What's It All About? What really matters most in your life? For most people the answer is your relationships; how you interact with family, friends, lovers. Even how you treat yourself! Good communication is the key to better relationships. We believe that good communication is not something that just happens -- it must be learned. The Love, Intimacy and Sexuality workshops provide a safe, nurturing way to learn intimate communication and improve your relationships. What Will I Learn? Through a series of gentle exercises, and in a room filled with love and support, we'll give you the tools you need so that you can:
At all times, you will be given the choice to go forward or to simply consider your feelings and why they exist. Do you choose to honor and love your body? Expose your mind? Release your soul? The choices are yours, and there is no need to feel limited. You're not! This workshop will help you realize that you have the right, ability and power to find, and stay, in a state of love and connectedness. Forever. To read more about what participants have experienced in our workshops, please go to the testimonial section. People just like you, all linked by the simple desire to love and be loved. Experienced facilitators with many years experience in our work will guide you through the workshop weekend. Each workshop is led by two facilitators and supported by a staff of volunteers (typically one staff member for five participants). Why Now? Why not? Level 1, the Miracle of Love of the HAI Love, Intimacy and Sexuality workshop series is offered regularly in the Midwest. Check our schedule. Couples Workshops For couples who want to focus on issues specific to their relationship, HAI offers a non-residential weekend Couples Workshop. This workshop offers couples the opportunity to take a fresh look and explore their relationship in a safe environment. It is useful whether your relationship is in a state of "getting along okay," stalled, faltering, or doing great. There is no prerequisite other than registering as a couple and staying together during the workshop There is no reason to put off the miracle of love. You deserve to have this abundance in your life now! Contact us for more information on either the weekend Couples Workshop or the residential weekend Love, Intimacy and Sexuality workshop. What Does It Cost? Your weekend workshop tuition - US $495 per person - is all-inclusive. A $200 non-refundable deposit is required to register.
Special diets can be accommodated if they are requested at the time you sign up for the workshop. The Couples Weekend workshop tuition is US $625 per couple. This is a non-residential weekend with snacks and Saturday dinner included in the price. If you have additional questions about the workshop or it’s location or accommodations, please call us at at 313-791-8566. Scholarships Are Available Financial assistance towards the workshop registration fee is available. Our mission statement includes "...creating a world where everyone wins." This really is something we strive for. The Midwest Community has raised funds for people who want to attend, but who can't afford the entire fee. If you're interested we'll provide you with an application to apply for a partial scholarship after your deposit has been paid. Scholarships are awarded based on need. Full scholarships are not available. Accommodations Michigan Workshops are held at Ronora Lodge & Retreat Center, 9325 Dwight Boyer Road Watervliet, Michigan 49098. A clothing-optional environment approximately a two and a half hour drive from both Detroit, MI and Chicago, IL. Ronora is the site of the old Watervliet Camp for Girls, a nature preserve with a secluded private lake, acres of woods, wildlife, pristine pastures and miles of nature trails all on 425 acres. Ronora Lodge is handicapped-accessible however please advise the HAI office staff of your particular needs when signing up for a workshop so we can provide the best possible workshop experience for you. Canadian workshops are held at Mysthaven Country Retreat & Spa, 13231 Kennedy Road, RR #4, Stouffville, ON L4A 7X5 which is northeast of Toronto. For over 35 years, the Human Awareness Institute workshops have been a powerful vehicle supporting people in changing their lives. These Introductory Presentations are an opportunity to become more acquainted with what the Love, Intimacy & Sexuality workshops can offer you. The Presentations' format will include an informal talk by a Human Awareness Institute Presenter, followed by questions and answers and experiential exercises. Open to the General Public Workshop Descriptions The Eight Levels of the Love, Intimacy and Sexuality Workshops: "Welcome to The Room of Love." Every Level 1 Love, Intimacy and Sexuality Workshop begins with this greeting, for love is what the workshops are all about. Love. Learning to fall more deeply in love with ourselves and others. Learning to trust. Discovering how to fully and authentically share who we really are with others. Risking beyond our limitations. Healing past hurtful relationships. Growing. Expanding. Discovering. Love. It is hard to put words to the magic, power and transformation of these workshops. Participants are profoundly moved by the depth of intimacy that repeatedly occurs throughout the course of a weekend. Just imagine, if you can, a group of people being honest and real with each other. See a 52-year-old man share his tears of healing as he reveals his forgiveness for his father. Imagine the tears of joy trickle down a woman's face as she realizes for the first time that she is beautiful. Hear a former Catholic priest share his discovery of a profound new meaning for spirituality. Observe a married couple of 22 years fall in love with each other again. Hear the laughter. Hear cries of pain being released. Watch participants comfort each other. See them cheering for each other. Feel the camaraderie, the love, the compassion. People are risking, melting and transforming before you. The Level 1 Love, Intimacy, and Sexuality Workshop brings us back to the simple fact that everyone wants to love and be loved. The workshop gently moves us through the layers of pretense, negative beliefs, fears and protective behaviors that have prevented us from receiving and giving love. At Level 1 we uncover our passion for living, our natural appreciation and acceptance of ourselves and others, and our inherent desire to live joyously. This workshop is extraordinary. It is unlike any other seminar or workshop. And it is only the beginning... Level 2 - Loving Yourself Everywhere we turn, we receive messages about how we are not okay. Television and magazine advertisements tell us we smell bad, don't look right and aren't good enough. Studies reveal that on the average, children receive up to 432 negative messages a day and only 32 positive messages. This negativity inevitably leaves us feeling shame and guilt about ourselves. We think we are unlovable and unacceptable. We hide our pain and our tears, comparing our insides (our low sense of self) with either people's outsides (smiles, good looks, apparent confidence, etc.). This leaves us feeling even more alone and more not okay about ourselves. We say we will love and feel good about ourselves when we quit being afraid or angry, when we lose 20 pounds, get a promotion or find a lover. What we don't realize is how much our weight, job status, etc., gets in the way of our being ourselves. We don't realize how profoundly our low self-esteem affects our ability to be intimate in relationships. Fighting, hiding, and avoiding the parts of us that we don't like keep alive our fears, insecurities and mistrust. "What we resist, persists." Transformation requires that we love and accept our fears, anger, and pain as much as our joy, power, and beauty. As we say at workshop, "Loving ourselves starts with loving ourselves when we don't love ourselves." Level 2 picks up where Level 1 left off. Participants reveal themselves, layer after layer, and discover that their insides are not only "not so bad," but lovable, acceptable, and beautiful. Participants make friends with their secrets and their pain. Imagine, for instance, a woman forgiving herself for eating when feeling sad and alone, or see a man accept his sexuality for the first time in his life. Once we accept ourselves, what we like as well as what we don't like, we are free to share ourselves, without reservation, with one another. Seeing our own beauty allows us to better see the reflection of our beauty in others. Accepting our so-called bad sides allows us to grow and to respond with humility, compassion and love in the face of these same traits in others. We are able to look into the eyes of anyone and say, "I know you, you're just like me." Looking in the mirror at ourselves is not the same after Level 2. Nor is looking into the eyes or another. What we see is a friend, someone we know, love, and accept "just the way we are." Level 3 - Living at Choice Have you ever found yourself avoiding someone you were attracted to? Have you caught yourself procrastinating when you wanted to get a job done? Have you lied to a friend, telling him when he canceled an appointment that it was all right, when in fact you were angry? "Why do you do what you do?" This recurrent theme running throughout every level of the Love, Intimacy and Sexuality Workshops is highlighted in Level 3. Level 3 provides us with an opportunity to get a good clear look at the underlying causes of our behaviors. Much of what we do in life is a result, either directly or indirectly, of the messages we've received since birth about how we should and shouldn't be. From the time we were very young, we absorbed information about how men are supposed to be, how women are supposed to be, how we should act in different situations and what feelings are okay to express when. The sum total of these messages can be called our "programming." Much like a computer, we have been programmed. And, also much like a computer, when a given stimulus is experienced, we have an automatic way of responding, a "programmed response." Level 3 allows us to look at why we do what we do. We are able to look at our programmed responses, to see that our choices are often predetermined by our past. This realization gives us a new freedom in the present, to choose to keep those responses that serve us and to rid ourselves of those that don't. As we look newly at our choices, we are guided to look at our lives in a different light. "If I were to die next week, how would I feel about my life? Am I doing what I really want, or am I waiting for someday when...? What incompletions do I have with my family, my co-workers, my friends? Do the people in my life know I love them?" Breakthroughs abound at level 3. We discover where we have been at the affect of our past, and where we have stopped ourselves from fully expressing our love and our passion for living. We have a profound renewed commitment to passionately live life to the fullest. Level 4 - Integrating Sexuality and Spirituality "I would really love to have sex with you tonight." Most of us have a charge on the word sex. We are uncomfortable when it comes to openly discussing our sexual behaviors, fantasies, and feelings. The negative messages we have received about sex make it difficult for us to proudly say that we are sexual beings. Images of dirty old men, sluts and whores come to mind, and prevent us from openly declaring our sexuality. Unfortunately, not owning our sexuality makes it difficult for us to proudly say "I am a human being." And that adversely affects our relationships. To freely offer our heart and soul to another requires that we love and accept ourselves as we are, including our sexuality. Level 4 gives us the opportunity to reclaim our sexuality and cast sex in a new light. We are encouraged to no longer see sex as dirty and not okay, but rather as an opportunity to risk vulnerably sharing ourselves with someone, to bond and unite with our lover. This way of looking at sex allows us to merge sexuality and spirituality as never before. The lines between the two fade the more deeply they are explored. "A sense of oneness, unity. Love. Being fully in the moment. Feeling whole, complete and satisfied. Bliss. Ecstasy. Being deeply moved. Feeling part of the entire universe." Sexuality? Spirituality? Both? In Level 4, sexuality and spirituality merge. This marriage opens the door to a whole new way relating. Level 5 - The Dance Between Control and Surrender "Will you spend the night with me? Will you help me clean the house? Will you hold me for awhile?" Knowing what we want is difficult. much less asking for what we want. We are trained to doubt ourselves. We think we can't get what we want, that we are undeserving. We fear rejection. As a result, we withhold, hoping people will read our minds and magically give us what we want. Level 5 focuses on how our thoughts shape our experience. Our thoughts determine whether or not we know what we want, whether or not we ask, and how we feel when we do or don't get whet we want. Our thoughts determine whether or not we feel victimized or empowered by any given experience. Losing your job can be a gift or a burden. Getting up in the morning can be a chore or an exciting adventure. Our lover can at any moment be an angel or a creep. It is all up to us. "The quality of our lives is the quality of our thoughts." We all have a deep and profound ability to create successful lives and relationships. At Level 5 we discover our ability to create love and transformation wherever we are and whomever we're with. This experience of love and power frees us to move beyond the constraints of circumstance and history, to create our lives exactly the way we want them. Not even the sky is a limit! Level 6 - Creating Community The mission of The Human Awareness Institute is to create a world where people live together in dignity, respect, understanding, trust, kindness, honesty and love; a world where everyone wins. What does it take to create such a world? How can we live our day to day lives such that we, and everyone we come in contact with, are consistently empowered, supported and loved? What are we committed to? What does it take for us to actualize our dreams, to get what we want, and simultaneously support others in getting what they want? How can we best be with each other in order to live in a peaceful world community of unconditional love? Level 6 promises to build powerfully on the best of the previous levels, moving us closer to living our vision of an unconditionally loving and peaceful global family. Level 7 - Being the Source of Love Sometimes we forget that we can change our experience with the power of our thought and our will to love. If love is a choice, how do you bring it forth? Perhaps the art of truly living your life 'in love' comes from the ability to be love in any situation, no matter what. What if the source of love only came from within you? What if the excuse to be a victim of your experiences was turned around as you fully own that the source of love, in your experience, is you. Period. At Level 7 you will be invited to integrate many of the lessons from the previous levels, to really own and live your life from a place of loving responsibility. Powerfully. Consciously. Level 8 - Sacred Energy Exchange Drawn from the world's great spiritual traditions and from the heart and soul of Stan Dale's teachings, Level 8 delves more deeply into the sacredness, beauty, power and wonder of "sacred energy exchange." As we get in touch with our sacred energy, we are likely to feel more alert, more charming, happier, and more self-assured without having to "do" anything. There is often the feeling of being playful and connected and capable of opening our heart to everyone.. Many of us, even after seven levels of HAI, are still limited in our very definition of sacred energy exchange. Level 8 gives us the opportunity to discover for ourselves our own "right relationship" with the sacred energy within us. We live in a time when ignorance and fear around love, intimacy sexuality and spirituality seem deeply embedded in our culture. In this workshop we will have opportunities to reclaim the truth of our experience, and choose to respond creatively and appropriately for ourselves in each moment. We can walk away from our time together truly owning the power of our love, emotions, sensuality, sexuality, spirituality, and feeling a deeper appreciation for the miracle of being alive in a human body. And, of course, Level 8 is about choice—the choice to create safety in the room of love, the choice to gain new knowledge, the choice to expand and enhance our lives.
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