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New Possibilities |
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Welcome to the inaugural issue of New Possibilities, a periodic newsletter for the clients, colleagues, and friends of The Mandorla Center. The main purpose of each issue will be to provide you with relevant information and practical resources that will enlighten, empower, and enhance your life and career. Each issue will serve as a forum for exploring new possibilities for our lives — emotionally, physically, intellectually, and spiritually. In short, each issue will inspire you to seek out new possibilities in your own life. Future issues will be published periodically. Each issue will feature a highly informative and interesting article that will provide you with insight and perspective on issues that matter most to you, like topics of interest in the mental health and education fields. Each article will aim to clarify, provoke thought, as well as encourage and inspire you to seek out and implement new possibilities in your life and career. If you have an idea for an article for a future issue or if you would like to submit an article for possible publication in our newsletter, please send your query to pblessin@bellsouth.net. Articles for the ‘Feature Article’ will be written by practitioners in the mental health, education, and related fields, and articles for the ‘Client’s Corner’ will be written by clients. As such, New Possibilities will be a forum for connecting with each other and for sharing ideas, success stories, and best practices. And in so doing, we will support each other to seek out and implement new possibilities in our lives. |
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Work begins on The Mandorla Lodge and Retreat Center. |
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Welcome |
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Volume 1, Issue 1, Summer 2004 |
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Client’s Corner |
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Our work at The Mandorla Center is to help integrate and facilitate emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual growth and well being for the client, both personally and professionally. Helping our clients create passionate and fulfilling relationships, careers, and lives is our primary mission! As such, we have provided you with this forum to serve as your “VOICE”. We want to hear from you regarding your thoughts, feelings, and ideas about your own personal transformations, insights, growth, and success stories. For possible inclusion in next season’s issue, please send your submission to the Director of The Mandorla Center at pblessin@bellsouth.net, who also serves as the newsletter’s general editor. Submissions should be limited to 200 words and should focus on a topic or personal experience that has had a significant impact in your life and that you believe can benefit others. To protect confidentiality, all submissions accepted for publication will be printed anonymously and may be edited to ensure the information published stays within all applicable ethical, legal, and professional standards. We look forward to hearing from you. Our hope is that this forum will provide you an opportunity to share your experiences, to express your thoughts and feelings, and to connect with others. |
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To add or remove your name from our mailing list or to contact us with questions, comments, or ideas for our next issue, as well as event and news items that you’d like published in the newsletter, please e-mail us at pblessin@bellsouth.net or call us at 678-290-1337. If you know of someone who can benefit from the information in this newsletter, please pass it along. All correspondence and information (including personal data such as email addresses, etc.) sent to the above email address (the Director of The Mandorla Center) is kept completely confidential and is not shared with anyone outside The Mandorla Center. The editor reserves the right to make appropriate edits to submissions to ensure all information published stays within all ethical, legal, and professional standards, and is consistent with the positive and supportive spirit of The Mandorla Center. © Copyright 2004, The Mandorla Center. All rights Reserved. |
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Contact us for a brochure on how we can help you host your next group meeting or retreat. |
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Feature Article |
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Groundbreaking began June, 2004 on The Mandorla Lodge and Retreat Center. The center will be a 5000 square foot lodge nestled on 9 beautiful mountain acres near Jasper, Georgia. The center will open in Fall, 2004 and will host retreats, meetings, conferences, and other activities of interest to our community of clients, colleagues, and friends. |
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Dear Carole and Patrick, … You are making a difference in the world and I am so blessed to benefit from it. I will take it and put the same thing out in the world for others. - Client |
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The Power of Healing Through Grieving Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. He who looks outside, dreams. He who looks inside, awakens. - C.G. Jung During the Mythic Journeys Conference that was held last month in Atlanta, GA, we (Carole Darnell and Patrick Blessinger of The Mandorla Center) had the wonderful opportunity to meet and talk with several people whose writings and ideas have had a profound influence in the field of human potential and in our personal lives as well. We were fortunate enough to meet with renowned writer and poet Robert Bly who, together with poet Coleman Barks, performed a magical evening of poetry recitals that had us laughing and crying and in a state of awe in the power of language. We also had the pleasure of meeting with Bob Walter, President of The Joseph Campbell Foundation, who sponsored the event, and listened to the insights of James Hillman as he gave his keynote address. It was truly a magical event filled with epiphany and a revitalization of our spirits. The most rewarding event was attending a Grief Ritual workshop led by Sobonfu Some’. Sobonfu opened this powerful hands-on experiential workshop with the question, “Who would you be had you never held back even one tear?” Sobonfu led us through a soul-cleansing grief ritual where we were encouraged to connect with any grief we had stuffed deep inside ourselves and then to release that grief using the Dagara grief ritual. Sobonfu led us through the same grieving ritual process used by the people of Dagara of Burkina Faso (West Africa). In Dagara, the people come together daily or weekly as a community to grieve and support one another in the grieving process. The people of Dagara use the ‘ritual of grieving’ as a way of releasing tension caused by loss and hardship. The workshop was transformational and served as the catalyst for this issue’s feature article. What is Grief and Why is it Important The experience of grief comes in many forms such as the death of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job, a business failure, or even emotional/physical abuse (e.g., loss of self-esteem, autonomy, etc). So, grief is the result of a personal loss of someone or something of vital importance in our lives. Grief is a process that is often misunderstood and not always accepted as a form of healing in our society, especially in a society that still sends the message for men that ‘big boys don’t cry’ and for women that ‘you shouldn’t be so emotional’. Yet, the reality is that the experience of feeling a personal loss and the grief that accompanies that loss is a normal part of life. Individuals and families who can acknowledge their loss and their feelings of grief and the necessity to process those feelings will be in a much better position to channel their emotional energy in taking care of themselves. Grief that is repressed and is not released in a safe and healthy form of self-expression has the potential of being released later in life as rage, abuse towards others, addictions, and other forms of self-destructive behaviors. So, grieving is not just a good idea, it is a necessity for emotionally healthy living. The Grieving Process Recovery from a personal loss can be slow and emotionally painful, but the grieving process can be better dealt with if we accept that loss and grief are natural parts of life. We need to learn to accept loss and believe that we can cope with the tragedy. When we let our experience be the catalyst for emotional growth then we can deal better with future losses. There is no single way to grieve since each person grieves in his or her own way. However, some stages of grief are commonly experienced by people when they suffer a loss. As noted by Carolyn Mildner (“Coping with Death, Grief, and Loss”, 2000), the grieving process usually consists of similar stages, although not everyone goes through all of these stages in the same way since each person is unique in how they experience and interpret the loss. The stages of grief reflect a variety of reactions that may surface as an individual makes sense of the loss. Accepting and processing all feelings that arise within us is an important part of the healing process. Denial/Shock Anger/Resentment Bargaining/Guilt Depression/Loneliness Acceptance/Hope Although no two people will respond to loss in the same way, there are some common ways to deal with grief: · Accept that grief is normal and that the process of healing takes time. Reconnect with your higher power. · Normal feelings during grieving include anger, exhaustion, anxiety, fatigue, bargaining with or anger at God, feeling overwhelmed, feeling disconnected from family or friends, depression, guilt, and irritability. · Talk out your feelings with friends and family and with a caring professional who understands grieving. · Take care of yourself, get enough sleep, eat healthy, and exercise regularly. And if someone close to you is grieving, you can help by: · Showing empathy and trying to understand what they are feeling. It is alright to say you care but that you are not sure about what exactly to say. Encourage them to seek help from a caring professional. · Accept their grieving as normal and encourage them to talk about their feelings. Listen without judging or trying to change them. Let them know they are not alone and that you care about them. Go to the National Mental Health Association website for more recommendations on ways to help deal with grief. It is important to realize that acknowledging the grief and offering support promotes the healing process. Every individual or family experiencing grief can teach us about what they need from us and they can also remind us about what’s truly important and meaningful in our lives. Resources: Carolyn Mildner, 2000, Coping With Death, Grief, and Loss; Kathleen Braza, 1993, Families & the Grief Process.
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If you are a mental health, educational, or related organization and would like to announce any upcoming events, please send your submissions for possible publication in our next issue to pblessin@bellsouth.net. New Women’s Groups Forming The Mandorla Center is forming two new groups: The Heroine's Journey is a soulful circle of women who will gather to explore new possibilities for unfolding and realizing their full potential. This is an advanced experiential group. Women at The Well is a soulful circle of women who will gather to identify and develop specific steps for 1) creating effective life coping strategies, 2) exploring body emotions, 3) improving personal and professional relationships, 4) creating healthy boundaries, 5) improving assertiveness, and 6) creating healthy relationships with food. If you are interested in participating in one of these life changing groups, contact cdarnell@bellsouth.net for more information or call 678-290-1337. New Men’s Group Forming The Mandorla Center is forming a men’s growth group. Adventure In Manhood is a brave band of brothers who will focus on challenges unique to men and who will support each other in their emotional/spiritual growth towards authentic manhood. This group will meet regularly and be on-going. If you are interested in joining this life changing group, contact pblessin@bellsouth.net for more information or call 678-290-1337. |
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Upcoming Events |
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Important News |
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On-going Women’s Groups The Mandorla Center offers several on-going and exciting “Women’s Growth Groups”. The unique format provides a safe and enriching space where women can embark on their journey to wholeness and self-discovery. If you are interested, contact cdarnell@bellsouth.net for more information or call 678-290-1337. Lodge and Retreat Center The Mandorla Center is now accepting inquiries regarding retreats, group meetings, conferences, and other related activities at our Lodge and Retreat Center. If you are a mental health practitioner, educational administrator, or related organization and are interested in holding your next retreat, group meeting, and/or conference in a beautiful lodge setting in the North Georgia mountains, contact us at pblessin@bellsouth.net for more information about how we can make your next meeting a positive and memorable event. |
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The Mandorla Center 1640 Powers Ferry Rd. Building 17, Suite 250 Marietta, GA 30067 678-290-1337 |
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The Mandorla Lodge and Retreat Center 610 Old Mill White Rd. Ext. Jasper, GA 30143 678-290-1337 |