Sharing Circle Weekly Online Ceremony
Come dance in the magic of pure ceremony. Be part of a supportive community where you can be yourself and feel like you belong.
An effective spiritual community accepts you exactly as you are and supports you to speak your truth
Human beings are herd animals. We are not to live in isolation. Our greatest emotional needs are to connect, belong, and be a part of something.
To truly experience intimacy and belonging, it's essential to authentically be ourselves and have our people see, hear, and accept us as we are.
It takes great courage to speak your truth. It can feel extremely vulnerable. When you have been conditioned to withhold your truth for your entire life, it can be a bit daunting to express what you see and feel to be true.
Having a safe place and strong support to speak your truth can go a really long way- especially when you are first reclaiming your voice.
Ever notice the deeper you get spiritually, the fewer people you have to share your truth with?
Unfortunately, not everyone is able and willing to support your truth. In fact, as you get deeper within yourself, your truth can actually be threatening to people.
Different levels of consciousness vibrate differently. As you grow spiritually, your reality and the way you experience life change.
Naturally, we seek our truth and newfound insights with our significant other, family, friends, and community.
Unfortunately, if your significant other, friends, or family aren't growing at the same spiritual rate, it sometimes feels like you are living in a different world than they are.
The things you used to do and talk about with them just don't seem to resonate with you anymore.
The Sharing Circle Ceremony is the most effective practice I've found to integrate your spiritual awareness.
We hold the Weekly Sharing Circle as a ceremony, calling in the spirits to create spiritual energy and magic to access the depths of our being.
The best way to understand the Sharing Circle Ceremony is to think of it as each person has a role to play and a responsibility to uphold that role.
When you are the person holding the talking stick and sharing, your role is to be honest and real. To be open to what's coming to you and to speak your unedited truth.
When you are listening to another person sharing, your role is to hold space and offer energetic support. When your heart is open, you naturally empathize and relate with them. And this is where the magic happens.
My role as the facilitator is to keep the space safe and to guide and support you. I gently invite you to allow more joy, purpose, and beauty in your life.
Perhaps you could benefit by being part of a supportive community to integrate your spiritual awareness.
Essential Components of a Sharing Circle Community
Belonging
Spiritually, we're part of all that is, part of Life. At the human level, we've evolved to function as part of a collective whole. Because we are wired this way, being part of a community is a natural part of spiritual growth and emotional healing.
Emotional Safety
If we're going to come together as one of the people and bare our souls to each other, it has to be safe. The main reason we shut down our hearts and spiritual connection in the first place was that it was not safe to be so open and vulnerable.
Empathetic Support
When you're listening to another person share, you have to let them feel. You also feel what you are feeling. This is where the magic happens. The secret is that human beings all have the same issues. We just have different variations of those issues.
Hi, I'm Michael
I have been coaching clients to live with spiritual well-being and purpose for 30 years.
When I'm not playing the drums, exploring the Pacific Northwest, or interpreting dreams, I'm facilitating sessions and retreats for people to awaken their spiritual well-being and purpose in their everyday lives.
I do this by personally guiding and supporting one person at a time to directly integrate their truth and well-being to their relationships, work, and everyday life.
I have been developing Sharing Circle as an effective way to directly experience your spiritual nature, speak your truth, and integrate it into your daily life.
So bring any openness, connection, and beauty you've been keeping to yourself and share it with us in Sharing Circle. The more you speak your truth and have support, the more natural it is to integrate it into your daily life.
How Sharing Circle Ceremony Works
1st Intention
Awaken the Ceremony
This involves calling in and awakening the energy that we'll use for the ceremony. In my shamanistic tradition, we refer to it as "calling in the spirits." This opens us to the dimensional support and life-changing magic of ceremony.
2nd Intention
Share Your Heart
Your role and responsibility when it's your turn is to honestly share your heart and what comes to you. It's an opportunity to delve deep inside yourself, explore what you're experiencing in your life, and share it with your people.
3rd Intention
Offer Empathetic Support
Your role when listening to someone sharing is to offer energetic support. The magic is created by offering compassion for the person sharing. As you empathize and relate to the person sharing, you vicariously go on their journey with them.
Sharing Circle Ceremony Workflow
This is for those of you who like to see things broken down in the specific work we will be doing together. For some, the above section of the three phases will suffice. Either way is fine. We will address what we need to as we proceed in our work together.
While each client's symptoms of anxiety, depression, and isolation require specific interventions, the following is a general therapy workflow to treat current symptoms and underlying issues to achieve lasting personal freedom.
1st Intention: Awaken the Ceremony
1. Participate in a Sage Smudge Ceremony.
This short online ceremony prepares you for the sharing circle ceremony. The intention of smudge ceremony is purification and awakening. It purifies the things that prevent you from being connected and awakens the spiritual aspects of yourself for ceremony.
2. Call in the Spirits.
This involves calling in and awakening the energy that we'll use for the ceremony. In my shamanistic tradition, we refer to it as "calling in the spirits." This opens us to the dimensional support and life-changing magic of ceremony.
3. Introduce the Ceremony's Self-Inquiry Question.
Your new phase of life may be unfamilar, uncomfortable, and depressing. Your confidence and sense of belonging may have been tied to your old life. With my guidance and support, you'll begin to build your new life one brick at a time. This requires exploration, perseverance, and the willingness to try new things.
2nd Intention: Share Your Heart
1. Reflect on What You've Been Experiencing this Week.
Perhaps on the day before or the morning of the Sharing Circle eremony, think back or review your journal to notice what you have been experiencing spiritually and emotionally this past week.
2. Share What's In Your Heart
So, you've reflected on your week, related to what someone shared, and have a sense of what you are going to say. Now let it go and let your share come to you. Sharing Circle is a ceremony. Let the magic happen and speak the things that come to you as you share.
3. Consider the Guidance Being Presented to You.
It might not make sense at first, but try to drink in what's being offered to you. It's being teachable and considering an alternative view. This opens the door for insight and truth to come to you directly.
4. Integrate What Came to You in the Sharing Circle Ceremony during the Following Week.
Sharing Circle is amazing for integrating new things into your life. Try a few of the insights and new approaches out for a test drive. See what happens and then share about it in the next week's Sharing Circle.
3rd Intention: Offer Empathetic Support
1. Allow in the Words and Energy of Each Person as They Share.
Sharing Circle begins with a willingness to listen and feel. It can be challenging to just listen without offering suggestions or fixing anything. What arises inside of you as you listen to and feel what is being shared?.
2. Offer Energetic Support and Empathy to tEach Person as They Share.
When you offer your intention, it initiates and activates a new way of being. We work with what you choose to create in your life and boil it down to an intention for your life. This creates a crystal-clear focus for working with and integrating the things you want into your life.
3. Notice How the Person's Share Relates to Your Life and Allow Yourself to Feel.
As you empathize and relate to the person sharing, you vicariously go on their journey with them. You feel and experience the things they encounter with them. Holding this touches and heals your variation of that issue in you.
"The real core of the work I did with Michael is seeing how I have always been looking outward to define myself. What I have found in working with him is that I already had the resources within me to actually create the changes I wanted to make. For me, this has been the pivotal change. I have to say, Michael held my feet to the fire and that is what I really needed. He helped me get in touch with trusting my heart and moving from that place."
Sharing Circle Weekly Online Ceremony
$100/Month
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A weekly sharing circle ceremony guides you to access your spiritual nature and speak your truth.
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Facilitated by Michael Hoffman, LCSW, a licensed psychotherapist and spiritual teacher with 30 years of experience.
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A monthly subscription allows you to participate in the sharing circle ceremony each week.
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The weekly sharing circle ceremonies are held on Zoom on the same day and time.
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An email is sent as a reminder on the day of the sharing circle ceremony with a link to access it.
Come Join the Magic
of Sharing Circle
Sharing Circles are pure magic. I facilitate Sharing Circle as a spiritual ceremony. This creates a collaboration with all of life as we work together. You are invited to share your heart as we go around the circle. It may be what's been coming up for you or something you've recently experienced.
We first used Sharing Circle in spiritual retreats 35 years ago, sitting around the fire. When COVID hit, I adapted it for Zoom. It worked better than I ever imagined. It created the same magic and energy as our in-person retreats.
I hope to sit in circle with you. Come dance in the magic of pure ceremony. Be part of a community where you can be yourself and feel like you belong.