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Dear Clients and Friends,
First and foremost, happy new year! May you stretch and grow in ways that make you more aware, more alive, and more open to new possibilities.
This is a bit of a ramble, so please bear with me.
My intention when I started this newsletter was to send you a yummy, polished draft on the first Monday of every month, come rain or shine. And this month was to be no exception, except that it was. It was new years day. The day that every retailer, service provider, nonprofit, you-bought-flip-flops-from-me-10-years-ago-and-we-now-sell-artisanal Parmesan chips-as flavorprenuers reaches out to remind you how much they really care.
I felt sort of sympathetic to all the pleas for my commerce and donations, and also sort of put out. I understand the challenge of trying to compete for brand recognition and the constant need to stay top of mind amongst one's customer base. And at the same time, I looked at the growing number of unopened emails in my inbox with fatigue and dread. My prefrontal cortex started firing away as it is wont to do, and before I knew it ridiculous thought-forms started invading the mellowness of downtime--stuff like creating a commerce only email address, implementing a more finely tuned filtering system, unsubscribing from everything, designating a browser for shopping only that would stop infiltrating my social media feeds, and the list goes on.
But then a voice in my head harkened back to a conversation I was having with one of you about my belief that what we STAND FOR may be more important in this era than what we stand against. And in a moment of clarity, I remembered the process of creating this very email list. I sat with each and every one of you, and meditated on our sessions, our knowing of one another, our intersection points, our friendship. My head literally exploded like Arjuna's did when Krishna revealed his past lives to him. We've shared so much creativity, so much care!
A deeper voice rose from within and proffered this:
I am done with the newsletter. INSTEAD, I am going to write you a LETTER--a straight up, Victorian style, belle lettres letter. This is not about marketing. It's about connection. It's about standing up for human-to-human caring, for self expression, and for growth. I am not going to conform to any particular length of prose that has proven to increase clicks or actions. I am simply going to write from my heart to yours, and I am going to trust that my practice is going to thrive anyway.
If I do have announcements, they will appear beneath the letter and in my reluctant Twitter and Facebook pages. I will include a tiny table of contents at the top of the email for those of you who just don't have time for my mentation; which, by the way, I respect, and will honor that by getting to the point with the practical stuff below.
I hope this change will feel as relieving to you as it does to me. Like a tiny moment to sit back with a story and relax, and that after a while it will take shape and wings that only time and love will reveal.
With folded palms and Parmesan chips that turned out to be too spicy,
Jennifer
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Dear Teachers,
I started teaching CENTERED Practice last year, based on the book CENTERED and the life's work of my mentor Madeline Black. It was a rite of passage and an initiation to be given her permission and blessing to teach this technique.
I hope you will sign up, not just for one afternoon, but for the series, which will take place on Sundays January 28, February 18, March 25, and April 29 from 1-4pm.
My intention is to bring 10 students into the depth of this work to prepare for Madeline's May intensive.
I had the very distinct advantage of spending years immersed in CENTERED, and then took it upon myself to make it my work, which was not comfortable or easy, or smooth, especially with a roster full of standing clients who weren't necessarily on board.
I want to change this for you!
CENTERED Practice is the antidote to obsessive workshop syndrome, where you keep chasing new techniques but never integrate them into your practice. It's the piece that allows you to have the time, the space, the safety, and the supervision to investigate the depth of this work so that it can enrich you and keep your teaching life alive.
Please join me at Studio 26 for this fantastic adventure. We will build a great community in a great space. Also, if you are hesitating, please email or text me (jennifer.sokolov@gmail.com, 718-644-3663). Sometimes, that's all it takes to sign on.
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