Workshops & Events

Nurture Your Roots:
Rooted, Growing, Connected

Saturday, May 28, 10am-3pm
at Martha Retreat Centre

A day of meditation, gentle yoga, music and poetry centered around trees, guided by Vickie MacArthur.  

Using the metaphor of trees as inspiration, learn how to stay rooted during difficult times, while connected and growing in community.  Spend time outdoors with trees to learn what they can teach us about life.

 

Cost:  $75 (includes lunch)       Register through Martha Retreat Centre

Schedule:  
10am-10:30am  Welcome and Meditation
10:30-11:30am  Gentle Restorative Yoga:  Root to the Earth, Stretch to the Sky
11:30-12noon     Walking Meditation Amongst the Trees
12-1pm                Lunch (included with registration)
1-1:30pm            Poetry and Trees
1:30-2:30           Tree Bathing:  Spending Time with Trees
2:30-3pm          Closing Circle:  Sharing our Tree Whispers

 

 

Yoga Nidra:  Listening to Your Ancestors

Online, Wed, April 13, 4-5:30pm, MTN

Sign up free through Creating Connection West

In this yoga nidra practice session, you will learn how to tune into your body’s wisdom, so you can listen to the stories of your ancestors, embedded in your cellular memory. Acknowledging stories of both courage and suffering in the past, we can bring healing and hope to our life, right now, in this moment. Bring pen and paper to write the messages your ancestors whisper to you.

Writing into the Sacred: Speaking to Light invites us to tell our stories in holistic ways that support truth and beauty, solitude and community, action, and contemplation. We begin by asking, what happens when we unearth what’s been forgotten, or when light falls on what is lost? What shows itself when we then speak freely, in our own true voice? Using gentle exercises in fostering silence, writing, speaking, and collective listening, we will reacquaint ourselves with the luminous link between silence, stories, and the sacred. 

Cost:  $25  All are welcome.  No previous writing experience required.
Register through Creating Connection West

 

Be Still and Know (Cancelled as Vickie recovers from her accident)

Saturday, Nov 20, 2021

9am to 12 noon

Cost:  $50

Presented by The Martha Retreat Centre

 

Learn the art of “moving into stillness” so you can listen to the whispers of Spirit.  You will be guided through breath work, meditation and gentle embodied movement to connect to your body in a loving and accepting way.  Sink into stillness as you release fatigue and hidden tension from your body, and dip beneath the surface of your usual thoughts and worries to “Be still and know.”

“If you’re silent, you can hear the forest breathe, the holy hush of the tree’s limb.” Felicia Morrell

The Zen Of Rest:  

A Nurturing Silence Retreat

Oct 23 – 24

Presented by Nurturing Spirit

 

 

(Sadly, Vickie is not able to teach at this retreat as she recovers from her accident.  Please check out the rest of the Nurturing Spirit team.)

Take time out to relax, slow down and savor life exactly as it is. Rest your body, quiet your mind, and listen to those sparks of inspiration that arise when you take time to nurture a quiet listening presence. In this retreat, you’ll have time to let silence seep into the depths of your being, learning core practices to help sustain awareness while sitting, moving, walking, eating, working, resting, or whatever you’re doing.

 

Cancelled due to Vickies accident.

The Sabbath of Rest:  Practices to Renew and Inspire Our Souls

Wed, Sept 22, 4-5:30pm (MST)

Online with Vickie MacArthur

 

“Sabbath is about rest, about laying down our burdens, about unhooking from the compulsions of our to-do list.”  Mirabai Starr

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an invitation to slow down, take stock, then move into creative solutions for ourselves and our world.  Sadly, not all of us have taken the time to listen before leaping back into the busy activity of our lives.  In this experiential session, you’ll learn simple practices of integrating “the sabbath of rest” into your daily life, to renew your body, calm your mind, and inspire the creative urge of your soul.  

Another Creating Connections Event to Inspire Your Life
Sign up on Meet-Up

 

Spiritual Life Story Writing

How To Dismiss Your Inner Critic

With Lana Cullis & 
Vickie MacArthur

Wednesday, July 21, 5 – 6:30pm MST (Online)

You have a story that’s personal and powerful.  
–  Reflect on your life
–  Discover hidden truths and patterns
–  Get to know yourself
–  Connect to other writing friends

Nurture your writing practice in a welcoming online community, with simple, yet effective writing exercises.  

Cost:  Just your precious time
Sign up for on Eventbrite
Sponsored By Awakening Spirituality

 

Awakening the Heart:  
Practices to Heal Yourself and Our World

 

Wed, June 23

4-5:30pm MST

Online (Free)

 

“The heart of the mystic has become a place of divine presence.”
Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee

What does it mean to “Awaken the Heart”?  or simply “Live from the Heart”?

Join Vickie as she guides you through an experiential understanding of the “Heart  Centre” , and all its nuanced layers. Tune in to your physical heart, your emotional heart, and the great Universal Heart of Love that holds us all.  Learn about the meaning and the transformative power of the Heart Centre from different spiritual traditions:  the “Anahata” in Hinduism, the Sacred Heart in Christian mysticism, the  Sir (or secret) in Sufi mysticism, and the Lotus Heart in Buddhism.  Practice the Prayer of the Heart in Christian and Sufi mysticism, and awaken your heart to the Love beyond the boundaries of religion or culture. 

Join Meet-Up
or Email Vickie for link

 

Nurture Your Roots:  Rooted, Connected, Growing
Full Day Virtual Retreat with Vickie and Trees
Saturday, May 29, 9am-4pm (POSTPONED)

“Come back to the forest, where time slows down and breath is mellow.”  Janice Tann

A day of meditation, poetry, gentle embodied movement and music centered around trees, both online and outside.  

Using the metaphor of trees as inspiration, join Vickie as she guides you in practices to stay rooted during difficult times, while connected and growing in community.  

Spend time with trees to learn what they can teach us about life. 

 

Schedule:  
9:00  Welcome:  Entering the Forest
9:30  Meditation:  The Secret Life of Trees
10:00 Gentle Yoga:  Root to the Earth, Stretch to the Sky
11:30  Walking Meditation with Treesc
12:00 Eating Meditation:  Nourished By Trees
1:30   Tree Poetry and Inspiration
2:00  Tree Bathing:  Breathing and Being With Trees
3:00  Break-out Groups:  The Wisdom of the Forest
3:30   The Music of Trees, and Closing Meditation

Peace in Ourselves, Peace in Our World:
Plum Village Mini-Retreat (Online)
Wed, May 19, 4-5:30pm (MST)

 

Come and receive the gifts of mindful breathing and awareness.  Join Vickie as she invites you to experience what it’s like to attend a meditation retreat with Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh at Plum Village in France.  After a spiritual awakening with this gentle Buddhist monk in 2011, Vickie has attended many meditation retreats across North America and his monastery in France.  

 

 

Vickie will show pictures from Plum Village, and read passages from her upcoming book “Love Letters To My Teacher”  How A Buddhist Monk Ignited the Love In My Heart.”

Sponsored by Creating Connection B.C.
To receive link:  Join Meet-Up
Or Email Us

 

Rest, Renew and Rise:  Practices for Living A Resilient Life
Online Retreat:  Feb 26-28th

Join me and my good friends from Creating Connection BC for a week-end of practices for living a resilient life.  Connect and share in a supportive online community.
–  5 Rhthyms movement meditation with Kat Goheen
–  Journaling with Jeri Mortimer
–  Wonder and Mental Healthy with Lana Cullis
–  Listening For the Soul with Shannon McAdam
–  Yoga Nidra with Vickie
–  Satsang: Singing Into Silence with Doug & Vickie, and special guest Mary-Jean Belrose for a drumming meditation.  

Cost:  Just a $20 investment in yourself!
More Info and REGISTER HERE

Living Buddha, Living Christ (Online):
8 Week Spiritual Practice and Discussion Group
Thurs, Feb 18 – April 8, 7 – 8:30pm

“Compassion is where the rivers of Christianity and Buddhism meet.

In the Christian tradition, we learn to live in the presence of God.  The Buddhist equivalent is the practice of cultivating mindfulness, living deeply every moment with the  energy of the Holy Spirit.  If we change our daily lives;  the way we think, speak and act, we begin to change the world.”

 Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Using  Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s classic book “Living Buddha, Living  Christ” as a guide, join Vickie to explore the connections between Christianity and Buddhism through both contemplative practices and lived belief and experience.  

Cost:  $65.00 (please purchase your own copy of Living Buddha, Living Christ, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

Register through The Martha Retreat Centre

 

Online Tour of Plum Village and Mini Retreat 
Thursday, January 28, 
Cancelled, Will be rescheduled to later date.

How To Breathe During A Pandemic (Online)
Wednesday, January 13, 4 – 5:30pm

“Learn to breathe well and you will live a long life.”
Chinese Proverb

Breathe….Connect….Move with Awareness
Learn breathing practices to expand your lung capacity, soothe your nervous system, and boot your immune system, integrated with yoga postures to stretch and strengthen your respiratory muscles.  

Sponsored by Creating Connection B.C.
Join Meet Up group
or Email Spirit in Motion
to receive zoom link.