What the World Needs Now

The Shopkeepers – the Funk Zone boutique that describes itself as ”Curious Goods for Curious People” and offers an inviting tag line of “We hope you visit and shop often, stay as long as you like, and leave feeling better than when you arrived” – hosts an evening of enriching conversation, book signing and networking to make the world a better place. “What the World Needs Now: A Convo on Fierce Listening & Loving,” which takes place 2-4 pm this Sunday, July 28, features Shopkeepers co-founder and Waxing Poetic founder Patti Pagliei in a “Shop Talk” conversation about how we can navigate and turn our heartbreak into making a powerful difference in our families, communities and in the world. Paglieli will moderate a discussion between Jennifer Pastiloff, the highly acclaimed author of the new profoundly candid memoir On Being Human: A Memoir of Waking Up, Living Real, and Listening Hard, which was just published last month, and Bridget Fonger, author of Superhero of Love: Heal Your Broken Heart & Then Go Save the World, which came out in January.

The event hosts are Michelle Ebbin, a wellness expert, inventor, media personality and author of The Touch Remedy, and Ellen Bain, a yoga teacher, former Division I athlete and owner of Peak Power Yoga Wellness in Ojai. A limited number of special Waxing Poetic jewelry pieces designed for each author’s book will be available for purchase, while part of the proceeds from the event will go to Together Rising, whose mission is to “Transform collective heartbreak into effective action”; the nonprofit has been on the front lines working with the border children emergency. Shopkeepers is located at 137 Anacapa Street, Suite A, in the Funk Zone. Details on the event are online at www.facebook.com/events/502426276965264/. Call (805) 883-3132 or visit www.theshopkeepers-sb.com

Evolutionary Playground

Former Montecito, now Ojai-based authors and workshop leaders Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks’ next weekend retreat is subtitled “New Paths to Change for Uncertain Times,” both a timely and timeless concept that suggests people can benefit from letting go of trying to fit into an existing model that keeps generating struggle. The workshop updates the Hendricks’ introductory seminar Essentials, which focused on the skills to shift easily with body intelligence tools, to explore the possibility of living primarily in an evolutionary cycle of presencing, connecting and playing through collaboration and harmony. Evolutionary Playground focuses on co-creation and resonance to expand solutions and fashion new ways of living in this time of accelerated change.

The program is meant to correct the imbalance where humans grapple with knowing too much about things over which they have little to no control and knowing less and less about areas where we do have control, including our bodies, experiences and choices. Welcoming rests in the heart of improvisation – saying yes to what is happening, what you are feeling, what you notice. When you welcome and include, you create a context where everything is fuel for aliveness and where each moment arises from turning toward, accepting, choosing and taking actions from your essence. The three-day seminar takes place July 28-30 at the Ojai Valley Women’s Club. Call (805) 319-6802 or visit https://hendricks.com/event

Tonglen with Tenzing

Tenzing Wangpo, a highly trained scholar who was enrolled in a monastery when he was seven years old and is still shy of 30, will give his first teaching at the Santa Barbara BodhiPath Center next Thursday, August 1. Tonglen, also known as “giving and taking,” the principal practice of Mind Training that awakens our compassion and connects us to the spaciousness of our being. In the practice, one visualizes taking in the suffering of oneself and of others on while breathing in, and giving recognition, compassion and relief to all sentient beings on the out-breath. Tonglen functions to reduce selfish attachment and develop and expand loving-kindness and “bodhicitta,” among other results. Admission by donation to the 7-9 pm event. 

The following weekend, Saturday-Sunday August 3-4, Khenpo Tsering will continue his teaching series on “The Way of the Bodhisattva” by Shantideva, focusing on Chapter 4, “Carefulness.” Admission is $40 for each 9 am to 1 pm session, or $70 for both. Santa Barbara BodhiPath Center Resident Teacher Dawa Tarchin Phillips returns the following Thursday, August 8, to launch a new five-week course, “Discover the Five Wisdoms,” which introduces participants to the transformative power of seeing things as they are, offering a way out of being trapped in limiting belief, unskillful behaviors and emotional bias, where the liberating wisdom of Buddha nature can seem inaccessible. 

BodhiPath is located at 102 West Mission Street. Call (805) 284-2704 or visit www.bodhipath.org/sb. 

Soup’s On

Next up at Yoga Soup: a return of the workshop “Embracing Your Demons” with Suzanne Marlow, M.A.,LMFT and Hannah Fries, LA.c, who employ meditation, visualization, creative psychosomatic processing and acupuncture to impart and integrate transforming your relationship with your demons from one of resistance to one of curiosity, understanding, and cooperation. (2-4 pm Saturday, July 27; $35 in advance, $40 day-of)… Cristy Candler’s Vibrational Harmonic Alignment is a healing sound immersion for relaxation that offers gentle yoga stretches and movement to facilitate opening the body for receptivity, followed by gemstone-infused alchemy crystal singing bowls to orchestrate a harmonic resonance for optimal well being and relaxation. Essential oil aromatherapy is included. (6-7:15 pm Saturday, July 27; $25 in advance, $30 day-of)… The Embodiment Alchemy Retreat takes place off campus at a private home in Santa Barbara, where singer-songwriter and facilitator Elisa Rose leads a day of deep nourishment, embodied exploration and creative opening. Nervous systems will be calmed via restorative practices and tools to listen to our body’s wisdom, while participants will also open their voices to experience the innate healing power of expressing through sound. There will be moments of silence and stillness to rest within and moments of full body celebration, including dancing, drawing and writing.

All ages and abilities are welcome. (10 am to 6 pm Sunday, July 28; $130). Yoga Soup is located at 28 Parker Way. Info at (805) 965-8811 or www.yogasoup.com/category/events. 

Reiki Weekend

Darren Marc leads a deep dive into reiki – the ancient Japanese method of healing that uses energy to balance the body and mind – with full-day workshops on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s Level 1 class and attunement prepares participants to utilize reiki for self-healing and healing others, while Sunday’s Level 2 seminar introduces reiki symbols that allow the practitioner to connect more deeply to the universal energy, as well as draw on the qualities that the symbols represent. The workshops take place 11 am to 6 pm at Marc’s home near Oak Park. Marc, who is also a singer-songwriter who periodically leads Kirtans and other chant events, is a Reiki Master who has been practicing for nearly 20 years. Visit www.awakenwithdarren.com.