Training for Transformation

Take a deep breath: Open your heart, your body, your being, let go of restricting fears and tensions. Allow yourself to explore the intensity and flow of life energy that makes being alive such a precious gift. In shock or trauma we hold our breathing. We stop the natural movement impulse of the body to fight or to escape. Instead, this vital movement energy is frozen into fear and helplessness or, in order to avoid the feeling of panic and pain, we may even disconnect from our body.

If we do not have support in our natural growing process as children it will affect our lives. Any kind of abuse in childhood or just the rejection of our basic need for love and emotional safety has traumatic effects. 

Breathing is a wonderful tool for moving through and beyond trauma. In this first part of the training we will use resourcing, moving with the felt sense as well as different ways of breathing, to enter the self-regulation healing system of the body.

This way we release old trauma and integrate the natural life force with all frozen emotions – back into pleasure.

Our behaviour and our fears and survival strategies are rooted in our childhood. In order to feel close to ourselves and trust the inner qualities with which we came into this world we need to know what hurt us when we were children. We need to understand how we felt at that time and how we compensated for missing safety, love and trust.

In our early years we were very intelligent in coping with our family situations and surroundings. We developed strategies and structures to make us feel safer. But in doing so we often needed to betray our true nature and on the way we lost trust in ourselves. As adults we carry on acting from these structures that are based in the fear of being abandoned and alone. It does not matter if it is at work, in our relationship, or in our free time: If we are not in connection with our true self, we tend to make choices that are not supportive to our identity. As time passes, this makes us feel weaker and more unsafe.

During this course we will use different techniques to revisit the time of childhood. In this way we can consciously and with the awareness of our adult self get in touch with the feelings and experiences of the child again. Once we recognize the strategies, patterns and behaviours of the past we can recognize when they are in action in our present day life. And only then can we decide to act differently: Now that we can be a parent to ourselves, these strategies are not needed anymore.

The inner child can regain trust and we can find the way back to our own identity, back to who we truly are. As a result we can heal our nervous system and be free to make different choices in our lives. Choices with which we are moving closer to ourselves and which make us feel whole and safe in our own being.  

Our bodies reveal our lives. This is a rare opportunity to learn what yours says about you. Much of our suffering is created by unhealthy patterns of feeling and acting that helped us survive the traumas of childhood, but then got stuck in our bodies.These patterns are not our true self: They cover up our true self and prevent us from shining.

The understanding of how these survival patterns show in our bodies was originally developed from the pioneering work of Wilhelm Reich by Alexander Lowen. Lowen related character types to particular body shapes and structures. He created a map showing five main ‘Body Types’. This map both shows us where we got stuck and how we can eventually free ourselves and return to the present moment.

We will spend a whole day on each body type, learning experientially what each character type feels like from the inside.

This work is illuminated by the understanding of meditation: that there is a place of pure presence inside each one of us, beyond all protective adaptations and character types.

This process guides you through your teenage years, healing the wounds of that time and retrieving the qualities that are the essence of a healthy teenager.

The awakening sexual energy of a teenager is a gift. It is not only a potential source of physical pleasure; it also makes life an adventure and eventually a search.

Healing and embracing your inner teenager now, as an adult, will bring back into your present life a sense of daring to go beyond what is familiar routine. It will create the space for something new in your life.

Family Constellation Work reveals hidden family patterns that may be holding us back in life. We are bound to our family systems by a deep need to belong; a child will do anything for the love of a parent. The bond to our parents and to our family system begins even before birth, we are born into a family that goes back generations. Often these unconscious patterns holds us back and prevents us from choosing what fulfills us in life and from moving forward and living a life we love. In this group we will look deeper into the three principles of love – belonging, balance and order and to the hidden patterns of the family. Each principle will be explained and experienced and the participants of the group will have the opportunity to look deeper into their own family structure. To move consciously through life has tremendous value and doing this allows us to access an amazing strength and a deep relaxation.

Family and Systemic Constellation Laboratory aimed at transitioning from “Blind Love” to “Conscious Love.” Based on the three “Principles of Love” (Belonging, Hierarchy, and Giving and Receiving), this workshop supports the journey towards greater awareness in daily life.

Conscious Love aligns with these principles, guiding us to explore our consciousness, including beliefs, traditions, and thoughts inherited from our family system. Through unconscious inclusion and behavior modification driven by blind love, we seek to belong, often at the expense of our own well-being.

However, through mature love, we realize that belonging doesn’t require sacrificing ourselves. We belong inherently, regardless of external validation. By restoring natural order (hierarchy) and rebalancing giving and receiving, we reconnect with our true selves and find freedom in embracing our unique path.

Exploring these Principles of Love enables us to gain insights and resolve both inner and outer conflicts in our daily lives.

The transforming power in your own body, when understood and practiced, can change anything life brings from a suffering into a gift of grace. Emotions and body reactions are not your enemies, they are teachers. When you learn the wisdom of the body, the heart and the nervous system, you can grow and change with every situation that appears in life.

You will have a chance to understand the messages you received in childhood about your emotions: how they impacted you at the time and how they come up in your life now. You will learn how to continue healing them in your adult life through accepting and owning them rather than blaming others. This way you can receive the gift that each emotional experience brings.

The body remembers and the body knows. When you can listen, it becomes your healer. When you let the body express feelings through dance, you open to the depth and beauty of life as it is. Something new happens. Life becomes a mystery to be lived, rather than a problem to be solved.

Through this inquiry and the heart’s acceptance we learn to be truthful with ourselves, making space for our needs and for new, more nourishing ways of being with people in all kinds of relationships. We cannot “do” change. But we can create the space within for alchemy to happen.

Elements of this alchemy:

Acceptance: the heart center can embrace what is with compassion – even life’s opposites. The mind cannot do that.

Aliveness: the intensity and fire of being fully alive in everything such as sadness, anger, love, tenderness, relaxation….when expressed through dance it moves energy and brings joy.

Meditation: when we have lived something totally, it is easier to watch. When we can bring witnessing and silence to anything, integration happens.

The power of the heart’s acceptance and presence expands your capacity to receive life. It grows each time you welcome and feel rather than reject and fight with what is. This resilience helps you in today’s unpredictable world, and in your personal life.

We will also look at emotional intelligence and trauma from the perspective of Somatic Experiencing, one of today’s emerging body-based trauma therapies. You will learn some of its science and keys, and how these relate to inner alchemy. If you work with people, it increases your ability to hold someone as they are, with love. This is the backbone of being an effective therapist.

Live the totality of your emotions.

Life is a mysterious unfolding. With each turn we take there is new information for us to process and digest. Just when we think we have figured it out, life brings us new situations to test our inner connection. Awareness is not about having a fixed idea, but more about being able to love yourself and others no matter what is going on around you.

In this course we will take a look at what is in the way of keeping us flowing. We will experiment with moving the obstacles out of the way and support the understanding that we are connected to a loving existence.

It is important to remember that we can not always control our circumstances. However, we do have the power to decide how we take care of ourselves and make the most loving choices possible.

The quest for Who is in? and Who am I? is as old as humanity

It leads straight to the possibility to become conscious of yourself. These questions are the core questions of every human being – no matter if man or woman, young or old, stupid or clever, seeker or businessman. All other questions used in the Awareness Intensive Retreat are aspects of these 2 master key questions – such as: What is life, love, freedom, consciousness, another, sexuality, truth, relaxation? – to name a few.

No knowledge nor intellectual answers will help. You need to go into these questions and experience them directly through your senses in each given moment and embody them. Relaxation, trust, love, openness for oneself and others, compassion and joy de vivre will grow alongside the experience of being grounded in the oneness of life and existence.

By combining the ancient technique of working in silence with a Koan facing the wall with the modern technique of structured communication facing a partner a powerful tool for self-exploration has been created. Opening up in the presence of another melts away layers of protectedness and intensifies the incentive to inquire into who you truly are; the never ending mystery.

This section is about discovering that wholeness within which is already there. It is about getting more in contact with ones life energy, with the inner lover, bringing back projections. This is how we can start having more enriched and nourishing relationships on all levels: with ourselves, with partners, friends, people at work.

Polarity is always in play in all aspects of our lives. Osho reminds us that Tantra has known this for 5000 years. Polarity charges us. In the polarity we become alive. Polarity is juice. First we meet in the outer and later the outer meeting can become an inner meeting. This play is Tantra. 

We will dance through the currents in the outer and inner play of polarity: In Eros, in the pull of attraction, in the male and female qualities and whatever might surface during these six days. We will honour and value each other. Celebrate the same journey we all are on from meetings on the outside towards wholeness within.

The teachings are based on Osho’s vision and the Tibetan Buddhist Tantra taught to us by Neel Fasting at Vaekstcentret. It is an energetic and meditative approach (not problem oriented), that brings understanding, awareness, space, and deeper acceptance. From here, transformation and growth can happen.

The connection with the body is an immense resource. With meditation and movement we will be opening up to the sensitivity to the flow of life, to the life energy in the body. From here we will naturally connect with the resources within, with possibilities of becoming more authentic.

Meditation practise is a fundamental part of this group. We will be using Osho’s active meditations, heart meditations, guided meditations and meditations from Tantra to balance the inner flow, within ourselves and also how to use these in our intimate relationships.

Key areas of exploration in this part include:

Energy – becoming sensitive to the flow in our energy system

Emotions and their role in our relationships

Eros – Strengthening our connection with the inner source

Joy – Connecting with the source and becoming available to joy

Sexuality as an expression of our life energy

Male / female polarity – getting to know our inner opposite sex

Understanding the difference between rising and falling in love

Heart – deepening our connection with the heart

Meditation – understanding its importance on a deeper level

There is no nudity and no exercises are done in couples