Do you know the experience of wanting to care for yourself, show up for your relationships or live your values but end up repeating patterns of disconnection instead? We might withdraw when we’re overwhelmed, reach for distraction when we’re uncomfortable, say yes when we want to say no, or consume things that offer temporary relief without actually nourishing us. Often, these patterns are attempts to meet a real need, even when the strategy itself is no longer serving us.
This round of The Shift explores what it means to care for ourselves, one another, and the Earth. We will use mindfulness and compassion skills to become more aware of how we meet our needs and participate in the larger web we belong to.
Like a single node within a mycelial network, our wellbeing is both individual and interconnected. How we care for ourselves influences how we show up with others, and the ways we meet our needs connect us to communities, resources, and the living world around us.
With our 21-Day Practice Challenge, you’ll choose one meaningful practice of care and explore what happens when you bring it into your everyday life and how that ripples out to the web you are apart of.
This free online course is designed for young adults surfing the waves of life, seeking greater connection, agency, and care. Over eight weeks, we’ll move through three widening circles: caring for self, caring for others, and caring for the Earth. With weekly live classes, practical mindfulness instruction, guided resources, community practice, and reflective journal prompts.
No meditation experience required. Just a willingness to slow down, get curious, and explore your place in the web.
What We’ll Explore Together:
Recognizing our needs and the patterns we use to meet them
Building mindfulness skills to slow down and respond with greater awareness and choice
Exploring what genuinely nourishes and supports us in everyday life
Bringing mindfulness into communication, boundaries, conflict, and relationships
Practicing compassion for ourselves and others when needs and expectations don’t match
Understanding how our choices and patterns ripple into our communities and the living world
Deepening our sense of connection, reciprocity, and belonging with the Earth
Using the SHIFT process to work with patterns of care throughout our lives
Learning to SHIFT a Pattern
Throughout the series, we'll work with a simple process for meeting our patterns with greater awareness:
S Slow Down
Create enough space to notice what is happening.
H Halt
Interrupt the momentum of an automatic reaction or familiar pattern.
I Investigate
Become curious about what is happening beneath the surface.
F Feel Into & Focus On
Notice the sensations, emotions and needs asking for our attention. Direct your focus on an outcome of wellbeing.
T Trust
Practice responding from awareness, compassion and choice.
SHIFT isn't about getting rid of every difficult habit or reaction. It's a way of becoming more intimate with our experience so that we have greater agency in how we respond.
The Details:
Thursdays: October 22 - December 3
7:00 pm – 8:45 pm ET
Free Registration, donations to Sarana Institute are always welcome
The recordings will be sent the day after if you can’t make it or want to tune in again.
Q&A:
Do I need to participate live?
No, you don’t need to, but we encourage it. Of course, the live calls will give you access to directly working with our facilitators and receiving peer support. Our Signal chat will also be active to support you in between calls to digest the material.
Do I need to be on camera?
Short answer: Yes. We really encourage the real you to come forward. The Shift happens when we can be real with ourselves. And, if you can’t have your camera on for whatever reason, you are still welcome to come.
Is there a replay?
Yes. The recording will be sent out the following day.
Why is this course free?
The Lang Family Foundation sponsors our Yana programs. This supports us in reducing registration fees or even offering courses entirely for free! If you have the means to donate, we greatly appreciate it. Your contribution helps us to offset registration fees for the Yana Retreat further and provide bursaries for those who need financial assistance.
Can I make a donation to support you?
After you submit your registration for this free course, you will be taken to our donation page. Any contribution helps! You can also directly donate here.
Our Facilitators
Andrew Blake is Registered Psychotherapist, Buddhist Chaplain, and Meditation Teacher. He’s also one of the Co-founders of Sarana Institute. He brings his decades of experience navigating the inner territory and how this reflects in our lives, his BIG capacity, and his fearlessness to go places shame doesn’t want us to.
Maxine Iharosy has been teaching with Sarana Institute since 2017 as one of the core members for the Yana Program. She’s a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and Embodiment Guide. Maxine brings her courage for inner transformation work, her heart and her depth.
Together, Maxine and Andrew have navigated many real moments in their relationship as co-teachers, co-workers, and members of Sarana. They bring their bond, honesty and skills to this workshop.
This free course is a part of our
Yana Program
Yana is Sarana Institute's young adult-focused program serving those aged ~18-35. For us, it stands for 'Young Adult Nature Awareness', and yāna is also a Buddhist term meaning 'vehicle'’ We intend to provide a “vehicle” to ride the waves of life with these skills: mindfulness, compassion, nature connection, and food awareness. The Yana program offers online mindfulness and compassion courses, workshops, resources, and our in-person Yana Retreat in August.
What comes after this?
The Yana Retreat
The Yana Retreat is founded on the principles of mindfulness, compassion, and awareness of food and nature. You will learn mindfulness practices that help you meet inner and outer challenges with greater acceptance and grounded intention. The retreat is supported by a network of facilitators, mentors, volunteers, and past participants who will encourage and guide you.
Through mindful listening and relational skill-building, you'll explore the impact of your family of origin and cultural experience. You'll connect with your relationship to food and the ecological crisis, and learn ways to address coping patterns that may no longer serve you, allowing you to expand into your potential.
This experiential retreat helps you understand the roots of your patterns and ignite positive change. The Yana Retreat offers a rare and essential opportunity to develop compassion for your limitations and conditioning while nurturing your strengths, supported by mentors, community, and the natural world.
The Yana Retreat is for anyone aged ~18-35 who wants to build a deeper connection with themselves, others, and the earth.
Join us for a weekend-long deep dive where together we’ll:
Learn mindfulness and meditation skills
Navigate emotions with compassion
Connect and listen with (and to) nature
Reflect inwardly on patterns, skills, and challenges
Nourish ourselves with locally sourced food
Explore the ways we want to grow in life
This is more than a mindfulness retreat.
