Lyric // Attunement (4)
“Lyric thought springs from love, love that attends to the most minute details of difference; and in this attention experiences connection rather than isolation.”
– Jan Zwicky, Lyric Philosophy
Lyric // Attunement
What is alive between us? And how, in any given moment, can we attend to what lives here — in the space between you and me, between lover and beloved, between friends? In this two-day Circling and embodiment immersion, we invite the opportunity to practice and play the subtle art of human relating.
Circling is a form of relational meditation in which the focus of contemplation is the shared real-time experience of being here with. It invites us to attune to the resonance we often ignore or dampen in modern daily life. When Circling in this way, we playfully attend to the “most minute details of difference” in support of developing greater capacity, sensitivity and artfulness for both personal and relational coherence, creative interplay, enlivenment and love.
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As a participant in Lyric // Attunement, you will be invited into a series of contexts, practices, and inquiries. These have been designed to cultivate capacities that bring us beyond personal development and into a broader web of life, care, and responsibility. In a time of divisive noise, we pray our coming together will tune us to a deeper harmony.
Devotional Friendship
By entering into this practice, we engage the opportunity to inquire into the nature of trust and trustworthiness in both our inner and outer worlds. What does a more stable foundation of trust afford a relationship in terms of capacity, resilience, and access to creativity? Does more deeply rooted trust in ourselves equate to more broadly reaching trust in others?
Listening; Attunement
Attunement refers to the empathic capacity to feel-with or feel-into another with equanimity, care and respect. We work, and expand upon, our perceptual range and sensitivity to resonance and attunement — feeling-with one another as a means to come to know each other, and ourselves, evermore holistically.
Physiological Coherence
Coherence is a term used to describe the nervous system state within which there is a high level of synchronization and harmonization across all systems of the body-mind. By drawing our attention to sensation and affect, we learn to pay attention to subtle shifts and explore agency, resilience and playfulness amidst activated states.
Tuning Forks for New Songs
We all contain aspects of self that are undisclosed in relationships, as well as aspects of self that are unknown to the conscious mind. By exploring ‘new songs’ in practice, we can prototype in real-time and discover a broader range of interpersonal articulation. We will discover new rhythms and harmonies, as well as express discordances — all the while attuned to the impact we have on others.
Lyric Unfolding
Lyric culture values resonance, gesture, integrity and song – and features disclosing reality directly rather than representing or categorizing it. Through practices supporting authentic expression, movement and voice, we aim to free up the body and cultivate access to a quality of innate, intuitive flow in relationship.
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Precursor to Lyric // Attunement: Commitment to Self-Responsibility
“...for there must be spaces in between for resonance to occur”
– Jan Zwicky, The Experience of Meaning
To cultivate relational space rooted in non-violence, we practice in the spirit of self-responsibility. By fully taking responsibility for our own safety and agency, we can access a broader range of experiences and insights.
This self responsibility includes the recognition of the paradoxes of being relational animals. By anchoring our sense of safety in ourselves we can more fully explore the ways in which we cannot survive without each other. By accepting the presence of our inherent fearful and self-protective impulses, we can make more space for our compassionate and loving nature.
This work asks us to stretch into new shapes. It’s possible that our practice space may feel chaotic at times or trigger perceptions of being unsafe. Please consider your current capacity for self-responsibility in joining this practice.
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Lyric is an intersubjective research vessel composed of Dechen Ellen McSweeney, Tara Dougans, Tyler Stuart, and Garrett Jones. Since 2023, they have been engaged in the practice of Circling as a quartet — exploring what happens when the form is practiced within a field of devotional friendship. This retreat is an offering from the music of their friendship.
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The registration fee for this event is $90.05 USD and represents the cost of event expenses devided by the number of participants. You will have the opportunity at the end of the event to give more based on the value you felt the experience brought to your life, and your unique financial circumstances. This project is run in the spirit of a gift economy.
After registering you'll receive an email leading up to the event outlining everything you'll need to know to arrive prepared.
Please note that we are in the process of finalizing the venue and will update this page with location information soon.