Retreats, Gatherings + Networks
Monthly and seasonal ways we stay connected
How might we ensure connection is at the heart of our work?
We meet so many brilliant people through work, but often can’t connect for more than the meeting or shared project. So in January Kerry started ‘We Gather’ a WhatsApp group of work/friends who want to prioritise some time for themself and for friendship outside of work.
On the first Sunday of every month we meet and do something low cost and wellbeing-y in Greater Manchester, like a sauna, coffee or potter around a vintage warehouse! Next month we are going on a walk and picnic.
There are quite a few people in the group now and different people, some who know each other, others who don’t, have joined each time we meet. The gatherings are very low pressure, come if you can, if not maybe see you next time. There is no guilt and no endless date arranging and rearranging.
And because friendship and community is on my vision board this year, when I started to think about writing my second book, it seemed like a brilliant opportunity to create some community.
I am going to stay with my friend Gala Pujol Freixer in her beautiful rural coworking/coliving space Mas Pujols near Barcelona for a writing retreat, August 10th-14th. If you are working on a writing project, I’d love for you to join me.
There will be daily forest and river walks, optional yoga, nourishing meals and lots of time to write uninterrupted. The setting is peaceful and stunning and in the evenings we will gather on the terrace to share our work and stories or listen to the forest settle down for sleep.
If you’d like to find out more about this, email kerry@brilliantthing.co.uk
In October as the light softens and the air sharpens, I always feel the call to gather myself before the winter -this year, friendship happens here too.
My husband Laurence (the Reiki Baker) and I are joining coaches Beth and Alan Creedon to host The Gathering Retreat in Wales. There will be a digital detox, sourdough masterclass, nature embodiment coaching, reflective practice and craft workshops. This is a space to,
- Let your nervous system settle.
- Make things with your hands.
- Enjoy the feeling of space.
- Gently gather the threads of your life and reconnect to yourself.
We are doing things a little differently with the planning and cocreating the retreat, if you’d like to help shape the weekend, and learn about our approach join our WhatsApp group.
Gathering across Sectors
And back at the ranch at A Brilliant Thing CIC we are thinking about creating spaces to gather and support too.
After Kerry spoke to 720 people at a conference and 90 people gave her their email address, saying they’d like to be part of a best practice space, we knew that gathering people doing trauma-informed, healing-centred work across health, education and community sectors was important.
So we are developing a Professional Development Network, to create a space for networking and sharing best practice. To offer peer to peer support and to access opportunities to platform work.
We want to create this space to enable the connection, learning and growth that a network provides, and as the network will have a joining fee we want to make sure members are provided with the right support, tools, resources and ‘brilliant things’ that they need.
If you’d like to find out more, please email faye@brilliantthing.co.uk we’d love to hear from you.