Conflict as a Compass
The strongest relationships aren't conflict avoidant; they're skilled and practiced at repair.
Ever find yourself flailing when a relationship is in conflict — robotically reciting Nonviolent Communication scripts, giving in and abandoning yourself, or walking away?
Conflict, when held a certain way, can be a clear signal of what we want for ourselves and the people we love. Its pain can be a motivating and energizing force, pointing us towards deeper, more honest relationships with ourselves and others. It's simple, but not always easy.
"Sleepawake challenged me to be more real than I ever have been, and guided me towards acting radically in alignment with my truth. It's not at all easy, but the more I do this, the more I feel like my life is ripe with possibility."
You'll leave this workshop with:
A new framework for understanding what conflict is, why it comes up, and how it can improve (rather than destroy) relationships
Real practice diving into building understanding and repair, in a real conflict that's present in your life (up to you how spicy you want to go)
A set of tools you can bring to future difficult conversations without sounding like a robot trying to say the right thing to make the conflict go away
Whether you're a Sleepawake alum or never attended one of our events, this workshop is for you if you're wanting to expand your relational toolbox to include real, authentic, vulnerable, unscripted conflict repair.
For the longest time, I felt lonely because I knew I was missing something in how I related to others. Sleepawake forced me to confront the bullshit holding me back from truly connecting with other people in a loving, curious, yet rigorous way. The facilitators were incredible. The effort and thoughtfulness they put in is what made the experience possible. They were able to both push you to explore the edges of your comfort zone yet hold a deep sense of care. They were able to display a rawness to their experience that gave us all permission to do the same while also creating a safe space for the participants to play and explore.
This will be a two hour workshop adapted directly from our Conflict module at Sleepawake Immersive, our weeklong intensive program. This is not a passive, cameras-off webinar. We'll spend just enough time on theory to understand the territory we're entering, and then we'll spend the majority of the time on interactive exercises including journaling, small group work, and full-group discussion.
This event will be hosted on Zoom; if you'd like to do this workshop in person with friends, you'll have the option to do the small group work portion together. You're just as welcome to join on your own; this workshop is designed for you to build skills that will support all your relationships beyond this evening.
In order to maintain an intimate group for this event with enough space for facilitated group discussion, we will be capping admission.
Facilitator
Raven is a facilitator and curriculum builder at Sleepawake. She brings almost a decade of somatic, relational, and emotional work to the room. Previously a medic, filmmaker, tech worker, and hardcore meditator (accumulating four months in silent meditation including a stint in a monastery in Myanmar), she met Jeff Lieberman (cofounder & lead facilitator at Sleepawake) at a two-day workshop he co-led, where she experienced a depth of connection she hadn't known was possible. That homecoming was the beginning of a lifelong dedication to this work.
Her work draws from various meditation traditions: Vipassana (Goenka, Gaya House traditions) and Mahamudra (Rigdzin with Dustin DiPerna). It also incorporates teachings from Realization Process (where she's a certified teacher, trained with Judith Blackstone and Roma Hammel), the Conscious Leadership Group (she's a certified 15 Commitments Coach, trained with Jim Dethmer and Diana Chapman), and a body of work that treats emotions as energy to be welcomed rather than managed, with enjoyment as the accelerator of change. Having worked with hundreds of people, Raven knows the stuff we most want to skip is usually the stuff worth staying with, and she makes this diffcult task feel like a bold and wild ride.
For anyone who wants to access more personal freedom, to be honest about what they want, and to turn the most "bad" and difficult aspects of themselves into allies and heroes - Raven's got you.
At home in Berkeley, you might find her hanging out with her beautiful besties, playing narrative-driven video games and getting absolutely shredded at the gym.