*This workshop has been postponed*
A Collaboration between the North Coast EOL Collective and Centerpoint Healing Arts
Workshop Description
To make the invisible visible, you are invited to join the North Coast EOL Collective and Centerpoint Healing Arts for a personal and curious wander with our mortality. Through conversation, meditation, movement, reflection, consideration of our legacy and meaning-making, and laughter, we will explore our relationship with self and community as a collective approach to death and dying.
Date: Saturday - April 20th, 2024
Time: 10 am - 3 pm
Arrival time: 9:30-10 am
Location: St. Catherine’s Nehalem
Cost: Sliding Scale - 100-150$
Participants: Welcomes a minimum and maximum of 10 participants.
Facilitators:
Margo Lalich, MPH, RN Co-Founder, North Coast EOL Collective
‘Za’ Elizabeth Connor Founder, CenterPoint Healing Arts
Carolina Starrett, MFA Co-Founder, North Coast EOL Collective
Agenda
10 - 11 Death Cafe (modified) - Gather and Connect Facilitator: Margo Lalich
Applying the values of Acceptance, Belonging, Connection, and Legacy, a conversation to make visible the invisible by recognizing our shared humanity within a conversation about death, dying, and mortality.
11:15 - 11:45 Yoga Nidra
Facilitator: ‘Za’ Elizabeth Connor
This guided practice is similar to a progressive relaxation or body scan that draws focus to each layer of ourselves part by part. From the material body to the more subtle layers, we listen and then practice letting go, allowing that part of ourselves to rest. Yoga Nidra is an easy, comfortable exploration of release. Nidra, meaning sleep, describes a deeply relaxed but awake awareness and is an evidence-based practice that evokes the calming, soothing response of the parasympathetic nervous system, which soothes the fearful, restless stress response. This practice is a light, gentle way to rehearse the letting go that we will eventually face with death. Described as a practice of deep relaxation yet awake awareness, it's considered a rehearsal for the ultimate letting go at life's end, encapsulated in the resting pose, Savasana, or corpse pose. Dying marks a profound and universal change, and Yoga Nidra, as end-of-life rehearsal, builds confidence in the ways we accept and let it be.
11:45 - 12:15 Reflection/Journal
Facilitator: Margo Lalich
A guided reflection and writing experience using prompts to explore our relationship with death, dying, and our mortality
12:15 - 12:45 Lunch - Respecting personal diets and preferences. Please bring your own.
12:45 - 1:30 Labyrinth Walk
Facilitator: ‘Za’ Elizabeth Connor
Walking Labyrinths is an ancient contemplative art that humans across world cultures have practiced to slow down and experience transformation, healing, and renewal. As a curious wander into our mortality, the Labyrinth walk gently invokes remembrance of the inevitability of death. As we wind the circuitous path to the center, we explore releasing what is worldly and impermanent with curiosity and an open heart for whatever we may encounter: sorrow, lightness, uncertainty, and freedom. At the center of the Labyrinth is the opportunity to pause and receive, welcoming any insight from a place of mindfulness, equanimity, peace, and gratitude. The way out of the Labyrinth invites resolve to recognize mortality as a natural part of our human experience, as a shared destiny connecting us all.
***Note: Depending on the weather, the walk will be indoors or outdoors
1:30 - 2:30 Meaning Making and Legacy
Facilitator: Carolina Starrett, MFA
Meaning-making and legacy projects play a significant role in exploring and coming to terms with our relationship with death and dying. These practices can provide comfort, clarity, and a sense of purpose for individuals facing their mortality and those left behind. A brief workshop exploring the creation of meaning-making and legacy through watercolor memory quilting. This session will explore using repeat patterns and intuitive design as meditative prayer, inviting participants to share time, energy, and memories with their loved ones, and how storytelling can be healing in art.
2:30 - 3:00 Laughter Meditation/Closing Ceremony
Facilitators: ‘Za’ Elizabeth Connor & Margo Lalich
Laughter meditation offers lighthearted ‘medicine’ to balance the depth of our day’s exploration with a moment of shared playfulness. It reminds us that joy and laughter are integral to our journey through life, even when facing its end. Humor eases sorrow, offers emotional release, and cheers our hearts.
BIOS
Elizabeth ‘Za’ Connor, C-IAYT, NBC-HWC
Za is a sand artist, Labyrinth guide, and seasoned Yoga Therapist with over 25 years of professional experience in healthcare and private practice. She draws sand art Mandalas and spiral Labyrinth walks to create extraordinary, interactive beach events surrounded by the mythic wonders of the Oregon Coast. These sand art Meditation walks are ‘Nature Bathing’, an evidence-based practice that offers a contemplative, transformative experience. Professionally, she has guided over 10,000 client sessions as a credentialed Yoga Therapist, a board-certified Health Coach, and a Tai Chi for Better Balance instructor, providing evidence-based, client-focused, trauma-sensitive, multi-dimensional care. Her clinical specialty is stress resilience, lifestyle medicine, and intensive cardiac rehabilitation.
https://www.centerpointhealingarts.com/
Margo Lalich, MPH, BA, RN
Co-Founder, North Coast EOL Collective
Margo has 30 years of experience working in both the private and public health sectors as a clinical nurse, nurse consultant, and executive leader at the intersection of community health, nursing, and K-12 education in Oregon and Hawai’i. She received both recognition and awards throughout my career as a passionate advocate for the health and well-being of the community. Her practice is based on a belief that death and dying and the health and well-being of a community are shared responsibilities; we do this by creating community, connecting systems, and giving voice to what is too often unspoken. As a Death Cafe facilitator, she committed to holding a safe and inclusive space for normalizing conversations about death and dying. The end-of-life experience, ritual, and making visible what is too often invisible about death and dying are integral to her practice and influenced by the work of Frances Weller and many others, including the End Well Project.
Carolina Starrett, MFA, BA
Co-Founder, North Coast EOL Collective
Legacy Doula and Artist
Carolina Starrett explores the intricate structures of families, both physical and psychological, in her work. Originally from Southern California, Carolina contemplates the resilience inherent in each family iteration, considering how stories and language are embedded in the body and transmitted across generations. With a dual focus on her roles as a doula and artist, Carolina employs materials and processes as tools for celebration and inquiry into how we collect, retain, and honor memories. Her artistic journey delves into the interplay between stories of family, community, and connection, inviting audiences to reflect on the profound capacity of objects to sustain and perpetuate relationships.
Carolina's work serves as a meditation on the body as a vessel of love and memory, inviting viewers to contemplate the enduring significance of these intertwined elements in the fabric of human experience.