(Scroll Down for Class Description and Bios of Presenters)
Friday Evening
4:00 – 5:45 Arrive and Unpack
5:45 – 6:45 Dinner
7:00 – 9:30 Recapitulation Exercise – Weam Namou, Facilitator
Saturday Morning
7:30 – 8:00 Sacred Service at the Main Chapel
8:15 – 9:15 Breakfast
9:15 – 10:00 Creative Vision Board Workshop: Envision Your Success! – Sonya Julie, Presenter
10:15– 12:00 Memoir Writing for Transformation – Weam Namou, Presenter
Saturday Afternoon
12:15 – 1:15 Lunch
1:30 – 2:15 Wake Up Your Nature – Patty Shaw, Facilitator
2:30 – 3:15 Meditation as a Practice and Creative Tool – Heather Rae, Facilitator
(or)
2:30 – 3:15 Spiritual and Writing Labyrinth – Lisa Argo, Facilitator
3:30 – 4:30 Effective Journaling – Weam Namou, Facilitator
4:45 – 5:45 Yoga for Writing – Sandy Naimou, Facilitator
Saturday Evening
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner
7:15 – 9:15 Deep Insight Gong Meditation at the Main Chapel – Vince Pitre, Facilitator
9:30 – 10:30 Outdoor Fire Ceremony
Sunday Morning
7:30 – 8:00 Sacred Service at the Main Chapel
8:15 – 9:15 Breakfast
9:30 – 10:15 Take Your Writing into the World – Weam Namou, Facilitator
10:30 –12:15 Awakening the Dreamer Symposium (Part I) –
Betsy McCabe and Weam Namou, Facilitators
Sunday Afternoon
12:15 – 1:15 Lunch
1:15 – 3:00 Awakening the Dreamer Symposium (Part II)
Class Description and Presenters
Recapitulation Exercise
An ancient healing and writing technique to use in the evenings just before going to sleep. It’s a way to put yourself in the position of observer of your life, and of your dreams, so that connections, themes, insights, and meaningful coincidences become clearer. In short, this process allows you to access a higher level of consciousness.
Weam Namou is an Eric Hoffer award-winning author of 12 books, filmmaker, vice president of Detroit Working Writers (DWW), Ambassador for the Authors Guild of America, and she hosts a weekly half-hour TV show at CMNtv. Weam is a certified Reiki Master, Sikkim Guardian, ordained minister, and a graduate of best-selling author Lynn Andrews’ 4-year course of study and training in the sacred healing art. http://www.WeamNamou.com and http://www.ThePathofConsciousness.com
Creative Vision Board Workshop: Envision Your Success!
Learn about the power of creating a vision board to carry forward your intentions into manifestation. This highly effective practice allows you to transfer your goals and dreams into reality. In this class you will learn more about how to create a vision board (or book) and what tools you can use to reinforce this practice of manifestation to make it meaningful and uniquely relevant.
Sonya Julie has been actively practicing a spiritual life for over 30 years and is a Reiki Master and has published freelance content for numerous publications including The Oakland Press, Michigan Sports Edge, and Rochester Media. She is co-creator of Rochester Writers, she facilitates workshops, creates jewelry, and is currently working on her memoir. http://www.SonyaJulie.com and https://awakeningthecore.com/
Memoir Writing for Transformation
Many writers choose memoir as a way to discover or regain their voice, share a family secret, or tell a story. The act of writing brings a sense of consciousness, a transformed self, and a deeper comprehension of the writer’s unique place in the world. Weam Namou, Presenter.
Wake Up Your Nature
Come walk in nature with Patty and connect with Mother Earth. Together we will wake up our senses and become more attuned to our natural abilities, by practicing observation skills, getting grounded and un-cluttering our minds.
Patty Shaw is the author of COVR award winning Healer’s Almanac – Journey into Health with Wisdom from the 21st Century Goddesses. She is co-owner of Coventry Creations, creators of the Original Blessed Herbal Candles, the Candle Wick Shoppe in Ferndale, and director of CWS Reiki Healing Center. She is a Reiki Master since 1999 and Pranic healing practitioner. http://www.HealingWithPattyShaw.com
Meditation as a Practice and Creative Tool
Learn the ancient discipline of meditation and use it not to tune out, but to tune in. Meditation is about playing the role of the observer, and what beauty you can discover when you chose to sit and listen. We’ll work with the basics of a meditation practice. Then we’ll enjoy a guided meditation for focus and creativity and melt into silent meditation for stillness, clarity and a sense of peace.
Heather Rae is a Yoga Instructor, Meditation Coach, energy and body worker and ordained minister/priestess. Her studio, Little Lotus, is in Ferndale, where she teaches her signature style Akasha Yoga along with other traditional styles, meditation, wellness workshops and offers body and energy work one-on-one with clients. Her meditation practice is being studied at Wayne State Medical School http://www.heatherraemagic.com
Spiritual and Writing Labyrinth
Upon entering the labyrinth, there’s only one path to follow – same with the writing path. You need to trust that you are exactly where you need to be, surrender to the process of writing, and allow it to take you where you need to go.
Lisa Argo is a second level Reiki practitioner and a student at the Center of Enlightenment Ministry program in Ferndale, MI. She serves the congregation as a certified Medium and Spiritual Healer. Lisa is a web designer, certified in HTML, and Microsoft Office and she’s working on a series of children’s books centered around a group of boys and their growth, both spiritually and emotionally.
Effective Journaling
Journaling is transformative because it allows you to delve into your story with a sense of freedman, detachment and non-judgment. Once you express, absorb, interpret and act on the stories that block you from moving forward, you can write a new story for yourself. Weam Namou, Presenter
Yoga for Writing
In this gentle and heart-centered yoga practice, we will engage breath-work, concentration, and physical movement to open and connect the body, heart, and mind. Weather permitting, we will practice outside in the fresh open air on the beautiful grounds of the retreat center. We will close our practice with sounds of a crystal bowl and Tibetan singing bowl. Bring a yoga mat, small blanket, and hydration.
Sandy Naimou is an E-RYT 200 with Yoga Alliance, holds a B.A. in Psychology and M.L.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies. She has been teaching yoga since 2011, practicing yoga for over 20 years, and writing in personal journals since childhood. She teaches yoga full-time, primarily at General Motors Corporation and is a board member for the Theosophical Society in Detroit. http://www.CreativeEnergyYoga.com
Deep Insight Gong Meditation
Vince will share stories and sounds in a restful meditative format to help you embrace your intuition, creativity and healing. This will support your next steps on your journey.
Vince Pitre is a licensed psychotherapist, hypnotherapist and healer. He specializes in helping people stop smoking, release weight, stress and anxiety. His curiosity and commitment to master the healing process has guided him to study sound healing in Europe and Shamanic healing in the jungle and mountains of Peru. Vince’s practice is at the Center for Healing Arts and Massage http://center4thehealingarts.com
Take Your Writing into the World
Once you write that poem, essay, novel, memoir, now what? How can you share your writing with the world? Weam Namou, Presenter
Awakening the Dreamer Symposium
This half-day workshop was developed by the Pachamama Alliance and has been delivered by skilled facilitators to hundreds of thousands of participants in over 80 countries since 2005. In it, you’ll look squarely at the state of the world – where we are and how we got here – and then explore what role you can play in bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet. https://www.pachamama.org/engage/awakening-the-dreamer
Betsy McCabe is a musician and activist whose education is in liberal arts. Betsy worked 10 years with the US Environmental Protection Agency and as an independent piano teacher. As a volunteer, she’s engaging and acting for social change and transformation through the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ), Friends of Restorative Justice (FORJ), and the Pachamama Alliance.
