A letter from our Executive Director, Danae Laura

Hi there! 

Tomorrow, February 1, we start our fourth 14 Days of Love Meditation Challenge, with nearly 100 participants and donations. Please spread the word and invite your friends or colleagues to join you as you help us reach our goal! The generosity of our community means so much to us. I'll be leading our practices on February 1 and 14 and I'd love to see you there.

A NEW CHAPTER IS BEGINNING

January marks the completion of my first 90 days as the new Executive Director of Copper Beech Institute and I couldn't be more grateful for the warm welcome of this community that is made up of our board, staff, facilitators and participants. Each of you in your own particular way help to make Copper Beech what it is, and helped to get CBI to it's current moment of evolution.

With that said, I am excited to share that many inspired changes are afoot! ✨ We will be introducing a new website and logo rebrand in late February, in celebration of our 14 Days of Love completion. We cannot wait to show you the beauty and inspired design, as well as the improved user interface. In addition to the rebrand, we're bringing back the Mindfulness Facilitator Certification – I have heard such amazing stories from the most recent cohort about how the program impacted their lives and of the close relationships that formed between participants. As MFC returns, we bid farewell to our Coaching with Spirit partners who have been preparing to launch their very own institute continuing to bring mindfulness and Internal Family Systems (IFS) to the field of coaching. We look forward to adding additional certifications to our offerings over time. 

BRINGING MINDFULNESS INTO OUR COMMUNITIES 

Also in 2024, we're taking our "Selfcare Toolkit" for  Employees to the next level. Does your staff or organization need mindfulness training to improve your department function and well-being? If so, we welcome your invite! Thus far, we've brought the toolkit to over 90 Hartford government employees and are building partnerships with local hospital chains and educational institutions. 

Additionally, our youth work is spreading and becoming known for the very social-emotional learning (SEL) skills that keep us as adults returning to mindfulness again and again. We all benefit from being reminded of the power of a pause, and the wonder of choice. Please keep us in mind as a provider and invite us to your town or school system! We have served over 393 youth so far this year and when asked, "How does mindfulness practice help you?" they shared:

"It helped me change as a person."

"It helped me calm down when things are hard." 

“It helped me control my emotions."

 “It helped because sometimes I'm sad or mad."

KINDS OF LOVE

Speaking of social-emotional learning, this year's 14 Days of Love theme "sow love" has had me thinking about kinds of love that require being willing to reach bare hands into the soil and tend to the roots of what is alive in our lives – be it self-love, platonic love, neighborly love, romantic love, or systemic (justice) love.

How do we take the powerfully beautiful sensation of love that can fill our chests and apply it, quite literally pour it through practice onto the hard moments, the hard feelings, and the hard truths? How do we do this when we feel lonely or unworthy? How do we do this in our friendships when there is a rupture? How do we do this in our romantic partnerships at times of conflict? When we witness injustice, how do we use the cultivation of love in our hearts to soften the discomfort expressed as repulsion, resistance or denial? And how do we do it imperfectly?

let's reflect together during 14 days of love

Let our community meditation facilitators guide you on a 14-day journey. If you and I have yet to meet, join me for the introduction and conclusion of your challenge.

I look forward to seeing you there! For Day 1 I will be asking you to share in the chat "where are you calling in from? (i.e. location)" as well as "where are you coming from? (i.e. how is your heart and which forms these love types are you calling in to work with at this time)"