Journey of the Heart
A Year-long Women's Journey across the Seasons: A wonderful path of exploration to deepen, nourish & transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you.
This course offers a safe and supportive community and program to deepen into yourself and the world around you. Through mindfulness activities, self-inquiry, lectures & discussions, creative activities & practices, and reflective time in the nature, we affirm your strengths & resources while exploring your limiting beliefs and growth edges.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID:
"This is a life-changing program. It opened me to other paradigms and supported transformation with deep respect and love."
"I've learned to trust my instincts, and to speak from my heart."
"Kris & Tammi offer a well of wisdom, courage, love and fun in their teaching and hold space so beautifully...I feel inspired intellectually and on a heart level..And I feel transformed in the most profound and magical way. "
A 5-Weekend, Year Long Program
"Kris & Tammi are skilled facilitators and they bring so much experience and talent to the table. They are able to hold a strong and safe container for the group — our growth and transformation can occur in that heart-space while we are together at Heartstone, but also continues to happen in the months between sessions."
"I learned that I am never alone in my human being experience."
"An experience of awakening and mindfulness and how to apply this to your daily life. A life-changing experience you wouldn't want to miss."
A. Overview
Each weekend will focus on themes of the season and cycle of life as they express in nature and within ourselves.
We meet in-person for 5 weekends between May and May which follow the changing seasons. In between those sessions, we meet monthly on zoom, read a book and do a variety of personal practices and activities.
We recognize that many people join this course with busy lives so participants are encouraged to engage in the home activities in ways that feel healthy and good to you. We do ask that you attend all sessions as best as you can. Steady participation supports the group to grow as a community and the learning to deepen over the year.
Surrounded by fields, woods and wildlife, our activities will include individual and group mindfulness practices, journeys and guided meditations, self-inquiry, lectures & discussions, ceremony, and hands-on workshops.
You’ll learn new skills & practices with your hands and hearts, and within a kindred community, explore your sense of self, your growth edges and dreams.
We will play and pray, move and be still, carve and build, plant and harvest, share and reflect. We’ll learn resources for bringing compassion and courage into your life, energy and focus into your dreams, and support to learn & change at your growth edges, as you desire.
With the gifts of nature as our guide, we’ll nourish our experience of being alive and interconnected.
B. Curriculum
The Journey of the Heart is a full year program spanning four seasons.
Spring
Which seeds have your tended in the garden of your life? Which seeds of your dreams are still longing for the soil?
In the spring, we turn our attention to the beginning times and the power of seeds; seeds outside in nature and seeds inside ourselves.
We’ll practice transforming dreams into ideas and ideas into seeds to be planted in your life.
Among other activities, we’ll create gourd rattles with seeds and plant a dream garden together.
Summer
What makes your heart sing? How do you express this in your life? Are there ways you long to express yourself more fully?
In the summer, we focus on themes of action and embodiment, creativity, and expression.
The seeds planted in the spring are now in their flowering and fruiting times and so we, too, call our dreams into more fullness and form.
Letting the unapologetic expressions of nature be our guides, we also begin to explore the exiled parts of ourselves & learn what they have to teach us. Together, we create rim drums to carry our intentions and voices.
Autumn
How do you nourish yourself well - body, mind, heart, & spirit? Which are easiest and which are more challenging? When do you override your basic human needs?
In the autumn, our focus turns to themes of maturity, deepening, and receiving nourishment. This weekend, we create beautiful bowls made from gourds.
As the plants begin to pull resources into their roots and the days become shorter, depending on circumstances, we'll share Sweatlodge or an alternative sacred ceremony to give thanks for the abundance of life and the lessons learned through the growing time.
We begin to give voice to the questions we want to offer into the great mystery of life itself.
Winter
When do you release what no longer serves you and when do you hold on? When do you make space to feel gratitude in your life? How do you grieve the losses of life? Do you allow yourself to dream in new possibilities for your life?
In the winter, we climb into the stillness and quiet together. We reflect and take stock of what has been beneficial and release what is no longer needed.
We acknowledge the importance of loss and grief in our life cycles and the corresponding experiences of love. Together, we also reflect on our social identities, honor our Ancestors and Relatives and join hands with the lineage of the past and the future.
We create space for dreams in our lives – listening for those that are calling to become seeds of new life. We explore ways of supporting their gestation over the winter in our reflections and actions. Together, we felt altar cloths to hold and support our intentions & personal practices over the following months. Under the winter stars, we gather to remember who we are in the bigger picture of Life.
"I have learned to communicate with the natural world by creating space and connection with my heart. And I am learning to listen more and do less.
I have learned that ceremony provides me with an ability to concentrate intention which helps to launch my hopes and dreams into reality. I also am learning how I sabotage this process with my home life and habits.
The challenge of being vulnerable in a group keeps me in the process of reconnecting to my heart again and again.This has gotten a little easier each time. I am surprised I find myself missing my classmates between times and enjoy breathing into the warm heart caring I am developing for each person.
This feels like a huge gift to me because I used to feel threatened by the needs of groups. Now I trust in the flow of the process for each person to get just what they need, and I don’t have to facilitate that connection."
Gallery
Wrapping Up
Finally, for the 5th weekend, we come together again in Spring. Now, we bring all of our learning, practices and connections to integrate, celebrate, and look forward together.
In addition to each weekend's curriculum, there are activities to do between sessions to deepen, enliven, and bring continuity to our experience over the seasons. Between sessions, we read a book and practice mindfulness and self-reflection activities, some with journaling. We also meet monthly in a ZOOM online group session to check in with one another.
We recognize that most participants have full lives and we want each person to participate at a level that works for you. Rather than adding pressure or overwhelm to busy lives, our intention is to have this course be a nourishing and uplifting experience, including between weekends.
Some Logistics
While this program is not an herbal medicine course per se, most weekends will include activities nature.
Participants are expected to attend all weekends and whenever possible, online sessions. This consistency supports the emerging sense of community and helps to deepen the learning. Each session's curriculum builds on previous weekends.
The program includes 5 in-person residential weekends beginning in May and ending the following May and monthly zoom sessions in between. All weekends except one will be held at Heartstone. Participants stay in your own tents or in our yurt, the Toadstool (lean-to), a bunkhouse, the silo, or a rustic space with twin beds.** The February winter session will be held in a different located where there are heated facilities and lodging.
Simple, healthy meals will be provided each weekend.
Please let us know if you want to join us, and contact us if you have any questions!
Peace & green blessings,
Kris & Tammi
** Preference for rustic facilities is given to Elders or those needing physical accommodation.
C. Schedule and Tuition
Tuition for the full year Journey of the Heart program is $2350.
Meals and most supplies are included in tuition. Since we are only able to accept 24 people into the program, a $250 non-refundable deposit is required to hold a place.
5 Weekends, Full Year
Deposit & Payment
In order to register, please click below to fill out the registration form and pay the deposit online via credit card or by check, payable to "Heartstone".
Full payment can be sent by check. Payment plans are also available for the balance of tuition. Details will come with your information packet upon registering but please call with any questions.
Do You Have Questions About The Program?
Please contact us if you have any questions at all. We're excited to learn more about you and answer any questions you have before registering.
This is a committed program with limited space, and you can find some of our questions in the application below.
Waitlist is open!
Thank you for your interest in Journey of the Heart. The course will not be offered in 2024. However, we may offer it in the future. If you are interested in being notified, please sign up for the waitlist and we’ll be in touch.
*A note to Participants: While our courses are typically open to all adults, Journey of the Heart is tailored to the experiences of women. All who identify as women are welcome.
Note : This is an immersion program and in order to participate fully, we ask that the students plan to stay at Heartstone Center. See the logistical information above.
"Thank you! I’m learning about my gifts and how to offer them more effectively in the world."
"I’m learning how to be stronger as a woman and learning more ways to walk healing paths with clients. I have many more tools in my tool belt now!"
