Meditation Sits
*During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re meeting online every Monday at 7:30pm EST
CEC Monday Night Zoom Room: https://zoom.us/j/799184864, passcode = 00000 (five zeros)
Many people, especially busy urban dwellers, feel overwhelmed and undernourished. They struggle alone with their challenges and are only rarely able to discuss – let alone practice – deep matters of belonging and connection and embodiment.
The vision of The Consciousness Explorers Club (CEC) is to provide a fun and accessible venue where people can discuss these things as they emerge from perspective-altering spiritual and psychological and social practices. Our members go on mind-body adventures – together and independently – and then share their insights and discoveries and inspiration with the community.
Details
With calls for social distancing to curb the spread of COVID-19, CEC is offering virtual meditation sits and discussions via Zoom for the foreseeable future. Please join us Mondays at 7:30pm(EST) to meditate in community and cultivate some connection in these physically distant times. If you live outside of Toronto and have always wanted to check out CEC, now’s your chance!
CEC Monday Night Zoom Room: https://zoom.us/j/799184864, passcode = 00000 (five zeros)
Cost is $10-20 sliding scale, or PWYC. The CEC is a nonprofit – funds go to pay teachers and support the costs of programming. For online sits, the CEC gratefully accepts donations via e-transfer (within Canada) or Paypal, sent to consciousnessexplorersclub@gmail.com. You can also sign up to be a monthly supporter via our Patreon page.
For this month’s offerings, read our current newsletter.
What do we do?
The evening rolls out in two parts:
- Part one is 35-minutes of sitting meditation practice (from 7:30 – 8:30pm)
- Part two is 30-minutes of interactive discussion ending with breakout rooms (8:30 – 9pm)
We experiment with different solo meditations, from restful absorption to creative visualizations, mindfulness-style noting (of various mind-body components), loving-kindness, sound meditations, choiceless awareness and many others. You don’t need to follow any of these techniques if you don’t want to – some people prefer to stay with their tried-and-true regular practice.
“A wise teacher, and a wise center, needs to offer a whole range of skillful practices, because people come along at different stages of their inner development, with different temperaments, and with different sets of problems.” -Jack Kornfield
The CEC is passionately nonsectarian – both humanistic and contemplative traditions are represented. That said, we do have an uber-meditation consultant: the Buddhist teacher Shinzen Young.
If you are interested in our schedule of explorations, sign up for our mailing list to receive our monthly newsletter.
Jeff Warren
President, The Consciousness Explorers Club
Contact us: consciousnessexplorersclub@gmail.com
NOTE: Meditation is a compliment but not a substitute for professional psychological and medical health care. There are risks in any psychological or spiritual method. Those risks increase for people who are experiencing significant distress or dysfunction. Please inquire if you are unsure whether or not meditation is appropriate for your situation.
There’s a bus-full of You and we are going for a drive. According to Oxford Languages, to “regulate” means to “control or maintain the rate or speed of (a machine or process) so that it operates properly.” What is our speed? What is our machine? What is proper? For this sit, we will explore our complexities, and the negotiations we might make to “regulate” ourselves.
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Join Lama Rod Owens for this 3 hour meditation exploration into the themes and teachings of his new book The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors.
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In the beginning, there is no self-regulation. As infants, we need others to co-regulate. As we grow up, we are taught to regulate on our own – e.g. “go to your room to calm down.” We are then praised for being independent. This is a reminder that you don’t need to go it alone. As adults, we can mix it up. To co-regulate is to intentionally connect with others as a means to soothe and comfort ourselves. In this sit, we’ll explore our social natures and get curious about our edges and opportunities in connecting with others.
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A sense of safety is integral to our ability to regulate ourselves. How do we cultivate a feeling of safety in our experience? Taking inspiration from childhood security blankets and circus safety nets, this meditation will explore places to hold our attention that can shore up our sense of safety and help those hypervigilant nervous systems get some rest!
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Join CEC for monthly outdoor meditations with the sunset and other human beings this summer! Bring your own cushion/blanket and we’ll sit together and meditate with the nature in the city.
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The need to self regulate implies that we’re dysregulated. Are you? Would you even know if you were? I often don’t and I’m not ashamed to admit it. It’s all part of this wild ride we call being human.
Checking in with ourselves, or taking our ‘emotional temperature’ is a skill that takes some practice. Tune in to CEC on June 26 for a chance to try, and chat about tuning in to yourself.
A day of meditation, nature and movement exploration at a beautiful farm just outside of Toronto. This summer we’re offering two retreats in one day!
11am-3pm Mindfulness FamJam – fun mindfulness activités for children of all ages and their caregivers
4pm-8pm Nature Meditation Retreat – mostly silent mini meditation retreat to connect to the nature around you and within you
Consciousness Explorers Club legendary summer retreat is back! Actually, this is not a retreat – this is an ADVANCE!
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