Retreats offer a unique opportunity to focus on personal growth by getting out of your day-to-day routine, and by the inspiration that a new location can offer. On retreat, you can focus your entire intention on the healing and growth you desire, in a supportive environment and with guidance.
See & register for upcoming events (as well as view past events) here: http://theempoweringspirit.eventbrite.com/
Upcoming Retreats
Men Need Real Touch – April 20-22, 2012
Connecting to God Through The Body – October 5-7, 2012
Yoga: An Art of Love – November 9-11, 2012
Men Need Real Touch:
Connect authentically to yourself, others,
and the healing power of mindful touch.
Facilitated by Bob Pileggi
Friday, April 20, 2012, 7:00 pm – Sunday, April 22, 2012, 1:00 pm
Easton Mountain Retreat Center, Greenwich, NY
There is tremendous healing, calming, rejuvenating and esteem-building power in the simple practice of paying close attention to the experience of touch. Real Touch offers just that opportunity – to experience mindfully, share intentionally, offer compassionately, and receive gratefully. Real Touch – given to ourselves or others – is healthy physiologically, emotionally and spiritually. It increases our sense of connection and intimacy. And Real Touch can be enjoyable! All from paying attention and sharing authentically.
However, many of us live in “touch poverty,” were hurt by touch, have gotten bored with it in our relationship, or simply feel awkward sharing it. Touch between men plummets in the teen years as we yield to societal mores against men using touch for affection or compassion. Rarely are we taught directly how to touch in a way that inspires compassionate connection, living and healing.
Men Need Real Touch fosters a safe & fun environment for:
- bringing mindfulness to all the touch we already receive daily
- reconnecting to the innate sensual pleasure of touch
- offering ourselves healing touch
- sharing touch with clear intention
- re-igniting the heart of touch between partners
- connecting authentically with other gay, bi and heterosexual men
Men Need Real Touch also offers:
- peer-supported exploration of thoughts and feelings about touch (uncovering limiting beliefs helps us move through them)
- guidance on different kinds of touch for different intentions
- practice of fundamental techniques for massage on yourself and others
- ways to turn mundane experiences (such as a handshake) into powerful connection.
Return to Real Touch – with intention, given confidently, received sincerely – for feeling whole again.
For more info, see www.menneedrealtouch.com.
Note: The focus of this experience is reconnecting to the fundamental nature of touch - which, at its core, is inherent sensual. While massage portions of the weekend will be clothing optional, the experience is about cultivating non-erotic connection.
About the Facilitator:
Bob Pileggi loves facilitating connection through presence practices – so that we can feel more fully alive, empowered to express ourselves, and connect authentically with others.
Bob experiences and communicates love primarily through touch – something not welcome in his family as a child and teen. He grew up thinking there was something wrong with him. He “came out” as a touching person in his early 20s, when he started hugging his father and offering healing touch to friends. Now Bob uses touch to convey presence, respect for others, affection and fun. And now sometimes his father is the first to reach out for a hug hello.
After twelve years of working for local and national non-profits related to spirituality and civil rights, Bob’s spiritual practice deepened and he was ordained an Interfaith minister. Now Bob produces and facilitates workshops, retreats, custom ceremonies and individual healing sessions with spiritual coaching; yoga; and body, energy and breath work. Bob is a certified yoga instructor, mindfulness practitioner and instructor, internationally certified breath-work practitioner, certified bodyworker, and ordained Interfaith minister. www.bobpileggi.info
Incarnational Prayer: Connecting to God Through Our Body
A Retreat Sponsored by the Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry
Facilitated by Bob Pileggi
Friday, October 5, 2012, 6:00 pm – Sunday, October 7, 2012, 1:00 pm
St. John’s Abbey Guesthouse, Collegeville, MN 56321-2015 (map)
Registration: http://www.abbeyguesthouse.org
Or call Fr. Bob Pierson OSB at 320-363-3929 or e-mail rpierson@csbsju.edu
This retreat is for LGBT folks and their allies to connect to God and themselves through the body. Life has given us this great gift of a body. We can open more to God’s love, acceptance and guidance by having a fuller experience of the body; by appreciating it.
Various religious teachings might tell us to deny the body in order to get closer to God; this retreat will be healing from that idea – offering us renewed love for our body, self and God.
Reconnect to your body in a compassionate way; feel rejuvenation; and open to more empowered self-expression. And in the process learn some simple spiritual practices that have foundations in most of the world’s major religions (awareness, breathing, mindful movement, etc.) that you can use on your own at home and share with others.
This will be a safe, spiritual space for LGBT people and their allies. Held in a Christian retreat setting, participants need not be Christian – simply comfortable with that environment. We’ll create a community of consciousness together, supporting one-another’s journey into and through the body to the Divine.
Costs: Alone in a single room (one twin bed) $240 per person
Sharing a double room (two twin beds) $210 per person
CSB/SJU students/monks (no housing) $100 per person
To register on-line, go to the Abbey Guesthouse webpage: http://www.abbeyguesthouse.org
Or call Fr. Bob Pierson OSB at 320-363-3929 or e-mail rpierson@csbsju.edu
Yoga: An Art of Love
Facilitated by Bob Pileggi and Michael Grohall
Friday, November 9 – Sunday, November 1, 2012
Easton Mountain Retreat Center, Greenwich, NY
Yoga: An Art of Love combines the powerful, playful and profound experience of yoga to deepen your capacity for self-awareness, acceptance and love.
At its core, yoga brings together the consciousness in body, mind and heart to experience spiritual union (a state of presence we often call “love.”) This retreat is specifically designed to cultivate unconditional love in each area of your life. Gentle yoga, Vinyassa flow and Yin Yoga will be our guiding physical experiences, with the support of shared intentional touch, journaling, pairs and group work. We allow these to be gateways for dissolving resistance to the love that already exists in and through us.
You are welcome at this retreat whatever your level of yoga experience. The only prerequisite is your willingness to connect authentically with yourself, other men and your innate love within.
Suggestions:
* Bring a journal (preferably ring-bound so you can have it open on your mat).
* Bring your favorite yoga mat to infuse it with the weekend’s experiences of self-acceptance and love. (Mats are also available for free use and for sale at the retreat center gift shop.)
Cost: $275-495 (Discounts available for first-timers at Easton and for bringing friends, etc. See the Easton Mountain website or call 518-692-8023.)
Past Retreats
Welcoming Happiness – Discovering Joy!
A Retreat facilitated by Bob Pileggi
Kirkridge Retreat Center – Bangor, Pennsylvania
July 1, 2011 to July 3, 2011
This is a Spirit Journeys Workshop for Gay and Bi Men
Awaken to happiness – it’s here in each moment. Yet many of us search for happiness outside of ourselves, or expect others to make us happy. And what’s more, have you ever thought about what happiness really is? What are you looking for, anyway? Search no more. Choose to see the joy of this moment.