Flowing Together
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Flowing Together
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Flowing 🪷 Together
A transformative 6-Day Retreat combining
Mindfulness, Relational Awareness, and Leadership
The Retreat
Flowing Together is a masterfully curated journey, transitioning seamlessly from deep individual introspection to collective empowerment.
Meditation + Relatefulness
We bring together two core practices — heart-centered Silent Meditation and Relatefulness (Circling) — into something that exponentially amplifies what these two modalities bring on their own.
Transpersonal Leadership
The arc of the retreat moves from a deep internal focus to a transpersonal focus. You first ground into the core truth of your soul and then learn to powerfully express it in present-moment relational connection. From there you bring a naturally inspiring leadership that also invites others into their own inspired leadership.
Emergent Group Wisdom
This journey empowers us to surrender into the sweet equilibrium between directing and allowing, co-creating an experience where the mundane magic of life flows freely and we step into a new possibility of what humanity can become together.
Is this Retreat for Me?
You're a Therapist, Coach, or Group Facilitator.
- You are finding it challenging to strike the right balance between professional detachment and deep connection, which sometimes affects your personal well-being.
- You want to find a more complete leadership that includes the parts of you that typically get left behind when leading groups.
- You are wanting your clients, groups, and events to access way more depth together, even through conflict and separation.
You're a Business Leader with a Spiritual Side
- You are wanting to inspire a more organic leadership and action from your team through your own embodiment of your vision.
- You are wanting to strike a balance between steering your team toward business goals while allowing space for innovative collaboration and organic breakthroughs.
- You are in search of leadership training that provides a meaningful impact, enriching all areas of life and all layers of your team.
You're a Mindfulness Practitioner.
- You are looking to cultivate the same equanimity and compassion that arises on the cushion but is typically lost in the chaos of daily life.
- You want to serve others and access more generativity and creativity in groups.
- You want to effortlessly move from embodied compassion in relationships.
This Retreat is NOT for you if...
You are seeking a "good vibes only" kind of experience
We will practice being with all aspects of reality as it arises in the moment. This can include many difficult experiences, interpersonal conflict, and misattunement. Our goal as facilitators is not to prioritize any kind of experience (such as feeling good and settled), but to allow the present to unfold in connection.
You are unwilling to be with direct feedback & reflection
You must be down to be with the full impact and direct feedback of how you show up in the world with people. You are going to get the most honest and compassionate relational feedback that you have probably ever received. As a result you will be fully seen (and you will see others) in the beauty of your essence as well as all of your relational survival mechanisms.
You are looking for a “safe space”
We create inner safety for ourselves and collectively with each other by moving from our sovereignty. This is not necessarily provided by the space or the facilitators. While there is a strong structure and schedule to the retreat, there will be a lot of moments without direct guidance from the facilitators telling you what to do or how to be. This will demand cultivating a level of self-authorship and self-holding that might at first feel challenging.
Your Facilitators
Brian Raszap
is an Uruguayan-Israeli software engineer that has dedicated his life to growth, learning and exploration of what-is. He fell in love with Relatefulness (then called Circling) in 2018 and has done thousands of hours, countless trainings, and has practiced Relatefulness all around the world. He is constantly amazed by the power of this simple practice to teach him new things, surprise him, and often kick his ass. Other passions of his are working EMT and psychedelic peer-support at festivals and burns, exploring consciousness in all its forms, ecstatic dance, immersing himself in bodies of water from bath tubs to oceans, and long conversations about the heart of things. Brian holds a BSc in Computer Science, and is working on deeply cooperative networks as an alternative to the current social media ecosystem. He does Presence-based Coaching and facilitates Relatefulness at Relateful.com and at the Berkeley Alembic.
Kedar Shashidhar
is an Indian-American executive coach, psychedelic guide, and medicine musician. He brings a unique background of guiding transformative spiritual experiences by synthesizing a deep understanding of the human psyche from various disciplines and teachers. His approach to transformative work weaves mindfulness, relatefulness, internal family systems, NARM, vedanta and buddhist philosophies. He is also a powerful medicine musician who brings a unique sound from bridging traditional icaros and medicine songs from various world traditions with his lineage in Indian classical music. Kedar also founded a circling and authentic relating community based out of Los Angeles. He runs a coaching practice dedicated to supporting creatives, engineers and tech-leaders to step into their full unfoldment and show up in the world as trustworthy & capable leaders in the age of transition.
Stephen Torrence
is a meditator and technical wizard from Austin, Texas. He burned out from the startup grind around 2015 and explored Ecovillages in Europe and Canada, before landing back in Austin and dedicating his life to connection practices like Authentic Relating and Relatefulness (aka. Circling). Stephen dove into classical Buddhist meditation training between 2018 and 2021, with an emphasis on Jhāna and Vipassana in the Theravada tradition. He is now passionate about integrating deep contemplative practice with embodied relational modalities. Stephen certified as a facilitator with The Relateful Company in 2022 and leads retreats in Canada and the USA. His playful style, irreverent reverence, and experimental spirit express a deep faith in the sovereignty and capability of every human to heal and awaken in service to all life.
“Flowing Together was a container for un-anticipatable beauty, connection, and growth. A space to explore my own edges, and to brush up against those of others. I came with a dear friend, and it significantly deepened our communication, our being together, and the space of possibilities we now share.”
— Leon S.
“Flowing Together was INCREDIBLE. It's hard to think of a domain of my life that hasn't been touched by the experience. Deep gratitude to all involved, especially Stephen and Brian.”
— Philippa E.
Day by Day
1Grounding in the Body
To drop in and build our mindfulness, we'll begin with a couple of days of silent meditation. There will be guided sitting and movement practices, "Wisdom Talks" for inspiration and context, 1-on-1 Practice Check-ins with the instructors, and ample time to relax and arrive.
2Moving from the Heart
We will be in "Noble Silence" through these days, focused on our own individual experience, and following a regular schedule, much like a meditation retreat. Our intention is to cultivate embodiment and compassion.
3Bridging into Connection
On the third day, we will gently transition from a silent container into relational meditation. Eye-gazing, bringing our sensations and emotions into verbal connection with a partner, and other relational exercises will interweave with more silent sitting and walking meditation. At dinner, Noble Silence will end.
4Playing with Perspective
On days four and five, we will open up into a fully relational space. Relatefulness (Circling) and more dynamic embodiment exercises will invite us into an exploration of Being in togetherness. This is where things get really weird, fun, and surprising.
5Flowing from You to We
We'll still have optional silent meditations in the mornings. Our intention here is to playfully welcome and integrate a broad spectrum of human-ing into Awareness. At the end of day five, we’ll have a raucous ecstatic dance in the evening!
6Recapping and Wrapping
Day six is about reflecting and concluding. We’ll begin in Noble Silence and meditation, much like the first two days, then transition before lunch into relational practice once again. In the afternoon, we’ll ceremonially conclude the retreat and share a celebratory meal, followed by a chill evening with a campfire and s’mores.
How Does it Look?
Scenes from the first Flowing Together, in June of 2023.
Questions?
Please reach out. Currently we don't have any events scheduled.
If you would like to host or attend Flowing Together, please let us know.
© 2023 Flowing 🪷 Together