RETREAT APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED
Join us Saturday, April 9, 9:00am - 4:30pm Eastern Standard time
Click here to convert to your time zone.
Dear friends,
We invite you to join us for our 2022 Annual Retreat (online via Zoom). We at OHMC are so grateful that Valerie Brown will be back for the fourth year to lead our retreat.
Scroll below to apply to register.
Love is an open invitation to be who we truly are. It is a practice that changes us from the inside out so that who and what we love grows stronger. Love’s nature is generative in all directions, enlarging our lives. To love is to practice peace within yourself, in your relations, and in your work in the world. In this one-day, gently and generously spaced online retreat, we explore love that supports a calm and peaceful heart and engages compassionate action to create a more socially just world.
In a brave, safe, and supportive environment, this virtual retreat offers mindfulness practices in the Plum Village tradition, including rest, reflection, and renewal. You’ll explore ways to cultivate inner love and compassion for greater healing and transformation, individually and collectively.
We’re facing a critical moment in history as the realities of systemic oppression, injustice, and climate crisis awaken a desire to move toward individual and collective liberation, justice, and compassionate action. Love stands at the very core of this movement.
The Opening Heart Mindfulness Community seeks to foster understanding and compassion by providing vibrant and generous opportunities to practice mindfulness within a diverse community in the Plum Village tradition, founded by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. We recognize that in supporting racial and social justice equity within our sangha and throughout the mahasangha, we support the work of transformation individually and collectively.
We are intentionally making space for a diverse group of practitioners by prioritizing BIPOC attendance, offering subtitles for Valerie’s dharma talks, captioning for at least one dharma sharing group, and affinity dharma sharing break-out groups for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Persons with Disabilities, and White practitioners.
We are offering the retreat on a sliding scale from $0 - $85.
This fully guided virtual retreat includes periods of mindful breathing, mindful sitting, mindful walking, mindful eating, mindful speaking and listening, and deep relaxation to nourish and support you toward greater love and compassionate action.
We aim to create a space for sharing that holds awareness for the experience of others. Please review guidelines for sharing.
Other notable highlights of the retreat:
- Frequent breaks to minimize online fatigue
- Breakout sessions for personal sharing and insight
- Technical support available prior to and during retreat
- Here are some reviews from people who attended our online retreat with Valerie last year:
“Opportunities for deep relaxation and connection.”
“I am so grateful for this online community during this time of Covid induced isolation. Breathing with others is very soothing and healing.”
“Grateful for opportunity to practice remotely with Valerie.”
Saturday April 9
ALL TIMES BELOW ARE EASTERN STANDARD TIME. Click here to convert to your time zone.
Below is the tentative schedule. Actual schedule will be shared to registered participants closer to the retreat.
9:00am Introductions and Welcome, Setting the Container for the Day (Valerie)
10:00am Meditation and Dharma Talk (Valerie)
11:30am Break for outdoor or indoor walking meditation on your own (optional)
12:00pm Lunch offline (we encourage you to make ahead)
12:50pm Prepare a nest for your deep relaxation
1:00pm Guided deep relaxation
1:30pm Stretch break
1:50pm Dharma Sharing in small groups - each group will have a skilled facilitator
3:00pm Second Dharma Talk (Valerie)
3:45pm Sitting meditation
4:00pm Closing circle
4:30pm Final bell
Valerie Brown
Valerie transformed her high-pressure, twenty-year career as a lawyer-lobbyist, to human-scale, social equity focused work to foster trustworthy, compassionate, and authentic connections. She is an ordained Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition founded by Thich Nhat Hanh and a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Valerie is an accredited leadership coach, international retreat leader, writer, and Chief Mindfulness Officer of Lead Smart Coaching, LLC, specializing in application and integration of mindfulness and leadership, and is a Co-Director of Georgetown’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. As certified Kundalini yoga teacher, she helps people rediscover the wisdom of their body. She leads an annual transformational pilgrimage to El Camino de Santiago, Spain, to celebrate the power of sacred places.
Retreat Registration and Fees
The Opening Heart Mindfulness Community seeks to foster understanding and compassion by providing vibrant and generous opportunities to practice mindfulness within a diverse community in the Plum Village tradition, founded by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. We recognize that in supporting racial and social justice equity within our sangha and throughout the mahasangha, we support the work of transformation individually and collectively.
We seek to balance the demographics of those attending the retreat and to create an environment that supports all. Our goal is to support participation in the upcoming retreat with a minimum of 30% self-identified BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), BAME (Black Asian or Minority Ethinic), and Global Majority. Because of this, we are asking you to share your race/ethnicity in your application. We will be accepting applications on a rolling basis in order to maintain this diversity.
We are offering the retreat on a sliding scale from $0 - $85.
RETREAT APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED
REFUND POLICY: Because this is an online format, we are unable to offer refunds. If you have a special circumstance regarding needing a refund please email us at info@openingheartmindfulness.org