The Bowl of Well Being

Created by Mary Paffard and Cyd Bernstein

Facilitated by Gia Bedell

A Year Long Group Process of Embodiment

2022 will be the third year Gia is facilitating The Bowl of Well Being, a year-long group process of embodiment in community. The Bowl invites the body to speak and advocate for itself and its unique beauty. Following the ancient songs of our bloodlines, we are in process of homing…together.

Life is systemic process. Process cannot take place in isolation and separation from other forms of life. Relationship is the only way life can exist. Touching and being touched by the richness of nature and the complexity of forces that work within it, we grow, heal and support life.

The living language of the land, of our relationship to it, with it, as it, is an indigenous and feminine language. This language has been taken from us via colonialism, capitalism, oppression and the intentional destruction of diverse, primal, processes of life. We continue to perpetuate this death of living organisms by cooperating within the western and eurocentric/patriarchal systems that were designed and developed to “heal” us. The western view of health and emotional well-being is not in relationship with balance and nature. The language is life less, pathologizing and reductionistic.

I continuously pull from practices that remind me to make space for this life so that I may hold the challenging and the joyful in this body upon the body of earth. Without this, there truly is no room for the transformational spirals of death, revolution and rebirth.

It is when I believe the language of Western culture, the language of dissection, dominion, removal and hierarchy that I flail, I get stuck and I feel sick. There are languages that heal and allow life to move through meadows of seasons and cycles.

These are the languages I wish to continue to learn and to support others in learning as a community in process.

Bowl of Well Being 2022

Radical reclaimation of the feminine for all genders/all bodies

Can you commit to?:

The Format: Meeting once a month on the 4th Sunday for 2 ½ hours to engage in a body-based practice, followed by a group process of conversation diving into material/topics that are based on cycles of seasons internally and externally/earthly/relationally.

All material is available online on a private forum, where monthly discussions continue outside the meeting. There will be “homing-work” once a month, that consists of writing at least 250 words about a particular monthly topic that is touching you. All creative expressions are welcome: a piece of artwork, personal poem/photograph, video, music, etc. All participants must respond to at least two others posts. This is to ensure the conversation continues and is stoked. We are the keepers of the transformational fire. The embers must stay warm.

Participants can miss four meetings. Missing more than this can be disruptive to the cohesion of the community and the participant will be respectfully asked to leave the group with no refunds.

If there is a good size group interested in this program, I will hold an informational zoom meeting to go over the format and topics, as well as answer questions. I would also like to invite the group as co-creators, to build the experience that works for the whole, and will welcome any ideas or suggestions/desires that may come up for people.

Investment: Meeting on zoom will be $70 a month, and meeting in person will be $100 due to the price of renting a space. There is also an option of meeting in outdoor spaces ($70) in any weather to truly be in touch with nature.

Please email me directly if you are interested in participating in this truly transformational alchemy of the Bowl of Well Being.