So this thing happened where I was born, and I was a baby for a bit, then a furious teenager (smoking in alleys), and then I worked in an office cubicle and got loaded on weekends and sometimes had sex. Later I perfected osso buco, got curious about genealogy, and eventually died, surrounded by friends, family and a random nurse. Phew – what a life!
If I could do it all again, I’d only change one thing: I’d get the manual. What manual, you ask? Good question – you’ll go far in life with that attitude! The Mind-Body Owner’s Manual, of course. The one that tells you how to operate this damn thing, so you stop careening into ditches.
And THAT, my friends, will be the ambitious subject of this half-day urban retreat. What exactly is the relationship between mind and body (that is, insofar as we can discern in our lived experience), and what important mind-body principles do I wish someone had told ME, before I went and totalled the car? Of course, due to nervous system and environmental diversity, we all must write our own manuals. Nevertheless, certain core principles appear to come around again and again, for example: the value of simplicity, the need for a strong centre, and the beauty of compassion. On this fine day your mind-body curator Jeff Warren will come back from the dead to introduce and lead a mix of meditation and light movement practices around all of these principles. Then you can give him high fives and enduring friendship – because the healing goodness of community is principle four.
