Why invest time, money, and energy in this Radical Soul-Care program?
Picture yourself on your deathbed. You’re with a person or people with whom you feel comfortable speaking. You’ve spent the last few hours looking back at your life with all its ups and downs. In a whisper you express the 4 regrets that men most consistently say at the end of their lives….
- I wish I had been more true to myself and found my true calling.
- I wish I had expressed my loving feelings and been more intimate with my family
and friends. - I wish I had worked less and enjoyed life more.
- I wish I had understood that happiness was an inside job that had little to do with
external circumstances.
This radical soul-care program is about making sure you live a life
that ends without those regrets.
To be that man….
– Who is true to himself and follows the call of his heart and soul,
– Who has the courage to express his full range of feelings and connect intimately
with those he cares about,
– Who is works just enough and still has time to enjoy life,
– Who is happy with his life regardless of external circumstances
….is going to mean taking the risk to care for yourself (and others) in a radical way.
Why radical?
Both as an adjective or noun, radical comes from the Latin word for root, radix. As an adjective radical means proceeding from or pertaining to the root or foundation, the essential, fundamental, inherent, or basic nature of anything. As a noun a radical is someone who carries his convictions to their furthest expression. In math and botany radical describes the qualities of things associated with the roots of numbers and plants.
So to be that radically courageous, creative, authentic, loving man that you are, you will have to honor and nourish the roots of your being. Your own health and the health of your family, your friends, your community, and even the world truly depends on it.
Why don’t we practice real radical soul-care?
First and foremost we men rarely, if ever, get training in the kind of soul-care that you are being invited into in this course. The training for manhood we did get is often confusing and contradictory. We hear advice like “man up” vs. “serve others,” “dominate or be dominated” vs. “don’t be selfish,” “life is a war, never give an inch” vs. “think of others first,” “go it alone,” “ don’t be a wuss (don’t be feminine),” “winning is everything,” vs. “life is team sport, collaborate.”
No matter which of these contradictory messages we adhere to and under what circumstances, all these points of view train us to read signals coming from the outside world. We end up becoming very reactive and paying very little attention to what is going on in our own hearts and souls. With that kind of training we get set up for creating a life of limits and regrets:
- Physically we end up dangerously ignoring and abusing our bodies or exploiting our bodies.
- Emotionally we deny our feelings (except anger) and become emotionally constipated.
- Interpersonally we can’t be vulnerable and that makes honest equal partnerships with women and other men virtually impossible.
- Psychologically we end up being highly judgmental, constantly comparing and competing, and fundamental to either the right OR the left.
- Spiritually we stay aligned to an idealized or dominator higher power and miss a personal connection to the divine.
So the bottom line here is that we are taught to create a mask,
an ego persona, that is molded by our response to others
and that makes it very difficult for us to know what real soul-care would mean.
As we inquire together about an alternative view of soul-care in this program you will have the opportunity to develop strategies that look first within for navigation and how that inner awareness provides us what we truly desire and simultaneously serves those around us and helps to create a world our hearts know is possible.
Before I describe more where this program is going, I want to go back to that image of yourself on your deathbed. I’ve thought many times about how to start this course and I keep coming back to the wake-up call that death presents me with.
I have found it essential to see death as an ally. Without awareness of the certainty of death I wouldn’t have the courage and/or motivation to make the changes to create a regret-free life. The older I get, the closer death comes, the more refined and clear my choices become.
I have begun to use the shamanic practice of imagining death over my left shoulder. If I have a question about something I’m thinking, doing, or feeling, I check in with death to see whether to continue or which choice aligns more with my being. Used in this way death can become an amazing sword of discrimination and clarity. As I face death, I can open to life more fully and live into what one of my teachers calls radical freedom.
Why you and why now?
One of the important messages you will hear throughout this program is that to be a man living his own authentic destiny, you have to follow your unique soul path. The men we admire most are likely men who did just that. That path, that one-of-kind journey, your own story, is what you were born for.
The most important person in these radically changing times is you.
You are the only man you CAN change.
The radical soul care path is for men of heart and courage who are willing to stand up in their wild wonderful sacred masculine selves and let their soul shine. Nothing in this world will change in a more whole and healthy way unless men like you step up. It’s so easy to be distracted, numbed out, resistant, over-worked, or in denial. These are the symptoms of our times.
Radical authentic men co-create the new story of what it means to be awake, accountable, and generative. That new story develops as each one of us accesses the courage to take the small steps everyday to live into being that man.
Perhaps you have seen those big spinning platforms that kids play on in public parks. At the outer edge the big wheel is spinning fastest and it’s easy to get spun off. The more you move to the center, the quieter things get. That’s a lesson. Your fast lane can be a thrilling and grab your attention but can also throw you off. At the center you can turn 360 degrees, but you aren’t dizzy, you see the whole picture. So the radical wisdom shift is to move toward your own center, to be willing to move beyond conditioned inertia toward genuine self-care.
Paradoxically, when you move toward deep soul-care you are actually moving from a ME orientation to a WE orientation. When you care for yourself at the most rooted, fundamental levels you are following the golden rule in reverse. By doing unto yourself as you would have others do unto you, you are working at the level where real, immediate, and lasting change can happen…. with yourself. When you racially care for yourself at the soul level, then you naturally live into the golden rule and extend that care to others and do unto them what you wish they would do toward you. From that move, the whole world thrives.
I invite you to join me in finding the pathways to caring for yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, economically, and spiritually and in so doing co-create a better world from the inside out.
What will this course cover?
This course will be divided into eight highly interrelated and interactive sections. Every two weeks you will get a new invitation to address a different aspect of radical soul-care. In this course we will explore with you how to:
- Protect your mind and clarify your thinking
- Honor your body and its native wisdom
- Honor all your emotions and deepen your relationships
- Feel the satisfaction of being the unique man that you are
- And act in service of your deepest purpose for yourself, your family, your community, and our earth.
The Risky Business of Asking for Trouble….and Support.
Taking this course involves risk and facing paradox. On the one hand we want positive changes for ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world and on the other hand we want safety and predictability. In this course your world WILL change, the unexpected will happen. To live a life of radical soul-care is to invite trouble; the trouble of thinking new thoughts, opening to uncomfortable feelings, shedding old snake skins, and taking important risks.
We are all in a world of trouble right now. You can see this a good thing or a bad thing but for sure the trouble we are in will cause big changes. This program will join you with other men who are ready to face these challenges as a team and ride these rapids with you.
So before you commit to this course you will have to answer the question that is most fundamental to radical soul-care….Are you willing to ask for support, receive support, and be held accountable? Are you willing to be a team player and receive coaching? Are you willing to take feedback?
To really immerse yourself in this course you will need to create a “court of support.” You will have to ask for help and support others.
This program is limited to 8 men.
This allows for personal focus and individual attention within a small group setting.
The Basic Outline – 8 Online Sessions (over 16 Weeks)
Introduction: What makes real Soul-Care “Radical?”
Unit 1. Thinking Radically
Updating your Inner Wisdom System.
Unit 2. Body as Ally
Honoring and Tapping your Body’s Wisdom.
Unit 3. Heartful Relationships
Being Heart Smart, Honoring ALL Your Feelings –
Looking for Love in All the Right Places.
Unit 4. Leading from Being
Finding the Wisdom Within – Accessing Your Inner Sovereign.
Unit 5. Sacred Work & Money
Living Sacred Economics.
Unit 6. Community-Building & World Work
Creating Real Social Security and Being of Service.
Unit 7. Earth Honoring
Finding Your Ground – Becoming Native to Your Place.
Unit 8. Creative Living Art
Living Life As Radical Soulful Improvisation.
Dates & Times
We plan to begin this course sometime in March.
The schedules of the 8 participants will help determine the best date to begin, and the specific times for our online classes together.
Each online class will run for 2-hours.
Investment
Your financial investment for the course is $897.
This includes: 8 live webinars, a course workbook and worksheets, and 2 personal one-on-one coaching sessions – 1 at the beginning of the program and another during the 16 weeks with Tom.
Contact
To learn more about the program contact Tom Daly: 303-530-3337, tom@livingartsfoundation.com
Registration
To register click here
