Themes
As I prepare to co-facilitate the Honey In the Heart workshop on May 17th (more on that below), Grounding Rock and I are starting to plan our next Shamanic Breathwork workshop on July 18th.
We do not have a theme for July yet. It could be said that there doesn’t really need to be a theme. The journey always goes the way and to where it needs to for each participant, regardless of the theme. Often people show up ready to work on their own theme, personal issue, or challenge that doesn’t seem to match the workshop’s theme. My experience is that it also works.
As I have mentioned in past newsletters, I learned that having a theme is important before I started holding workshops in early 2021. When I asked Grandfather Mowgli how I should determine what the theme should be, he said, “It should be whatever you are currently working on yourself.”
Yikes! That seemed like too large of a challenge. I wanted to ask if there were any other ways that would be equally effective, but I knew the answer.
Most every workshop since then has had a theme and each theme worked on me before the workshop started. I do my own breathworks or drum journeys, seek out books, podcasts, and lectures on the theme. I bring it into my daily practice and meditation. Often conversations, social media posts, or books come my way in the form of “coincidence”. I get inspiration and deepen my understanding through external and internal sources. Offering these workshops has been a major source of my personal growth and learning.
As I feel into the theme for the July workshop, what has been feeling most active within me is to ask what you are working on. You, the newsletter reader, past/future workshop participant, and/or fellow seeker/journeyer. So I will follow that and ask:
Whether you plan to participate or not, what theme would you choose for July? What do you feel that you, the community, collective consciousness, individual, and/or World need to breathe into now? If you were to journey within, what would you seek, want to know/learn/find, or experience directly? What is the theme building in you?
Feel free to reply to send me an email, text, or message me on social media with what is “up” for you. Old fashioned phone calls would work too! I will watch for patterns and overlap in what I hear from everyone. It might be a word, a phrase, or feel free to write a longer explanation that describes what you are trying to express. I may or may not use a theme exactly as proposed.
If the juices aren’t yet flowing from the prompt, below are the titles of past workshops.
The Two Wolves (which one will you feed?)
Rise (Phoenix energy)
Doors Within
Shine
Facing Resistance
Winter's Embrace
Ascending the Spiral Path
Reclaiming Your Power
Journey of the Heart
Remembering Our Oneness
Ancestral Healing
Making Space for Joy
Receiving and Giving
Into the Earth
Embrace the Dark
Embrace the Light
Embrace Wholeness
Nurture
Transmutation
Freedom
Harvest
Peace WIthin
Renew & Align
The Ten Rules to Being Human
Belonging and Feeling at Home
Journey to the Wisdom Within
Opening to Awe and Wonder
Forgiveness
Untangled Love
Hug the Part of You That Died
Surfacing Joy
The Power of Love
I look forward to hearing from you and to what you share.
Also, good news: we have restarted the much-loved vegetarian potlucks following the half day workshops!
Back to the Honey in the Heart workshop.
Long time readers might remember that I have written here several times about where “Honey in the Heart” came from my experiences working with it. If you are newer to this newsletter or want to revisit, here are links to the newsletter content in my blog:
January 2026 - describes the origin and my experience during our retreat in 2025
February 2026 - contains my poem Hands of the Abuela
As Grandfather Mowgli, Charlotte Spring Dancer, and I continue to go deeper into it and bring it more into our everyday lives, we are “working the theme” and the theme is working us, the same as the process I described above. For me, this has meant finding, honoring, and sharing the Honey in My Heart on a daily basis. It starts in my daily practice, where I now have a picture of Abuela on my altar, and greet her each morning. It has become engaging in the process of checking how much honey I have in my heart before conversations with others, and with myself. The result has been increased happiness, joy, and the ability to be more kind. When I say things like that I feel like I must say, “one’s experience may vary”, as mine has - I am not suddenly always kind or always happy. And, if I could be just 10% happier and kinder, I will continue practicing.
To me, Honey in the Heart is about;
presence and being in the moment
the sweetness of life and being alive
being able to witness and appreciate beauty
access to joy within
kindness for self and others
connecting with the Earth as Mother and home
food for the heart - to strengthen, soothe, and nurture it.
If you would like to have more honey in your heart and in your life, including; sweetness, kindness for yourself and others, ability to witness and experience beauty, love, eloquence, and inner peace, please join us on the 17th. Would a refill of honey in your heart be helpful?
I will leave you with a new quote that happened to come to us as we were preparing.
“We live in a kind of dark age, craftily lit with synthetic light, so that no one can tell how dark it has really gotten. But our exiled spirits can tell. Deep in our bones resides an ancient, singing couple who just won't give up making their beautiful, wild noise. The world won't end if we can find them.”
-Martin Prechtel
And, please send me what is building for you and in your life that you think would be a valuable and useful breathwork workshop theme.
Much Love and blessing for a long life and honey in the heart,
Jay Hoeffer
Diamondheart