Spiritual Growth and Community Center

We invite you to join us in gathering to sit in peace weekly on Sunday mornings. Whether you need a time of solace during a busy weekend, want to deepen your personal practice, or aim to join Sunday service with an uncluttered mind, you are welcome.

Meditation is a discipline that is integral to many spiritual traditions, religions, and secular mindfulness practices throughout the world and human history. Meditation comes in many forms, including as an act of prayer, accompanied by music, chanting, mantras, breathwork, or practiced simply in silence, and those who meditate regularly often find benefits of mental clarity and calmness from their practice. We will explore some of these variations on meditation and thoughtful contemplation weekly.

Sessions will begin at 9:15 in the Alice Hart Room, downstairs at UCMH, and will include 25 minutes of meditation. No experience is necessary to join. Suggested donation $5

Love is not something you have to go looking for, far away outside yourself. You have an infinite well of love inside you! Learn to connect to this inner love and compasson, called the Authentic "Self" in this group which explores spirituality from the Internal Family Systems (IFS) perspective. Join our group to explore love from the inside out!

IFS is a therapy modality that incorporates a deeply spiritual dimension through its recognition of the "Self" - a core essence of being that exists beneath our various parts and subpersonalities. This Self is your true, authentic nature. The spiritual aspect of IFS emerges from its view that this Self is not something we need to create or develop, but rather an inherent wisdom that exists naturally within all people, simply waiting to be uncovered and accessed.

The power of Self lies in its ability to heal and harmonize our internal system. When connected with Self energy, a person can relate to parts that are suffering with genuine curiosity and compassion, much like a wise parent or spiritual teacher might approach someone in need. This Self-led healing creates profound transformation because it comes from within rather than being imposed from outside.

IFS parallels many spiritual traditions in its recognition of a deeper consciousness beyond our everyday thinking mind. Similar to Buddhist concepts of Buddha nature or Hindu notions of atman, the Self in IFS represents an innate wholeness and wisdom that transcends our conditioned patterns and emotional wounds. The model suggests that connecting with Self energy can bring about not just psychological healing but also spiritual growth, as people experience their fundamental nature as loving, connected, and whole.

This group is NOT therapy but an exploration of how to reconnect with Compassion from the inside and live a loving, Self-led life in the outside world. The IFS model proposes that as we learn to lead more from Self, we not only heal individually but contribute to collective healing in our communities and world, through our enhanced capacity for compassion, wisdom, and presence.