SoulCollage® June Workshop

Posted on May 4, 2016

What is SoulCollage®?
SoulCollage® is a heartfelt and hands-on approach to exploring the underlying truth of who you are in any given moment.  It’s an intuitive process reflecting various aspects of one’s soul.

•    It allows anyone, artistic or not, to convey, through images, a snapshot of one or more    aspects of one’s life experience.
•    It is fun and enlightening with deepening exercises that accompany collage creation.
•    It is more than pasting images on a board. It is a process of self-discovery within a community of support and connection.

2016 SoulCollage® June Workshop Logistics

Date:         TBA
Time:         10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Location:   Berkeley
Cost:          $89 per person per workshop.  This includes all materials.
Facilitator: Barbara Reiner, Licensed SoulCollage® Facilitator
Website:   http://www.embodyingspirit.org
To Apply: Call or email Barbara Reiner at 510-506-3902
barbara@spiritualawarenesscounseling.com

Bring a friend to the June SoulCollage® Workshop and receive a 1/2 off Discount!

SoulCollage® Spring Workshop in 2016

Posted on April 25, 2016

What is SoulCollage®?
SoulCollage® is a heartfelt and hands-on approach to exploring the underlying truth of who you are in any given moment.  It’s an intuitive process reflecting various aspects of one’s soul.

•    It allows anyone, artistic or not, to convey, through images, a snapshot of one or more    aspects of one’s life experience.
•    It is fun and enlightening with deepening exercises that accompany collage creation.
•    It is more than pasting images on a board. It is a process of self-discovery within a community of support and connection.

2016 SoulCollage® Spring Workshop Logistics

May 7th, Saturday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
The focus of this SoulCollage® Workshop will be on Stillness

Location:    Berkeley
Cost:            $89 per person per workshop.  This includes all materials.
Facilitator: Barbara Reiner, Licensed SoulCollage® Facilitator

Website:   http://www.embodyingspirit.org

To Apply: Call or email Barbara Reiner at 510-506-3902
barbara@spiritualawarenesscounseling.com

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Grief (in a nutshell)

Posted on April 13, 2016 Updated on April 13, 2016

Grief comes in many shapes and textures.  There is no “one size fits all”.  It changes according to the person(s) involved, the reason, the age and maturity of the griever and the depth and breadth of the opening.  There is always an opening.  The tunnel that was carved out as the main route of connection to the one you loved.  With loss, this opening becomes the void. It is no longer filled with colorful threads of relationship to the person now gone.

What remains is an ache for the threads as they were, angel-like filaments in the now empty space. What remains is the vacant understanding that there is nothing left. Your heart mourns for the threads and cries.

How to make friends with your inner monster (in a nutshell)

Posted on March 22, 2016

Help! I’ve turned into a monster.

If anyone reading this doesn’t think they have an inner monster, think again. You may have a sneaky monster who does not want you to believe s/he exists. If we don’t recognize it in ourselves, we often transfer its image onto others and it conveniently becomes all about the other guy or gal. At this point, our monster will often leak out in blame, resistance, unfriendly withdrawal, aggression that feels justified, unwarranted distrust of others, etc.

What is the monster? It is the part of us that feels powerless and small, undeserving, wounded and unworthy. It can also be hidden underneath a false sense of pride or arrogance (i.e. “I never feel small.” “I know I’m great.”). When provoked, It can and does rear up its monstrous head and declare itself in hate, rage, anger, spitefulness, resentment, jealousy and blame. It can surprise you when hurtful words fly out of your mouth before you can stop them or it can subtly leak out and have you do or say something that is just on the edge of being mean or it can act like a direct head-on collision when you intentionally say and/or do things to hurt someone.

Making friends with your monster is a solid step toward inner peace and acknowledging that your monster exists is a requirement to befriending it.

What is your monster like?

Last Chance to Sign-up for Discount on 2016 SoulCollage® Spring Workshops

Posted on March 10, 2016 Updated on April 17, 2016

              ✯✯✯SPECIAL DISCOUNT✯✯✯
!!BRING A FRIEND AND GET 1/2 OFF THE COST!!

2016 SoulCollage® Spring Workshop Schedule:

April 23rd, Saturday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
The focus of this SoulCollage® Workshop will be on Strength

May 7th, Saturday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
The focus of this SoulCollage® Workshop will be on Stillness

Location: Berkeley
Cost: $89 per person per workshop and includes all materials.
To Apply: Call or email Barbara Reiner at 510-506-3902                                       barbara@spiritualawarenesscounseling.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Soul Connection (in a nutshell)

Posted on March 10, 2016

Over the course of our lives, we have heard the word “soul” used many times and in many ways.  So much so, that, for many of us, the word has lost its oomph…its power.  Even worse, some of us have relegated it to the realm of fads, fairy tales or religious fantasy.

However, if we still recognize Soul as the essence of who we are, then, to have contact with it is to touch our very nature. From this perspective, we can’t help but be connected to our souls since that is who we are. Our dissatisfaction with life occurs because we usually don’t recognize ourselves at this level.

To knowingly have direct soul contact is to be deeply and fully satisfied, no matter what is going on in our lives, because we are finally aware of being home inside of ourselves, fully awake and alive…what we have been longing for all along.

Barbara Reiner facilitates Spiritual Awareness Groups and SoulCollage® Workshops in Berkeley, CA

Some strategies we use to NOT be present (in a nutshell)

Posted on February 18, 2016 Updated on February 18, 2016

It’s so easy to NOT be present .  The culture we live in does not support being in the moment with consciousness.   In fact, most of us grew up learning how not to give our attention to what is actually occurring.

As promised, here are a handful of strategies we use to NOT be present.   These distract us from stuff like hurt, anger, hatred and envy but also from happiness, delight, joy, love, support and aliveness.

There are many more strategies than those listed below and each of us adds our own nuances to all of them.

Keeping busy so that we don’t have a chance to stop and pay attention to what we are experiencing in the here and now.

Anxiety, worry and fear are compelling enough to keep our minds safely occupied from below-the-surface discomforts such as feeling hurt.

Planning keeps our minds busy with ideas meant to encourage us to do something and be somewhere else rather than right here right now. It is possible to plan and stay connected to ourselves but we usually disconnect.

Self-righteousness – We get defensive in order to protect an ideology that helps us to feel strong and not in touch with our underlying vulnerability.

Focusing on other people’s needs and wants so that we don’t have to feel the vulnerability and discomfort of having our own.

Being judgmental keeps us at a safe distance from any underlying sense of being unworthy or less-than.  It props us up so that we can momentarily feel like we’re better, in some way,  than someone else.

Envy & Hatred (in a nutshell) Part 2

Posted on January 29, 2016 Updated on January 29, 2016

How can we use these emotions to help us get closer to ourselves and to heal the internal wounds from which hate and envy arise?

As with any experience we have, the more we are able to simply allow envy and hatred to be present inside ourselves, the more likely we will be able to integrate and digest both.

Allowing the experience inside of ourselves means to “let it have its way” without attempting to change it in any way and without resisting it or buying into it.  If we’re present with ourselves and allow rather than resist our experiences, we can heal.

In my next blog, I’ll talk about some of the strategies we use to NOT be present.  

Envy & Hatred (in a nutshell)

Posted on January 20, 2016 Updated on January 22, 2016

Envy and hatred are related.  Nestled right below our envy is a hatred of the object of our envy.

We do not like to admit to either one. Both are socially unacceptable.  Both are considered unattractive.  Both are common to everyone, regardless of our attitude toward them.

In order for us to reclaim our essential state of well-being, we must acknowledge, accept and give our full presence to our envy and our hatred. Denying these emotions only fans their flame.  Resistance encourages our reactivity. Our reactivity reflects our underlying sense of not being enough.  The belief and resulting felt experience of not being enough is fertile ground for the cultivation of envy and its partner, hatred.

My next blog will address:
How can we use these emotions to help us get closer to ourselves and to heal the internal wounds from which hate and envy arise?

2016 SoulCollage® Winter Workshops

Posted on December 22, 2015 Updated on January 5, 2016

“I’m writing to let you know of a workshop that I’ve taken and loved.  Soul Collage is a way to access deep thoughts and feelings that you might otherwise miss, and you do it using a process that’s both creative and a great deal of fun!  Barbara Reiner is close friend of mine who is very skilled in spiritual counseling as well as Soul Collage.  I recommend her highly without any reservation.”
Marcia Cannon, Ph.D, MFT, Author of The Gift of Anger

What is SoulCollage®?
SoulCollage® is a heartfelt and hands-on approach to exploring the underlying truth of who you are in any given moment.  It’s an intuitive process reflecting various aspects of one’s soul.

• It allows anyone, artistic or not, to convey, through images, a snapshot of one or more aspects of one’s life experience.
• It is fun and enlightening with deepening exercises that accompany collage creation.
• It is more than pasting images on a board. It is a process of self-discovery within a community of support and connection.

2016 SoulCollage® Winter Workshops Dates & Times

February 20th, Saturday, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PMThe focus of this SoulCollage® Workshop will be on Compassion

March 5th, Saturday, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
The focus of this SoulCollage® Workshop will be on Acceptance

Location:     Berkeley
Cost:             $79 per person per workshop.  This includes all materials.
Facilitator: Barbara Reiner, Licensed SoulCollage® Facilitator

Website:   http://www.embodyingspirit.org

To Apply:  Call or email Barbara Reiner at 510-506-3902
                     barbara@spiritualawarenesscounseling.com