barbara and her work, visit:
https://embodyingspirit.org
9 Meetings, March 1, 2017 through June 21, 2017
2017 Spiritual Awareness Group
In January 2017, the Spiritual Awareness Group will begin its 16th year of personal exploration, healing and empowerment.
We’ll explore:
*how to live in a state of well-being
*how to stop searching outside of ourselves for meaning and satisfaction
*how to reclaim, enjoy and celebrate our personal capacities such as strength, joy, pleasure and power
*how our body is a portal to our soul
We’ll do this with the help of each other, each of us providing the support that carries us closer to our hearts and to our souls.
The tools that I use in the Spiritual Awareness Group are:
Body-centered Inquiry, Interpersonal Exercises, Group Feedback, Creative Expression & Ceremony
If this kind of spiritual unfolding calls to you, please call or email me at 510-506-3902, barbara@spiritualawarenesscounseling.com
VISIT MY WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ME, THE GROUP AND MY WORK IN GENERAL http://www.embodyingspirit.org.
2017 GROUP MEETING DATES & TIMES
The Spiritual Awareness Group meets for 2 1/4 hours every other Tuesday evening.
Dates: January 31, 2017 through December 19, 2017
Time: 7:15 PM – 9:30 PM
Location: Berkeley
Cost: $65 per person per meeting
Facilitator: Barbara Reiner
Website: http://www.embodyingspirit.org
To Apply: Call or email Barbara Reiner at 510-506-3902
barbara@spiritualawarenesscounseling.com
WHAT MEMBERS HAVE SAID…
“The comfort and security and the love of this group have allowed me to just be me, to learn more about who I am and how I show up in the world, and to deepen my relationship with myself and others.”
“I am a big believer in the work that Barbara does. I love how she cuts through the stories to get right to the “heart” and “soul” of the matter. I have worked with her for many years now and never hesitate to recommend her to anyone.”
“This group has been immensely helpful and supportive for me. I have been going through a difficult transition time and found I was encouraged to be with whatever was true for me. Barbara creates a very safe and caring space to go inside, open to ourselves and be witnessed.”
Loss
The act of letting go and the quality of loss go naturally with autumn, the time when trees are letting go of their leaves and many plants begin to go dormant in their preparation for winter. My friends have been experiencing a lot of loss this year and I have written the following as a tribute.
LOSS
Although loss occurs each and every moment, it often goes unnoticed, its effect easily woven into the tapestry that is our life. Like tiny earthquakes, these losses imperceptibly shift the ground beneath us, quietly changing the landscape.
And then there are the big shifts, the quakes that we feel as the earth we stand upon breaks apart, forming chasms into which fall our most cherished relationships. These are the losses that rock us and push us off balance, plunging us deep into darkness. These shake-ups are ever-so-painful as the ties that have connected us to those beings and things we have loved so much break.
We may attempt to reclaim these bonds, however, all that remains in the spaces once occupied by our loved ones is emptiness. We are forced to learn how to live without them. When we stay present to the tidal waves of loss and of grief, the emptiness reveals its fullness and the space becomes beloved, once again. 
We find that our loved ones are still here, gentle as wisps of breath quietly entering the fresh openings of our hearts. Our grieving makes room for them. Every tear expands the openings in which everything and everyone we have ever loved or ever will love can rest.
Coming of Age Group for Women 60+
Coming of Age, a pilot group for women 60 and over.
Explore the spiritual and psychological effects on our souls to be an older woman in today’s culture.
In August, I will reach the age of 65. This surprises me as I don’t feel 65 which really means that I don’t fit the stereotypes my mind has picked up about what a woman of 65 years should feel like.
Many of my friends, clients and acquaintances whose ages fall somewhere upward of 60 have shared their own stories about how they do not feel their age. In fact, many have also expressed how they are feeling a vitality that they would like to cultivate and support in the face of cultural beliefs that those of us who are aging no longer have as much to offer.
As with all transitions, aging requires a continuous integration of the changes we are experiencing in our bodies, within our families, our communities and within our lives in general. In order to recognize our value and maintain connection with the dynamism of our souls, we must address the challenges we are facing in our lives.
Grief and loss, physical challenges, devaluing cultural beliefs, changes in self-image, feeling without purpose and approaching death are some of the difficult issues that we face as aging women. Addressing these issues in a supportive environment can help us to re-engage with our deepest nature, discover our purpose, uncover our vitality and express the beauty and the wisdom of our unfolding souls.
The Coming of Age group will provide a kind and loving environment in which to identify and dismantle the false and debilitating beliefs we carry about aging and allow for a spiritual unfoldment into the deeper truths of our lives.
I have found that groups like this one are best developed through word-of-mouth referrals from and to the people we know and love. Would you please pass this email onto the women in your life who might benefit from participating in the group. Thank you!
With love and appreciation,
Barbara
For more detailed information about the Coming of Age Group visit: https://embodyingspirit.org/groups/coming-of-age-group-a-pilot-group-for-women-60-and-over/
For information about Barbara and her work visit:
https://embodyingspirit.org
A Blessing for Beauty, John O’Donahue
A Blessing for Beauty
May the beauty of your life become more visible to you, that you may glimpse your wild divinity.
May the wonders of the earth call you forth from all your small, secret prisons and set your feet free in the pastures of possibilities.
May the light of dawn anoint your eyes that you may behold what a miracle a day is.
May the liturgy of twilight shelter all your fears and darkness within the circle of ease.
May the angel of memory surprise you in bleak times with new gifts from the harvest of your vanished days.
May you allow no dark hand to quench the candle of hope in your heart.
May you discover a new generosity towards yourself, and encourage yourself to engage your life as a great adventure.
May the outside voices of fear and despair find no echo in you.
May you always trust the urgency and wisdom of your own spirit.
May the shelter and nourishment of all the good you have done, the love you have shown, the suffering you have carried, awaken around you to bless your life a thousand times.
And when love finds the path to your door may you open like the earth to the dawn, and trust your every hidden color towards its nourishment of light.
May you find enough stillness and silence to savor the kiss of God on your soul and delight in the eternity that shaped you, that holds you and calls you.
And may you know that despite confusion, anxiety and emptiness, your name is written in Heaven.
And may you come to see your life as a quiet sacrament of service, which awakens around you a rhythm where doubt gives way to the grace of wonder, where what is awkward and strained can find elegance, and where crippled hope can find wings, and torment enter at last unto the grace of serenity.
May Divine Beauty bless you.
John O’Donohue, from Beauty – The Invisible Embrace
Embodying Spirit 