Spirituality Matters

MONTECITO JOURNAL38 “What is a child, monsieur, but the image of two beings, the fruit of two sentiments spontaneously blended?” – Honore de Balzac We are pleased to announce the affiliation of Granada Building 1216 State Street, Suite 500 Santa Barbara, CA 93101 O 805.730.3350 raymondjames.com/mattrowe Raymond James & Associates, Inc., member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC. 20-BR3GD-0078 TA 2/20 MATT ROWE, CIMA ® Financial Advisor Vice President, Wealth Management D 805.730.3363 matt.rowe@raymondjames.com with Radhule & Raab on Writing by Steven Libowitz “Spirituality Matters” highlights two or three Santa Barbara area spiritual gatherings. Unusual themes and events with that something extra, especially newer ones looking for a boost in attendance, receive special attention. For consideration for inclusion in this column, email slibowitz@yahoo.com. R adhule Weininger, Ph.D., and Diana Raab, Ph.D., are teaming up once again to offer a three-hour training in Mindfulness Meditation and Journaling this weekend. Raab, a longtime Montecito-based memoirist, poet, essayist, blogger and speaker whose latest book is titled Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life, and Weininger, a veteran Santa Barbara dwelling clinical psychologist, teacher of Buddhist meditation and Buddhist psychology and founder and guiding teacher of the One Dharma Sangha, will offer exercises for participants to learn to see their relationships clearly and with compassion: to oneself and others as well as the world. Weininger will address how to complement wisdom with heart practice, such as kindness and compassion, especially self-compassion, and how to use these practices as tools for introspection. Raab will guide a variety of journaling exercises to a deep and creative way of self-reflection.

The teachings are appropriate for healthcare professionals – who can receive necessary CE credits – as well as the general public, while healthcare professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in the program in ways beneficial to clients or patients. The workshop takes place 1-4 pm on Sunday, February 23, at a private residence on Sycamore Canyon Road in Montecito. Admission is $60. Call (805) 694-8432 or visit www.mindfulheartprograms.org. Alexander’s Arts Fund Benefit

The Arts Fund is partnering with Beth Alexander and AM|Fitness for a meditation fundraiser comprised of three weekly brief meditation classes on Tuesdays that benefit the Funk Zone arts organization. Alexander, a fitness trainer and a nationally recognized health expert who has been featured by The Today Show, Shape, and PopSugar Fitness, is the creator of top-selling online fitness courses, including 21-Day Booty Core. Alexander invites everyone to join her for 10-15 minutes of gentle movement followed by 30 minutes of guided meditation, in which participants will go inwards, unwind from the day, clear energy that isn’t theirs and connect to energy that resonates deeply. All levels welcome, with no meditating experience necessary for the 6:45- 7:30 pm Tuesday events that continue through March 3 at AM|Fitness, 508 Laguna Street. Bring your own yoga mat, plus a $10-15 suggested donation that goes to The Arts Fund for its programs. Visit www.artsfundsb.org/ post/beth-alexander-am-fitness-meditation-fundraiser. It’s not too late to join the Mission Street Buddhist Center’s new two-year program of long weekend immersions to fully explore the path of awakening – in fact, the entire program is geared toward entering the curriculum at any time. “Going for Refuge – A Journey Toward Trust and Immutable Confidence,” which takes place 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday, February 22-23, is the second workshop in the series following January’s overview weekend, and launches into the first steps on the path of awakening that include learning how to go for refuge in the “Three Jewels”: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Santa Barbara Bodhi Path Buddhist Center’s resident teacher Dawa Tarchin Phillips will explain what it means to take refuge, and how developing confidence in the awakened qualities of the three jewels is a reliable source of guidance and protection in times of confusion, personal struggle and strife. Register at: http://groupspaces.com/BodhiPathOnline or call (805) 284-2704 or visit www.bodhipath.org/ sb for more information. Mining the “Real Wealth”

Unity of Santa Barbara six-month engagement with Rev. Phil Smedstad – who was ordained as a Unity minister in 1976 and has founded churches in Hawaii and Texas and led others in Florida, New Mexico, and North Carolina, and now serves as a consultant – ended late last year. But his monthly weekend workshops proved so popular, the local organization keeps bringing him back for events that are open to the general public. Mining the “Real Wealth” in You, which takes place 10 am to 1 pm on Saturday, February 22, based on one of Smedstad’s books, is designed to support participants in having the inner and outer life they want and deserve. The concept is that we are already rich in the most important way possible, fabulously wealthy in all the qualities of God: unconditional love, the power of creation, the wisdom of the universe, and abundant life energy. The more we tap into and experience that inner wealth, the more our outer life will reflect it.

Smedstad will offer lecture, discussion, and several gentle yet powerful exercises to surrender more deeply to the magnificence and splendor that exists inside and experience that sense of oneness with the qualities of love, power, wisdom, and aliveness. Participants will receive tools with which to continue the transformational experience long after the end of the workshop. Admission is by suggested “love offering” of $25, although you’re invited to contribute SITE DRAINAGE SYSTEMS 50 + YEARS EXPERIENCE - LOCAL 35+ YEARS 805.698.4318 FREE INSPECTION William J. Dalziel Lic#B311003 – Bonded & Insured visit our site at: www.williamjdalziel.com billdalziel@yahoo.com • FLOOR LEVELING • QUALITY REMODELING • FOUNDATION REPLACEMENTS • FOUNDATIONS REPAIRS • NEW CONSTRUCTION • RETAINING WALLS • FRENCH DRAINS – WATERPROOFING • SITE DRAINAGE SYSTEMS • UNDERPINNINGS – CAISSONS • STRUCTURAL CORRECTION WORK • CONCRETE DRIVEWAYS

Tantra Cuddle

Mindful Meetup Santa Barbara, which has hosted a series of “Mindful Greets and Eats” where people gather at local restaurants to chat and engage in mindful eating among a group of other open-minded people, is taking a deeper dive this weekend: a Tantra Cuddle, aka Tuddle. The event, part of founder Steve in SB’s Sacred Space Tantra offerings (www.sacredspot.com), is a genderand LGBQT+/hetero- friendly guided sensual Tantric event with practices including guided meditation, movement, personal sharing, breath work, body work, chakra balancing and sensual touching, massage and cuddling with one or more partners. All activities at the Tuddle are completely consensual, meaning you can choose to not participate in any of the activities. Admission is $35 per person, or $60 per couple. The first event is planned for this Saturday, February 22. Call (805) 244-6169 or visit www. meetup.com/MindfulMeetupSB for details.

Soup’s on

Yoga Soup’s weekend workshops begin with Relational Attunement, the theme for the next installment of the bi-monthly Authentic Relating Games. Leader Damian Gallagher will offer a series of “games” that offer experiences in “How Me transitions into We,” diving into the differences when we are attuned to each of us in the space as a collective of individuals as well as the group itself. The evening of exploration will, experientially, ask such questions as “What flavor are you bringing to every space that you are a part of?” Admission to the 7-9:30 pm event on Friday, February 21, is $18 in advance, or $25 day-of… Studio owner Eddie Ellner leads another evening of Ecstatic Breathing – a few minutes of gentle yoga followed by an hour of breathing to induce a non-ordinary state of consciousness – 7-9 pm on Saturday, February 22 ($35/$40)... The Matrix of the Present Moment, which takes place 7:15-9:30 pm on Sunday, February 23, is an experiential workshop with shamanic healer James Hyman, founder of Deep Emotional Release Bodywork and QuantumTheta Healing, that offers a powerful open-eyed meditation, known previously only to Tibetan Masters, to identify and release negative patterns from the body and the subconscious mind, at the cellular level, and learn what it really means to be free in the present moment ($30). •MJ