“…in dire need of creative extremists” | (2018) January 13: Intro to TRE, February 9: An Evening w/ John Hall

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be…
The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
 – Martin Luther King Jr.

Hi everyone,

Just how severe and life-threatening do life circumstances have to be for someone to choose to jump into a small overcrowded raft to cross a turbulent, unforgiving ocean because it looks like the better option? How many make this choice and do they survive? What happens when they do?

Last summer, John Hall, Director of the International Law Program at Chapman University, spent his ‘vacation’ volunteering on the Greek island, Lesvos, helping the many desperate people arriving in rafts to reach safety.

I know John to be a man of great knowledge, experience and wisdom. Beyond that he is a pleasure to be with, full of warmth, and an engaging, heartfelt story-teller. I am very excited that we have created an opportunity for him to tell us about his experiences last summer, plus, help us understand more about what is creating the desperation and what can be done to alleviate it.

Please join us for “An Evening with John Hall: Kindness Amid Chaos, Stories from Lesvos” — Friday, February 9, 7:00pm – 9:00pm.
FREE ADMISSION | VEGAN REFRESHMENTS | DETAILS & REGISTRATION.

Also, we have just a few more spaces for:
Intro to Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®): Connection, Compassion & Community, Saturday, January 13, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
FREE ADMISSION | VEGAN REFRESHMENTS | DETAILS & REGISTRATION. (All are welcome: first-timers and those who have already learned.)

This year, Living Ubuntu will operate according to a ‘gift economy’ as much as possible, offering free admission whenever we can.
If you value our work and have the means and inclination to financially contribute, please do, recognizing that others might not be able to.
We are grateful for your generosity.
Donate.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,
Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005

[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

***

Intro to TRE: Connection, Compassion & Community

 

We live in extremely challenging times. What is challenging for one affects the whole.
In the spirit of Ubuntu we ‘share what we have’.
Join us for an Intro to Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®) plus a time to connect, re-connect and re-affirm living life compassionately.

Saturday January 13, 2017, 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Irvine Ranch Water District Community Room, 15500 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine, CA 92618

FREE ADMISSION | VEGAN REFRESHMENTS

EVENT DETAILS & REGISTRATION

The Irvine Ranch Water District neither supports nor endorses the cause or activities of organizations which use the District’s facilities. The facilities are made available as a public service.

 

***

Finding our way to back to wholeness | Jan 13 (2017) Intro to TRE: Connection, Community & Compassion

JN: So, as a society and as individuals, what is the way back to wholeness?

GM: It’s impossible under capitalism, because the essence of capitalism is to separate the mind from the body. And, basically, people are all considered material goods. People matter only insofar as they produce, consume, or own matter. If you don’t produce, consume, or own matter, then you don’t matter in this society. We have to recognize the severely prohibitive limitations along with the great achievements of this particular way of life. It’s not a matter of providing some utopian prescription.

On a personal level, it’s a matter of deep self-work. One thing we’ve done now is we’ve had a lot of brilliant, necessary research about what trauma is and how it shows up in the form of physical and mental illness and alienation and disconnection from other people and from yourself. And a lot of work has been done on the reversal of trauma and the healing of it—and also on the prevention of it. But, again, we are not applying that knowledge.

– Dr. Gabor Maté
(Read the entire interview: Why Are So Many Adults Today Haunted by Trauma?)

Hi everyone,

What are your thoughts, feelings and reflections as 2017 comes to an end? Despite the innate goodness interwoven with being alive on this earth, I don’t think anyone I know would dispute that this year has been beyond ‘difficult’… in so many ways… and on so many levels.

Aware of the urgencies, from the start of the year, Living Ubuntu jumped in with eagerness to meet as many needs as possible and meaningfully engage on a variety of topics. We collaborated often with others to add diversity to our message and broaden our outreach. We successfully organized, co-organized or participated in more than 20 educational, advocacy-oriented and healing events in 2017. You can find most of our 2017 events here.

Now we are looking ahead to the new year with much excitement. For the past 18 months we have been working on a documentary, “So Give Me An F.” We are very close to finishing our first rough cut of the film so expect to hear more about that very soon. (Yay!)

Meanwhile, since the Introduction to Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises event we hosted in December reached capacity plus wait list we wanted to start the new year by offering it again in January. Once again, like the description of Ubuntu, we seek to ‘share what we have‘.

Intro to TRE®: Connection, Compassion & Community, Saturday, January 13, 6:00pm – 9pm — FREE ADMISSION | VEGAN REFRESHMENTS | DETAILS & REGISTRATION.

Your support of our work is essential and greatly appreciated. Please consider a year end one-time contribution or monthly donation to help us continue.
DONATE HERE.

May the New Year bring the wisdom we need to find our way back to wholeness.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,
Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005

[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

***
Intro to TRE: Connection, Compassion & Community

We live in extremely challenging times. What is challenging for one affects the whole.
In the spirit of Ubuntu we ‘share what we have’.
Join us for an Intro to Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) plus a time to connect, re-connect and re-affirm living life compassionately.

Saturday January 13, 2017, 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Irvine Ranch Water District Community Room, 15500 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine, CA 92618

FREE ADMISSION | VEGAN REFRESHMENTS
EVENT DETAILS & REGISTRATION

The Irvine Ranch Water District neither supports nor endorses the cause or activities of organizations which use the District’s facilities. The facilities are made available as a public service.

***

 

Intro to TRE: Connection, Compassion & Community (December 6, 2017, Irvine, CA)

You share what you have. It is to say, ‘My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.’… We say, ‘A person is a person through other persons.’
– Desmond Tutu (on what Ubuntu is)

Hi everyone,

2017 has been a very challenging year for many people – how has it been for you?

Recently, I had the great pleasure of listening to Dr. Gabor Mate in person for the first time. This morning on Facebook, I was delighted to see, “This Surprising Factor Can Make People 4600 Percent More Prone To Addiction: We know the major reason why addiction is transmitted through families – and it is not what most of us think.” (Read it here.)

An ultra-quick oversimplification of what Gabor Mate talks about is that we are all addicts; some use drugs. Instead of asking, ‘why the addiction?‘ ask, ‘why the pain?‘ At the root, historical and childhood trauma lurk as culprits, often unacknowledged. Present day life situations contribute additional suffering. Addiction to work, activism, chronic busyness, alcohol, other drugs, food, sex, shopping, exercise, social media and more are at epidemic proportions and reflect a desperate collective attempt to escape the pain. Healing addiction requires connection… healthy, enjoyable, loving connection. A host of societal ills could be remedied by adopting and addressing this reality.

As much as we long for a good night’s sleep, and the pleasure and benefit of genuine connection, both are dependent upon feeling a subjective sense of safety. When life has been full of stressful challenges, early on or recent, we might not be able to be as emotionally present with one another as we would like to be. We might not be able to fully let down even at day’s end to rest and recover. One of the most effective ways to calm an over-stimulated nervous system is to make use of the body’s own natural recovery system.

Living Ubuntu wants to ‘share what we have‘ and invite you to join us for one last event in 2017, an Introduction to Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®). In addition to learning this method that helps relax the muscles and calm the nervous system after stress or trauma, we want you to join us for a time to connect, re-connect and re-affirm living life compassionately.

Intro to TRE®: Connection, Compassion & Community, Wednesday, December 6, 6:30pm – 9pm — FREE ADMISSION | VEGAN REFRESHMENTS | DETAILS & REGISTRATION.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,
Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005

[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

***
Intro to TRE: Connection, Compassion & Community

This year has been extremely challenging for many. What is challenging for one affects the whole.
In the spirit of Ubuntu we ‘share what we have’.
Join us for an Intro to Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) plus a time to connect, re-connect and re-affirm living life compassionately.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017, 6:30pm – 9:00pm

Irvine Ranch Water District Community Room, 15500 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine, CA 92618

FREE ADMISSION | VEGAN REFRESHMENTS

EVENT DETAILS & REGISTRATION

—
The Irvine Ranch Water District neither supports nor endorses the cause or activities of organizations which use the District’s facilities. The facilities are made available as a public service.

***

 

Intro to TRE March 22, 2017 — “…don’t do activism without it”

Hi everyone,

What happens when life is challenging? At some point it becomes stressful. What happens when stress is chronic? For some it shows up as anxiety, insomnia or depression, while others feel frustrated, impatient or just generally pissed off much of the time. Symptoms might also be physical, e.g. GI distress, low back or neck pain, tight shoulders or headaches. For some people, the most noticeable experience is that spinning thoughts make concentration really difficult, or a sense of just feeling chronically overwhelmed.

And — where is the joy? The sense of feeling fully alive to life? Or even just feeling safe enough to really let down? Sometimes the ultimate result is that we stop feeling the deeper feelings as numbness and deadening begin to take over. Then if we can just stay busy enough, the inner sense of heartache, fear, disappointment and quiet desperation can be kept at bay.

Beyond the typical day to day, many in the US who have never been politically active have recently jumped in to get involved. I often worry about them as activism really takes a toll on the nervous system. We invite people to engage – but how often do we teach people to how to stay well when they do? Chronic stress detracts from the ability to empathize and be compassionate — do we really want to ignore it?

Honestly, in a world where it seems like only slogans get taken note of, I want to say, “TRE — don’t do activism without it.” Of course there are other things people do to stay well, but the point is, most people aren’t doing any of them, and TRE offers something quite unique. (What is TRE?)

Given our current societal dilemmas, for 2017, I put three Intro to Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) workshops on the calendar. One was in January, one in February, and now, this week, the third one. I am not sure when a “next time” is going to be, so if you have any interest at all, I would strongly encourage you to not wait, make time for this one, and be there on Wednesday, March 22, 7p-m. If you attended in January or February, please consider attending this one also as the repetition can be extremely helpful.

Details and registration for Wednesday, March 22 7p-9p are here:
Intro to Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE).
***ALL PROCEEDS WILL BENEFIT LIVING UBUNTU***
No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Contact us if you are experiencing financial hardship.

Last day to register for Jan 25 Intro to TRE | Upcoming events

Hi everyone,

Last Saturday, the Women’s March was truly amazing, around the globe, across the country and within Orange County (where I have lived my entire life and was one of 20,000 people, according to local police, who participated).

There is much to be done. When we feel highly mobilized, the down side is, sometimes we fail to notice our own limits and push past them on adrenaline. Over time this can contribute to insomnia, burn-out / compassion fatigue, and exhaustion. For anyone interested, we still have a room for a few more in the January 25, 7p-9p, Intro to TRE® mini workshop. Please consider joining us in order to learn a method you can use in service to your own well-being. Today is the last day to register for tomorrow night.
(We will also offer Intro to TRE® on February 15 and March 22. Details soon.)

REGISTER HERE FOR JAN 25-INTRO TO TRE®.

Scroll down for some additional upcoming events that I am super-excited about and hope you will be too.

Never be afraid to do what’s right (Join us January 21, 2017)

Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.
– Martin Luther King Jr.

Hi everyone,

Years ago, when visiting the Museum of Tolerance, I witnessed a re-enactment that has continued to grip me. In a pre-Holocaust setting, it portrayed a German man seeking to reassure a terrified Jewish woman by saying, don’t worry, there are too many good Germans who would never let anything bad happen. It was chilling.

Innocence is a naturally occurring state. Naïveté is not. It occurs when something unresolved in our history limits our perception of reality. It can cause under-estimation of a threat.

We must cherish innocence, while doing the necessary personal inner work to not be naïve.

Living Ubuntu, its project, Living Vegan, its partner, United Nations Association of Orange County, and the alliance, Orange County for Climate Action have all signed on to participate in the upcoming Saturday, January 21, Women’s March on Washington – Orange County. You are invited to join us. We will meet at 8:45am – sharp! at a big tree near the corner of French and 4th Street just prior to the 9:00a event start time. Carpooling and use of public transportation are strongly encouraged.

 

Please consider becoming a Living Ubuntu monthly donor. DONATE HERE.

Thank you for your generous, ongoing support of our efforts.

Re-Examining our Belief Systems (Part I) – January 14, 2016

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
– Anais Nin

Hi everyone,

It is characteristic of unresolved trauma to create endless loops of repeating the past. History repeats in part because the collective is traumatized and doesn’t know it, see it, admit to it or know what to do about it.  Without many, many individuals within the collective doing the deep work of personal growth and healing, cultural patterns will keep repeating, action plans will be at risk of perpetuating the status quo, and a sense of profoundly new vision will be highly improbable.

Part I of Re-Examining our Belief Systems: Growing Beyond the Known will be Saturday, January 14, 9:00am – 4:30pm.

This series is well-suited for those who are discontent with the status quo, but feel unsure of how to bring about change. It will offer a safe space to explore personal belief systems and worldview as well as how to come into a deeper understanding of what we see going on around us. While information about stress and trauma will be presented, these workshops will be largely experiential and include two sessions per workshop practicing Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises. We will begin at the so to speak ‘top’ layer and go deeper each time. In January, we will begin by looking at the role of chronic stress in our lives, how our conditioning limits us and keeps us stuck in an unhealthy status quo. We will also explore how to grow beyond that.

May you find great enjoyment in the holidays with those who mean the most to you.

Before we can see properly we must first shed our tears…

Before we can see properly we must first shed our tears to clear the way.
– Ancient proverb

Hi everyone,

In regions of the world where mass atrocities, genocide, sexual assault as a weapon of war, famine, displacement and countless other hardships are far too commonplace, some of the “lucky” ones are granted refugee status and get relocated. San Diego is one of the US cities with an extremely large number of refugees from all over the world, including many from countries in East Africa. Beginning in 2012, Living Ubuntu had a project in San Diego focused on trauma recovery within the East African refugee community. In 2012, (Phase 1) we did a simple survey to get more information on the rates of Post Traumatic Stress in that community. In 2013, (Phase 2) we did a 6-week series to educate refugee leaders about trauma. In 2014 and 2015 (Phase 3), we conducted a research project utilizing Dr. David Berceli’s Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (more on Phase 3 here).

This past year, data was statistically analyzed and we were all extremely pleased to find that the results were very good. Watch the above video to find out more.

We have a lot of really good things coming up in 2017. Scroll down to the bottom of this email to see all the amazing events coming up in the first few months of the new year.

Even though we are a small, all-volunteer, grassroots organization, enacting projects requires funds. If you like what we are doing, please support us with a year-end one-time contribution. Or to be even more helpful, sign up as a monthly donor. Amounts as small as $10.00 a month are affordable for many. We are grateful for gifts of any size.

Donate here.

An Evening of Compassion and Being Together – Sun. Nov. 20 (online ticket sales end in 2 days)

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.
– Albert Schweitzer

Hi everyone,

Please join us this coming Sunday, November 20 4p-7p in Newport Beach for An Evening of Compassion and Being Together. Tickets are $45.00 and that includes dinner. At the door, the price will be $55.00 and subject to availability. In order to avoid food waste or shortage, it would help a lot if you bought your tickets today, even though the on line sales will continue for two more days. Additionally, we have a limited number of donated tickets for students that might not otherwise be able to participate. Contact us for more info.

Due to recent events in the US, we have added a candlelight vigil to the end of Sunday’s event. The vigil will be open to anyone that wants to join us for that portion of the evening. Watch for more details.

Sunday evening will be fun and festive, along with deeply meaningful and serious. We hope it will inspire and re-invigorate those who attend. Our planning team has worked hard to create an experience that helps us remember that ‘We Belong to the Greater Whole’ and sit within the ‘Interconnection’ of the many.

Buy tickets and / or donate here.

For more upcoming events, scroll to the bottom of this email.

Intl Day of Peace events on Sep 21 | OCCA meeting Sep 20

“We are in the midst of a global crisis of perspective. We have forgotten the undeniable truth that every living thing is connected. PLANETARY is a provocative and breathtaking wakeup call – a cross continental, cinematic journey, that explores our cosmic origins and our future as a species. It is a poetic and humbling reminder that now is the time to shift our perspective. PLANETARY asks us to rethink who we really are, to reconsider our relationship with ourselves, each other and the world around us – to remember that we are PLANETARY.”
(weareplanetary.com)

Hi everyone,

I am pleased to tell you about an opportunity to come together this week. Wednesday, September 21 is the International Day of Peace. At Golden West College, please join us for a vegan, zero waste, bring-your-own PICNIC FOR PEACE: An Evening Screening of Planetary (RSVP & trailer).

GWC is also hosting day time events and we will be tabling there from 11:00am to 1:00pm on Wednesday. For more details, see Upcoming Events at the bottom of this email.

For those of you who came to Bringing Clean Energy to Orange County, a conversation with Nicole Capretz, you know how great her talks were. Here is the follow up. Come join us in discussing next steps at the Orange County for Climate Action meeting tomorrow night, Tuesday, September 20. We are meeting one night sooner than typical in order to participate in GWC Intl Day of Peace on Wednesday. Details are below.