​A workshop on discovering what happens when thinking isn't running the show

​You're probably addicted to thinking

​Rehearsing texts before you send them. Workshopping tweets in your head. Replaying conversations at 2am. Zoning out at dinner while strategizing your career as the people you love sit right in front of you.

​None of this looks like addiction. Instead, it passes for being a responsible adult. Thought, like any addiction, offers a brief hit of relief. But soon, the uncertainty returns and you reach for another round of mental analysis.

​Here's the thing: you can't think your way out of overthinking. The issue isn't that thoughts arise. It's that you get caught in them. You get hooked. And you mistake the constant stream of mental noise for who you are.

​But there's a way of being in the world that doesn't require constant internal commentary. And it doesn't make you passive or dull. You move through life more spontaneously, more effectively, more alive.

​This workshop is an introduction to that possibility.

​What to expect

​The workshop is two hours of guided practice. It starts in your body, helps you notice when thoughts arise and recognize that they happen on their own, then shows you that you can move, speak, and connect without thinking your way through it. Each practice asks a little more of you and shows you a little more of what's underneath the overthinking.

​You won't master this in a single workshop. But the approach is relaxed, experimental, playful — which tends to be what actually opens a new relationship with thought.

​What past participants said

​"When I fully relaxed into noticing my thoughts as if they were weather patterns."

​"It is amazing how much less energy it takes to stop thinking — there's such relief in taking in and receiving."

​"Extraordinarily and surprisingly intimate."

​One person went home the next morning and danced for forty minutes without thinking about it. "Glorious," they wrote.

​We can't promise your experience will look like theirs. But we've built this carefully, and what we can offer is a chance to feel it for yourself.

​Who should come?

​If you know the pattern of overthinking and you're willing to move your body, speak with a stranger, and try something new — this workshop is for you.

​No meditation experience needed.

​This probably isn't the right fit if you want a quick fix, or if you'd rather listen and learn than practice.

​Your facilitator

​Alex Olshonsky's path to this work started with a decade of addiction — first to substances, then to the subtler compulsions underneath, and eventually to the one this workshop addresses: thinking itself. That journey is what he teaches from. He's a Certified Hakomi Practitioner, somatic therapist, and men's work leader with extensive training in contemplative and nondual traditions. His facilitation style is playful, warm, attuned, and disarming.

​Workshop details

• ​Date: Friday, April 17th

• ​Time: 10 am - 1 pm Pacific Time

• ​Duration: 2 hours

• ​Platform: Zoom (link sent upon registration)

• ​What you'll need: A quiet space and a small object nearby (a pen, a mug, anything)

• ​Recording: Available to registrants only.

• ​Sliding scale pricing: $0–40 If you can't afford $40, pay what you can. If you can comfortably afford $40, please do — it supports making this accessible to others.

​About Aurora

​Aurora is a new community for inner development. We collaborate with exceptional facilitators to design and host programs and practice spaces.