Welcome to Cherishing Sophia Group Seminars!

The tools provided in these on-site group seminars companion with women’s spiritual journey allowing opportunities to search and discover the individual barriers preventing growth into limitless being. Cherishing Sophia is the training to develop an internal discipline of seeing life differently from the sacred feminine form.

Walking this path is a choice to unleash the interior freedom of the profound creation each woman was intended to be. Trust us…you’ll never look back from this empowered place of living!

For pricing, contact Julie directly.

Coming September '07: On-site Personality Assessment and Conflict Resolution Seminar.

Seminar 1: Authentic Self: Rising to Feminine Power
Women hold back thoughts during discussions and conversations and later regret not speaking their voice. Women also speak to themselves with more dislike than they would every put up with from another person, particularly if listening to body image messages from our media. Self-image can be improved at any stage of life. Unpack and sort the self-sabotage and perceptions that are no longer about personal and professional well-being. Identify the “looking glass” perceptions of others that create doubt, fear, shame or regret in your own self-image and continue the downward spiral of destructive thought patterns. Re-train the mind to practice positive thought and stronger right brain/left brain connection. Connect whole-brain thinking to a discipline of moving into the heart to identify emotions and barriers to intimacy. Eliminate negative thoughts that create distance instead of connection. Return to Oneness by examining the areas of intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual being. Identify the perceptions that don’t serve well-being and engage in a discipline of letting go, retaining only loving thoughts and images. When women “listen with the ear of the heart” to Self they develop images and emotions likened to falling in love. Discover authentic voice and beauty. . .and assert yourself with others from a place of empowerment and leadership. Some people allow life to happen while others engage in life and make it happen. Choose to move from a state of complacency to a place of passion, energy, and inspiration and leadership.

Program Objectives: Following the experience, participants will be able to:

• Identify self-image as it affects communication
• Understand the development of Ego as contrasted with spirit and interior freedom
• List the narratives/perceptions from self and others that are not self-serving in order to become “unstuck”
• List self-sabotaging thoughts
• Practice the skills and discipline of letting go of destructive thought
• Develop a mantra of positive thought
• Recognize authentic voice within as distinct from voice of system/establishment

Seminar 2: Giving Life Spiritual Direction: Heartfelt Listening and Valuing the Other
We are lonely and afraid to be alone with our thoughts. We frequently feel isolated or like we “do not fit in”. Daily life frequently interrupts our desire and hunger for inner peace and calm. Further, the current culture of our world manifests stress in adults with consequences of fear, doubt and over-stimulation. Learn to love being alone from the Sophia place of solitude, and discover we are never truly alone. Restore calm and confidence through developmental coping and empathic listening and divine experiences of unconditional love. Learn how to theoretically and intuitively overcome issues of anxiety in relationships, and discern life decisions in a meaningful manner. Inner strength becomes outer strength in personhood with personal power, meaningful relationships and presence to others, and unique place in the world.

Program Objectives: Following the experience, participants will be able to:

• Identify five types of listening
• Discuss key elements of transcendent contemplative listening
• Demonstrate “head to heart movement” as a technique for bridging inner truth and outward action
• Discuss the importance of remaining emotionally present to help others sort out their inner value structures and achieve a sense of empowerment.
• Practice a discipline of listening back.

Seminar 3: The Pain and Bliss of Loving Others: Interpersonal Relationships and Communion
A practice of living life fully awake allows us to notice those who are intentionally placed before us as life lessons or just what we need at just the right time. Assert yourself and name your needs and pay attention to how you are in relationship with others. Further, unpack and sort the dis-ease of present relationships that create dependence rather than independence. This seminar also focuses on psychological and communication theory of healthy relational development and gender differences in communication style that are often the causes of necessary conflict. Bring the energy and spirit of your choice to bring only health to personal and professional relationships by engaging in authentic conversation. Engage in healthy conflict resolution to build trust and gain intimacy. Intentionally let go of relationships that no longer serve well-being. Discover the process of opening up spiritual healing: conflict resolution, reconciliation, and forgiveness. Become “unstuck” and move on from the pain. Notice the mystical connections in our most loving relationships as we give to others with acts of love and compassion.

Program Objectives: Following the experience, participants will be able to:

• Discuss key elements of relational stages and gender differences in communication style
• Articulate “win-win” steps in problem solving and conflict resolution
• Name the pain affiliated with “stuck” or dis-eased relationships
• List distinction face-saving skills of dignity and self-worth.
• Distinguish behaviors of codependent (unhealthy) versus interdependent (healthy relationships with self and others)
• Create an assertive message and/or request to move forward in respect and dignity
• Recognize the importance of reconciliation and forgiveness as promise to move on and let go
• Develop a welcoming discipline to establish and or become more intimate in relationship with divine and/or nature

Seminar 4: The Joy of Mothering: Nurturing Love and Compassion in an Age of Fear
We leave our mark on others through literal and figurative mothering. Women needn’t believe the chaos of our media culture is reality. Violent news media messages and images of war and terrorism affect children emotionally. Educators and parents can counteract potentially negative effects. Sophia is wisdom to familiarize with common fright triggers as well as methods of healing and holistic health. The violent movie and news media messages and images surrounding us in a time of sensationalism, global unrest and terrorism are calling us to become the messages of hope and healing. Further, parents/adults can guide children toward joy and atonement, toward embracing a healthy spirituality and inner calm as reality. Wisdom and connection heal the broken spirits of children and return them to places of calm in a world of noise and dis-connect.

• Understand the prevalence of media-induced fear
• Comprehend the de-sensitivity to movie images compared with the lack of de-sensitization to news reporting
• Identify the age-appropriate stages of Piaget’s Theory of Development
• Identify age-appropriate coping for media-induced fear
• Practice a discipline of calm, relaxation and silence
• Practice a discipline of meditation, connection with nature or prayer as process of healing

Seminar 5: Corporate Wellness: Reviving the Spirit of Positive Climate
Businesses are dynamic systems that grow and change according to the leadership within. People unhappy with career choice deplete energy and create toxic climate, thus the company experiences a negative spiral downward with internal relationships and systems The candidate who was best for the job may not be performing yet as a top player. Sometimes it’s best to cut losses when individuals begin depleting the energy of others around them. Women organically engage in healing workplace climate from the fully present place of Sophia wisdom in order to become unstuck. Cutting edge competitiveness of highly creative thought energizes the soul. Corporate Wellness addresses the toxic, displaced energy, names the unhealthy, displaced barriers to success and re-invigorates individuals through transformation and focused energy. The result is a connected energy or Synergy of a system that is ready to passionately move forward. This seminar identifies the practice and disciplined vision of third person objectivity with expertise consultation in order to develop specific plans to re-invigorate the healing of toxic or negative climate. It’s wise to be proactive rather than reactive as the company moves forward in an open and engaging climate. Respond to the world with engaged, connected thinking and a supportive atmosphere of spiritual focus.

Program Objectives: Following the experience, participants will be able to:

• Identify narratives and histories with others
• Let go of destructive scripts or address with appropriate assertiveness
• Create a plan for boundary placement
• Create a plan for goal-setting at departmental and company levels
• List necessary skills and analyze daily behaviors/activities to follow plan
• Implementation of plan assisted by practice of spiritual discipline to be fully present to self and others
• Develop discipline of responsibility, integrity and personhood as community
• Identify measures to assess less turnover and growth of connectedness to mission and improved client service through authentic voice
• Commit to follow-up

Seminar 6: Empowered Leaders: Women’s Voice Affecting Others
Ego is the barrier creating fear in public speaking. This seminar moves individuals through process of unfolding authentic voice in order to truly get to the heart of public speaking purpose: the message and audience. Get out of the way and release the dynamic Self as leader. Dynamic success in large group settings is derived from internal and external transformation and empowerment. Women create a personal vision of leadership when they understand the images of their perceptions and the image they are sending out in terms of voice, body language, movement, and technology. Audiences respond to a total message of confidence and ethics. The focus of this seminar is to internalize strategies to overcome speaking fear and develop personal power. Further, the seminar provides the means to engage in effective presentation preparation. The seminar is adapted from communicative perspective of speaker/audience relationship to connect with others through: exceptional topic focus, organization, remarkable claim/argument building. When there is total agreement of voice and body image, a speaker is believable, successful, and charismatic. When there is total agreement of mind and body and soul, a speaker transcends confidence to a place of countenance creating a memory of connection and communion. Cherish Sophia wisdom taken out to others, breathing and caressing with gentle power.

Program Objectives: Following the experience, participants will be able to:

• Identify barriers in cognition to vision of self as leader
• Unblock perceptions and create constructive thought
• Analyze audience in terms of meeting relational needs
• Discover expertise of polish in appropriate preparation toward target audience and purpose
• Identify personhood and leader of community through practice of focusing energy and naming audience barriers or costs
• Develop a practice or discipline to create open space and evoke authentic voice
• Develop a practice and discipline of profound ethics brought to others from transcendent practice: beyond communication confidence of doing to communion countenance of being

Seminar 7 to Infinity: Women at Play Retreats
Celebrate and live in gratitude because you know your own feminine beauty and the brilliance of those you choose to surround yourself with in spiritual connectedness. Dance, play, and breathe the inner child calling you to enjoy moments of happiness and laughter in combination with meaningful experiences to enrich your life. Invite your friends and co-workers to join in a truly meaningful ladies appreciation experience. Create meaningful memories as you continue to discover the growing edges of your brilliance. Choose one or two of the following choices and allow Cherishing Sophia to create the experience that touches you most in the heavenly setting of nature in Central Minnesota. Repeat this seminar as often as you wish!

• Organic meals
• Wine-tasting
• Scrapbooking
• Journaling
• Walking the Labyrinth
• Hiking/Biking
• Yoga
• Working Out
• Aromatherapy
• Laughter Therapy
• Massage
• Pampering with spa products

We are open to other creative ideas!