Let’s Experience: Sitting in Ceremony with Ourselves
You’ve heard the saying, the only way out is through? YOU are the through. It is rare to make it through life without experiencing a loss of self at various points. At the same time, it’s an opportunity for discovery. Who am I now? What do I need now? What do I believe in now?
When navigating these shifts and losses, the body is operating in a state of flight or fight. In this workshop led by Sundari Malcolm, we will learn to reset an anxious nervous system and lower our cortisol levels. By sitting in meditation and stillness and in using our breath, Sundari will teach us to slow down our brains, go inward, and through. Teachings will include how rituals provide a sense of control and a source of courage to reclaim and discover self. We will also use ritual to tap into guidance from our ancestors.
Please bring pen, paper, candle, a glass of water, and a small bowl with water.
Sundari Malcom is a native New Yorker, born to Yogi parents, and raised with the teachings of Indigenous healers. In 2007, at 27 years old, and after 7 years of being her Caregiver, Sundari lost her mother to Breast Cancer. 4 years later, she lost her father to Brain Cancer. Since then Sundari has made it her mission to equip people with the tools they need to manage life’s greatest transitions.
Sundari is a Birth, Grief and Death Doula. She sits as the BIPOC Grief Educator and Care Curator for The Dinner Party. She is the founder of A Healing Doula and author of the book Grief Gems.
About the Series
Pieces of Me: Identity Loss and Ambiguous Grief
Our identities are not fixed. They evolve and dissolve over time, and often, friends and family, and society ignore or dismiss the sorrow associated with transitions of selfhood. These losses can occur across the arc of our lives: leaving home, breakups, estrangement, job termination, infertility, menopause, retirement, disability, and illness. This three-part series – along with additional events hosted by Reimagine’s community of collaborators – illuminates the grief experienced when our sense of self or belief system shifts or shatters.
We’ll also learn about ambiguous grief – the profound experiences of sorrow, anger, anxiety, numbness, hope, and other emotions associated with identity loss and other non-death related losses. A number of questions emerge:
- How does the end of a relationship or marriage affect your identity among family, friends, and communities?
- Whether impacted by a devastating diagnosis, struggling with infertility, or a chronic illness, how do we grieve the loss of a dream?
- If you are a caregiver to a parent, how do you manage letting go of your role as the child and becoming the adult responsible for your person’s care?
- As a parent, how do you process the wide range of feelings associated with empty nesting?
- How do you experience loss when your spiritual or religious community evolves? And if you leave a faith, do you yearn for certain rituals and fellowship associated with your spiritual past?
- As someone entering mid-life or elderhood, what are you grieving?
Register now to explore these topics and others related to the challenges of being in flux, the pain of letting go, and transforming the core elements of who we are.
About Reimagine
Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and–at our own pace– actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth.
