By the end of the annual retreat of the Healing Journeys Board of Directors (pictured below), we were all feeling inspired, energized, and optimistic. I’ve heard that if you want to give love to others, you have to first love yourself.

Similarly, I think we have learned that if we want to accomplish Healing Journeys’ mission (support healing, activate hope, and promote thriving), we have to start with ourselves.

Our facilitator, Nancy McKay, set the stage for the week-end by going over the Four-Fold Way from Angeles Arrien, and guided us in:

    1. Showing up, and choosing to be present.
    2. Paying attention to what has heart and meaning.
    3. Telling the truth without blame or judgment.
    4. Being open to outcome, not attached to outcome.

Within that context we talked about why we are involved with Healing Journeys and what it means to us. Some of the words that came up were: authentic; letting go and accepting; peace; engagement with life; connection; joy; and love.

This was a powerful platform from which to plan our 2014 offerings. Our facilitator and one current board member, Fran Haynes, attended the first Healing Journeys conference in March of 1994. We did the math and realized 2014 is our 20 year anniversary. That deserves a celebration! We are planning one for Friday evening, September 5th, at the Heritage Theater in Campbell (near San Jose).

We picked that location because that is where we will offer a free one-day Cancer as a Turning Point, From Surviving to Thriving™ conference on Saturday, September 6th. I am grateful to those who have contributed to make this possible. We are about halfway there with the funding we need and we still need your help.

Save the dates — September 5th and 6th! We will be giving you more information soon and let you know when registration is open.

I welcome your comments; to reply please click here.

In the Spirit of Healing,

Jan Adrian, MSW
Founder and Executive Director