Waking the Heart
of our Human Family
Art above is “Light Work” by Autumn Skye
Fall dates coming for 2023
Wednesdays, 11:30 am - 2 pm pst on zoom
convert to your time zone here
Join this 4 month immersion for leaders
in the fields of kink, dance, embodied social liberation, and spirituality.
Come resource your heart, connect with community, and clarify your contribution.
Cultural Opportunity
Intention of Waking the Heart:
To cultivate a daily practice that harmonizes your presence system (new language for “regulating” the “nervous system.”)
For the consistency of your daily practice to increase your focus on the culture of humanity.
To create a community of trust, compassion, and generosity that gives us a felt sense of the culture of humanity.
To be the space within which the culture of humanity lives, so others experience it in our presence.
To make space and attention to clarify a goal and vision that demonstrates your love for our human family.
Our time together includes:
Softening the face: self touch to support the vagus nerve and bring harmony to the nervous system (which I call the “presence system.”)
Social locator: a tool for recognizing the ways in which parts of your experience have been normalized and parts have been marginalized. It locates you inside a larger diverse human experience from which our human family can create more attuned and inclusive relating.
Receiving: a guided embodied meditation to expand your ability to receive love (from people, nature, and the human family.) Make the energy of love familiar. Drink from the solidarity that is already here. Let it support you to extend love and welcoming to others.
4 box model: a tool to move beyond your limiting beliefs, discover what your brain has been focusing on and to consciously choose what you would like to focus on.
Love body: a guided meditation to identify the internal experience of loneliness and the internal experience of connection, so we can practice shifting from loneliness to connection. This is a key practice for developing secure attachment. This practice is also important for healthy connection to our human family and for ways to engage in anti-oppression work from an open heart.
3 Relational fields: learn how to attune to self in 3 different ways: self as organism, self as group, and self as human family. Observe and name the level of harmony in each field so you may contribute in a way that is relevant and nourishing to all 3.
Tonglen: a compassion practice from Tibetan Buddhism to feel the power of your heart as it guides you to live your most meaningful life. Expand your capacity to be with discomfort and the whole truth.
Compassion lab: learn how to see others with compassion and to offer acknowledgements that support others to relax into their natural generosity, creativity, and wisdom.
Soul archeyptes: a tool to clarify what’s most important to you and how you want to contribute to the human family. This tool will become a compass from which you design and take actions consistently that reflect your values.
Create a goal: design a specific measurable attainable goal to play for that demonstrates your values and contributes to our human family.
Small sweet steps: create clarity and ease by breaking down your goal into small sweet steps. Design your time to create spaciousness that centers what is most important to you. Less busy, more satisfied.
Personal vision: vivify your dream for how you want to live your life while playing for this goal.
Conscious conduit of energy: focus on the 6 forms of energy: time, money, physical vitality, creativity, savoring, and relationship. Observe where your energy is already going, and where you want to focus it. This is essential for you to bring your goal into physical reality with ease!
Success & Coherence: redefine success and learn how to do what you said you would do, consistently, with clarity, focus, ease and grace. This will help you observe when your actions are, or are not creating the results you intend, and how to course correct to experience more meaning and satisfaction.
Individual coaching: 2 one-on-one coaching sessions to support you with your soul garden, goal, and vision. One with Z and one with Meg.
Recommended reading:
“How to be an anti-racist” by Ibram X. Kendi
“Polysecure” by Jessica Fern
This community calls in:
Explorers at the intersection of spirituality, kink, dance, and cultural liberation
Dancers, performance artists, ritualists, facilitators, embodied educators, healers, somatic visionaries whose imagination calls us to an honorable and loving future of humanity. We are cultural change magicians who know the power of compassion and authentic relationship.
Kinky and kink curious folx. What is kink? I define it as "sexual desires, behaviors, and identities that challenge social approval giving you the opportunity to explore your courage, shame, pleasure, and liberation." We see conscious power dynamics as an opportunity for healing a lineage of mistrust, for reparations, for heightening our perception and intention around power so we can do good things with power.
People transforming the socialized body to live the liberated soul.
People who want to grow in community and contribute to our whole human family.
What this IS and IS NOT
Waking the Heart is NOT a dance class or a kink class. (Yes I love teaching those too, and that is NOT what this is.) Waking the Heart IS a community of explorers who share a lifestyle and passion for dance and kink.
What makes good dances, good sex, good play, good relationships is our sensitivity to experience and our capacity to integrate an experience with our core values and where we are on our soul journey. You might play hard and connect with many people AND unless you’ve done some version of this internal work, you’re not going to have the foundation to build the relationships, the meaning, and the integration that you’re likely seeking. Waking the Heart will root you in a daily practice, community connection, and compassionate orientation towards our human family. This is the foundation to live from a deeper place for the dance, kink, cultural liberation and spirituality we desire.
Why I offer this:
This practice came to me during my recovery from a traumatic brain injury. It gave me resilience, compassion, and presence to move through a near death experience. I want to share it with you so together we can meet these challenging times with the deepest love. This practice works with the nervous system which I now call the “presence system,” the energy body, neuroscience/coaching techniques to shift the brain, and the ancient Tibetan practice Tonglen. After recovering from this brain initiation, I am incredibly aware of the sacred experience of being alive together now. This practice gives us a chance to feel the meaning of sharing this life with open breathing hearts. The power of this work requires repeated community practice. Over time the accumulation of this practice allows us to be with the discomfort and disorientation of our times that is also our gateway to our truth and liberation.
For me I had a new unprecedented need to create resting energy after a lifetime of living with a level of intensity, no amount of coaching, healing, bodywork, sex, transformational trainings could provide me with the level of awareness that came from my brain initaiton. The next 10 months became a laboratory for the vagus nerve, psychobiology, neuroscience, a simultaneous soul awakening and raw survival response as my body moved through a near death experience. I am honored to share this practice with you in community.
with love,
Z
Investment
Time:
Attend all 17 Wednesday sessions live (2.5 hours each from 11:30 am - 2 pm pst, Sept 14 - Jan 18.) Note we will not meet Nov 23 or Dec 28 to give spaciousness around holidays.
Build your daily Waking the Heart practice (accumulating approximately 5 min each week, total practice 45 - 60 min.)
Two written homework assignments: soul garden and vision.
Weekly buddy call for reflection (approx 45 min.)
Schedule and attend two 60 min one-on-one coaching sessions, likely one with Z and one with Meg.
Money: Choose a tier that aligns for you
I am Financially Flourishing $600/month x 4 months
I am Financially Resourced $500/month x 4 months
I am Financially Stretched $400/month x 4 months
Spirit:
Joining Waking the Heart requires a significant commitment, not just of time and money, a commitment to heal, to be in loving community, and to irreversibly transform your relationship with our human family.
About our Team
photo by @altered.perspective
Z (aka Zahava Griss, they/them) lead teacher, coach
is the founder of Embody More Love, a spiritual kinky community for personal and cultural liberation. Z comes from 38 years of dance training including ballet, modern, west african, middle eastern, Sufi dancemeditation, and contact improv. Z has had the honor of dancing with many legendary choreographers including the Joffrey Ballet, Katherine Dunham, Urban Bush Women, Tania Isaac, Wanjiru Kamuyu, and Mana Hashimoto. Z trained at the Juilliard School, Tisch School of the Arts, North Carolina School of the Arts, the Alvin Ailey School, the Princeton Ballet, Sarah Lawrence College, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Oh!ni Sowa (Ghana), and Marie Basse Wiles (Senegal.) Z learned how differently cultures define what dance is, as well as community, sexuality, soul, and our relationship with the Earth. Z is certified in Yoga for Birth, Esalen Massage, Deep Bodywork, Urban Tantra, Pilates, Health Coaching, and Femme. Z is a coach and trainer with the Academy for Coaching Excellence. Z is an organizer and core teacher for the international festival Touch&Play as well as a touring performance artist and author. Powerful influences include Sobonfu Some's Grief Rituals, Sufi whirling, and Sexual Shamanism with Sun Dancer, Kenneth Ray Stubbs. Z directed Spiritual Nourishment for Conscious Activism in collaboration with Deepak Chopra and has been listening to, speaking in, and facilitating spaces to acknowledge and transform white privilege since 1999, including work with the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, Sarah Lawrence College, the Re-Evaluating Counseling community, the national White Privilege Conference, and co-organizing the White Privilege Symposium. Z co-founded White Folks Soul, By Any Dance Necessary, a dance company exploring the incompatibility of wholeness and the race construct for white people.
Meg Beliveau (she/they) assistant teacher, coach
is a professional coach, facilitator, trainer, and mediator. Working with progressive democracy champions, innovators, and crisis counselors, Meg supports folks to make their most meaningful impacts for systems change while redefining what support can look like. When not nerding out to innovative systems-change, Meg can be found swing dancing, camping in the wilderness, swimming, and napping as a revolutionary act. With community as a key focus, Meg is currently helping build an eco-housing development in Nova Scotia, Canada. She has trained with the Academy for Coaching Excellence, Yolo Conflict Mediation Center, and the International Association of Facilitators. She holds a Bachelors in Community Development and Environmental Sustainability Studies. Learn more about Meg.
Testimonials
“I felt hopeful about connection, community, and the course of the human future for the first time in a long time. The practice and conversations created space for me to contemplate belonging and resistance in new ways.” Natalie Deryn, Mover, Creative, Intuitive
“Waking the heart has facilitated a connection between my spiritual embodiment practice and my life's purpose.” Lynn Bruder, Embodied Movement Facilitator
"The connection of body relaxation to the cultivation of compassion and self-love is revelatory. It's opened up entirely new areas of my heart, and allowed me to gain a new kind of coherence in my self-care." Mischa Byruck, Evolve.Men, forLove
“It is a deep gentle loving practice that integrates many of the skills I’ve already had or have been aware of that allows me to feel connected and resourced enough to actually put them into practice more effectively and easily.” Deliah Rosel, Healing Therapies
“Be ready to have your being held with care, tenderness, and structure. Whatever you're looking to work on that brings you to Waking the Heart, you have the space and time to be with it fully. You will find the gentle way to bring about the changes you're looking to make in your life.” Lisa Beem, Radical Money Coach
“Amazingly comprehensive, yet dealt out in a very gentle step-wise fashion, so that the culture shift IN ME about being in integrity with my soul grew slowly, steadily and into something that is now very sturdy.” Fan of multiple Z offerings!
“Waking the heart provided an opportunity for me to dive deeper through exploring my heart's honest calling rather than the story I had of what I "should" be doing. It's the perfect blend of spiritual opening, intellectual mirror, and loving kick in the ass.” Lee Harrington - Author, Educator, Priest(ess)
“The container of support felt strong and safe and something I could rest into. I felt there was room for as much of me as I was willing to bring. It's truly a miracle being in circle who folx who are actively resourcing and replenishing their nervous systems, and are committed to *being* the space in which the culture of humanity can be felt and experienced in a tangible way.” Kiki Lovelace, momma, business owner and Embodied Leadership & Success Mentor for Conscious Entrepreneurs
“Waking the Heart challenged me in ways I didn't anticipate, it invited me to see where I had abandoned myself, and then created a loving container for reconnection. I feel like I am more whole and energized than I came in. The tools I learned in this class have rippled out into my whole life, through my family, friends, students, peers, and spiritual connections.” HG Wyndell, Artist, Spiritworker
“it is a beautiful, sweet hearted, safe and authentic space. Z holds the space with such a clear joy, deep calling to be of service, integrity, truth compassion and generosity. This is a course where you get to dive soul deep, nurture yourself, learn so much helpful tools and practices, as well as a place to bridge that into reality. Great for us visionaries who can get stuck manifesting into form our desires. The steps were strong. Each week's session felt satisfyingly full and rich. It has been a privilege to go on this journey with these gorgeous human beings over the last 4 months.” Heidi Hinda Chadwick. Writer. Performer. Creative Life Coach.
“Absolutely transformational. I learned how to attune and align to myself and my values, and learned to channel this energy towards creating and contributing to the culture of humanity.” Guan-Xuan
“Z is an incredible space holder that intuitively leads the space with structure and consistency that supports everyone to feel safe and cared for.” Kyle Lovett, Empowerment Mentor, Medicine Songstress
“A wonderful opportunity to connect in with myself and sit with, in an embodied way, how I want to show up for the world I want to create. I appreciated that Z shared tools for exploring the culture of humanity, and unpacked it with the group in a way that we all could find our own relationship to what we learned. It was deep and personal, and also practical and inspiring.” Masumi Maei, Facilitator, Musician
“…offers a rich array of tools that help you transform your life to become more intentional, powerful, graceful, and loving. Z offers a masterful spectrum of firm clarity and spacious lovingness as they guide each individual to connect deeper within their own soul desires as they exist in context to greater human family. Waking the Heart condenses so much wisdom into so much clarity and simplicity, offering an incredible invitation for transformation. Cynicism and fear just kind of dissolve in the presence of these tools and in face of Z's loving awareness, creating space for slow nourishment and rich evolution. I've taken Waking the Heart twice, and am grateful to have had these tools and this structure to hold me accountable to growing in ways that I'm not sure I would have without them. In addition to Z's clarity and precision, they are also very welcoming of the unpredictable wild, which has space within these well-defined but also spacious tools and course structures.” Rhys Tivey, Voice Coach, Singer Songer Trompeter Producer
“I have become a greater version of myself by working with and being supported by Z. My heart and soul feel so well fed.” Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith, Artist, Ritualist, Pleasure Activist
“…given me a deep new foundation for how I want to be and participate in the world. I have gained new insight into how to transform fear into care and how to tend to my own soul desires and visions in a way that resources both me, my family and my community. The group container and shared material has been a healing balm during a very difficult and transitional time in my life.” Marisha, Movement Educator & Mama
“…provided me the tools and community at a time when I was feeling isolated and insecure, yet soo close to tasting more potential in how I could live from a place of love and empowerment more fully. Waking the Heart has allowed me to cross that threshold, to embody self love through crystalizing my unique gifts, and to be seen and held in community.” Maze D, Ritual Space Holder, Musician