Embodying Presence through the Instincts and the Enneagram: A practice-based inner work retreat

Our Instinctual Drives, Self-Preservation, Sexual and Social, have an enormous impact on our psychology, our behavior, our feelings and our values. Instincts have long been an area of great study and work within numerous spiritual traditions whose aim has been understanding how to reconcile the spiritual nature and the animal nature in a human being.

This practice-based retreat is a dive into embodying the intelligence of the instinctual energies on a transformational level. We will explore the Social, Sexual, and Self-Preservation Drives in life and formal practice with brand-new insights drawn from psychology, biology and inner work. Learning how to understand and directly sense our authentic instinctual needs and how we habitually approach those needs guides us toward freeing ourselves from a great deal of unnecessary suffering. This program is experiential with a schedule full of small group exercises, meditation, inquiry practice, movement, and breathwork.

Our spiritual transformation happens in life, not separate from it. The Enneagram is perhaps the most powerful tool available for directly accessing and understanding our self and quality of presence impartially. In this retreat we will unpack what it means to live our transformation and respond to both the “animal” in our instincts and the “angel” within us. Essential in our efforts for growth and transformation is how these parts meet and support one another—and how this impacts and opens the real heart.

Here, you will feel supported in exploring and sharing personal real-time experience with an emphasis on how this material is practically lived and leveraged for transformation. You will be guided through sensation-based exercises that evoke the power, immediacy, and spaciousness that being in touch with our instinctual energies brings about. This retreat is for those with a basis in spiritual practice who have a sincere curiosity for new ideas and new perspectives. Join us as we co-create conditions of intention, mutual support and presence to learn more about what it means to be vibrantly human.

The instincts are one of the most powerful means available for deepening our inner work and presence. The needs and drives of the body are powerful and intense, rooted in our personal survival and the survival of our species. Without presence, the instinctual energies become confused with the insecurities of the personality and those fears end up running our lives. When we can make real contact with our instinctual drives, learn to honor them, and understand the vital role they play in our Being, we can bring them into alignment with our true self.

In this Inner Work retreat, we will:

– Learn tools and practices for bringing greater awareness to our instincts and instinctual needs

– Understand more clearly the motivations and role the Social, Sexual, and Self-Preservation Instincts play in relation to our Enneagram Type and our inner work

– Learn sensation-based practices for bringing your instinctual biases into balance, deepening awareness of our least-developed instinct and addressing the excessive attention given to the dominant instinct

– Experience how working with our instinctual drives allows us to free ourselves from reactivity so as to experience the true, awakened heart

– Learn how we leak the energy we need for presence through our instinctual drives

– Practice shifting from fear of our vital energies to aliveness

For more information about the retreat, please visit  http://soulnourishretreats.com/innerworkenneagraminstincts