CULTIVATING FRIENDLINESS

What is friendliness? We all recognize it – a smile, eye contact, or acknowledgment. When friendliness is present, we tend to be more open to what is going on.
The pace of life has generally increased. Often we overlook opportunities to hold space for friendliness to emerge in our interactions. Instead, we focus on an anticipated result. In this workshop we slow down and explore within ourselves and with each other, possibilities for cultivating friendliness.

Friendliness is part of our innate capacity. Often, unfriendly experiences teach us to shut down or close off, causing others and potentially ourselves to retreat rather than be welcoming. Cultivating a sense of openness in the face of uncertainty supports our intention to be friendly, not only to those we are close to but extending that to strangers, unknowns and our entire environment.
Shaping the Moment is a process of inquiry and discovery. In this work, we move through three phases– Sensing, Presencing and Realizing. In Sensing, we review our experience with friendliness to discover our stories. Then we ask, “What is happening now?” “What encourages friendliness?”

In Presencing, we go deeper with reflection, observation, slowing down to discover the intention of friendliness. “How am I a friend to myself? To those I love? To those in my community?”
In Realizing, we move to experimenting how to go forward, creating opportunities for friendliness to emerge. Finally, we use our discoveries to shape practices that we can use for ourselves and in our communities.

As we experience being with ourselves, we soften and strengthen our confidence to see things as they are. By noticing what cultivates friendliness inside, we are able to choose how to cultivate that with others.

Objectives:
 To share experiences of friendliness
To explore friendliness with ourselves and others
To experiment with friendliness with new experiences
To practice friendliness in our communities
Joyce has designed programs from 1-day to 10 months.  For support in learning design for the web, Contact Joyce today.