Class description:

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." — William Wordsworth

Transition is woven into the fabric of human life—and right now, we're living through a time when change feels especially constant, collective, and destabilizing.

This 7-week course offers a compassionate container for navigating life's threshold chapters through the combined practices of meditation and reflective writing. We begin as we move from one calendar year to the next, a natural threshold that invites reflection and renewal.

Who is this class for?

Whether you're navigating a personal shift (career change, relationship transition, loss, identity shift, health challenge, retirement, aging) and/or feeling the broader currents in our world, you may find yourself asking: Who am I now? What do I do with this uncertainty? How do I honor what was, meet what's here now, and orient towards the future with care and discernment?

This course is open to anyone 18+ regardless of your level of meditation experience.

Why this offering?

During some of the most difficult transition periods of her life, Alison has interwoven her meditation and journaling practices in ways that buoyed her heart and supported access to intuition, healing, and clarity—and she is excited to offer these complementary practices for exploration in the context of an uplifting communal space.

This course builds on the overwhelmingly positive response to a four-week course offered earlier this year: "The Gentle Pen: Meditation and Writing for Self-Compassion." There was interest in a longer, more sustained container. This extended 7-week format allows for deeper exploration and integration.

Here’s some feedback from The Gentle Pen community members:

• I'm taking away the ability to journal on a regular basis, and do so without fear of emotions taking over. I can now give myself private time throughout the week to pause and check-in to see how I'm really doing and this helps me process what's unfolding with life.

• The way the material was taught prior to our journaling time was really helpful. I had often struggled with knowing what/how to write when I tried in the past.

• I loved this class and would take it again!

What to Expect:

Each 75-minute session (8-9:15 pm ET) includes:

• Arriving together through a grounding practice and optional check-ins

• A meditation practice tailored to the week's theme—we'll explore body-based practices for presence and stability, equanimity practices for navigating change, and heart practices for self-compassion and opening

• Brief teachings that draw on mindfulness as well as psychological and spiritual perspectives on transitions

• Guided writing time with thoughtfully crafted prompts (you'll choose the approach that resonates—freewriting, structured reflection, or creative exploration)

• Optional sharing

As author Alice Walker encourages, "There should be…a period in every day when you're just free to sink into your own space, your internal space." This course creates that dedicated time each week.

If anyone has additional questions or comments, Alison will hang out in the Zoom room for another 15 minutes (9:15-9:30 pm ET) to continue the conversation.

Over seven weeks, we'll explore:

• Grounding practices for uncertainty and the "in-between"

• Honoring what's ending

• Discovering sources of joy and aliveness in the present moment

• Meeting the questions "Who am I now?" and "What matters most?"

• Clarifying values and vision for what's emerging

• Cultivating practices for sustainable navigation

• Integration: carrying your insights forward

1:1 session included:

The course includes one optional 30-minute individual session with Alison, which you can schedule at any point during the course if it’s of interest to you. This 1:1 is an opportunity to explore what's arising for you or receive mindfulness-based support as your transition(s) unfold. All participants will receive a scheduling link.

The 1:1 will be structured similarly to “Your Life is Your Practice, Your Practice is Your Life” 1:1 sessions:

• 1-2 minutes of meditating together as a way of arriving and transitioning into our time together

• Check in: How are you in this moment?

• Touching base about what feels most important to discuss

• Discussing it! :) This period often also involves guided inquiry if it’s relevant and of interest to you, in which I lead you through a tailored reflective process.

• Closing: What are you taking away from this time together?

• Wishing each other well and parting ways

Logistics:

• Dates: Tuesdays — December 9, 16, 23 & January 6, 13, 20, 27 (running through the holidays with our practice as an anchor)

• Time: 8:00-9:15 pm ET + 15 minutes of optional small group time. If you're in a later time zone and interested in a midday ET option, please get in touch—I'll offer an additional cohort if there's sufficient interest.

• Format: Live online sessions

• All sessions will be recorded and available within 24 hours

• You'll receive a reminder email the day before each session and a detailed follow-up email after each session with resources and reflection prompts.

Course fee & registration:

The standard rate for this course is $275 for 7 weeks of weekly classes plus one 30-minute 1:1 session—Register at the standard rate.

• Sliding scale: Our financial circumstances range widely, especially during this era. A sliding scale of $200-$275 is available—Register on the sliding scale.

• Need a rate below $200? Please reach out. I'm committed to ensuring financial circumstances aren't a barrier for anyone. Payment plans are also available.

"We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us." — Joseph Campbell