Radical Wholeness Residential Deep Dive, Faber, VA
October 27 - November 1, 2024
Sanctuary Retreat Center, 2610 Adial Road, Faber, VA 22938
Our culture is so deeply committed to living in the head that the journey anyone faces in uniting with their body’s deeper wisdom requires a patient process that unravels the patterns of thinking and behaving that invisibly bind us. In effect, it is a process that leads you into another way of being – one that isn’t supervised by the relentless, disconnected thinking of the head, but instead unites you with the body’s wisdom and the subtle guidance that appears when you become fully present.
The challenge of that journey is easily underestimated. Our culture has for thousands of years portrayed the head as “the divinest part of us”, as Plato put it, and the body as its “vehicle”. Our very neurology has been shaped by a culture that instructs us to put the head in charge of our lives, to seek success by out-thinking our circumstances, and to mistrust the body. There is no quick fix that enables us to undo the effects of that conditioning. It requires time for purposeful exploration, personal discovery, and a deep surrender that subtly shifts you into new possibility.
The residential Deep Dive offers the perfect environment to support that process. The days are filled with unique practices and rich discussions.
- · The practices are gentle and simple – each one created by Philip Shepherd to help us address and open beyond the limitations of our headist culture.
- · The discussions are open-ended, spurred by questions and the experiences of the work – bringing clarity to their relevance within the most ordinary events of your everyday life.
What the Deep Dive uniquely offers, then, is the support of a spacious opportunity to explore and deepen into and live with an embodied way of being in the world. We practice together, share together, eat together, and connect anew with the guidance of the natural world around us. The retreat is open to anyone, but if you are new to Philip’s work, feel free to contact us and we’ll help you determine if it’s a good fit.
Rough schedule:
Sunday
Check-in after 4pm, Dinner 6pm, Training: 7:30 – 9 pm
Monday - Thursday
Training: 10 am – 6:00 pm
Friday
Training 9:30 am – 12:30, Lunch, Check-out after lunch
PLEASE NOTE:
- Accommodations (including meals) are not included and are booked directly with the retreat center. Prices per session start at $575 for five nights in the lodge and $825 for five nights in the modular cabins. Visit their site for more info on the options.
- Transportation to and from the venue is not included but we will help coordinate rides where we can.
- Registration is limited to 22 participants.
- For further description about the Deep Dive in general, click here.
- Retreat is led by TEPP co-directors Philip Shepherd and Allyson Woodrooffe
- Some of the participants in the Deep Dive are there as part of the year-long facilitator's training.
If you have any questions please send us a note!
About the workshop
Why this workshop is like no other
The big hurdle we face in coming home to ourselves lies in the paradox of how to come home to the body while living in a disembodied culture. TEPP doesn't ignore our culture, it steps outside of it. The practices of the Radical Wholeness workshop are playful, simple and gentle, even as they deliberately expose the limiting patterns in which we are all entangled. Because those patterns live within the body, subjugating its intelligence. Once you encounter them, once they are felt, they begin to soften. And as that happens, you find yourself living with more spaciousness. You discover the ease and security of an embodied life.
TEPP is not about sitting in the head and "listening to the body." It is not another way to enhance our self-absorption and self-supervision. It is about listening to the world through the body, and finding both companionship and guidance there. It's not about subduing the brilliant intelligence in the head, it's about bringing it into balanced unity with the body's intelligence. It's not just about being present in the body, it's about escaping the frenzied self-consciousness of our culture and attuning to the spacious ease and grace of the Present, with which you are in continuous exchange. TEPP returns us to our birthright as children of the earth.
All that, and it's fun, too!
What to prepare
Some of the exercises require that you know a short text by heart. Rest assured, this is not something you will ever be asked to perform – it’s just needed for some of the exercises. You can use one you are familiar with, or find a new one. It can be anything at all – a poem, a nursery rhyme, a song lyric, a Shakespearean monologue, the national anthem – as long as it is in a language you are fluent in, and is at least 45 seconds long. If English isn’t your first language, feel free to bring something in your mother tongue. Having it WELL memorized is important.
We would also ask you not to treat this text as song – it is to be spoken. And it helps if it’s something you enjoy.
Workshop Testimonials
"After the workshop I felt more of myself with a gentle stillness that helped me cope with the fastness of life."
"I am feeling more grounded and connected to my breath, perineum & pelvic bowl and find they are valuable resources at any moment."
"I have more awareness of my interactions with others and an enhanced degree of whole-body awareness."
"I have more trust in the wisdom of the body and where it wants to take me in the present moment."
