The Stories of Our Lives

Journaling Our Spiritual Autobiography and Discovering Our Hero's Journey

Six 90-minute Thursday Classes: October 14-November 18, 2021
5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern

“The material was so rich with things we can take back to our lives…”

G. M.

Hospice Worker

"I left with an open mind, open heart and a full toolbox. Thank you!"

L.A.K.

Working Mom

Discover the Hidden Truths Within Your Life's
Challenges and Dramas

In six 90-minute classes, you’ll look at your life story through new lenses

Life can be great and filled with joy!

And… Life can be tough.

Our day to day experience can be intense, shocking and surreal, with heartbreaks and hurts and worries…

AND… LIFE IS ALSO A HERO’S JOURNEY

A Hero’s Journey is not some bland highway with clear onramps and off ramps. No Hero/Heroine ever got on an air-conditioned shuttle to take them where they needed to go.

Heroes and Heroines slog through The Swamp of Despair. They find themselves walking along The Knife-Edge of Doom. Their little boat gets wrecked on The Island of the Lost until they’re able to build a raft out of coconut shells and sail the stormy seas back home.

That’s how we become heroic.

We struggle. We suffer.

We learn. We grow.

And how often do we even appreciate how far we’ve traveled?

How Do We Lose Our Sense of Ourselves?

When we’re busy holding ourselves to impossible standards, judging ourselves for our struggles or wishing our life wasn’t so challenging — do we ever think that life’s obstacles are the crucial ingredients we need to become who we are?

If we take the right approach, these obstacles take us from being an average person just passing through life, to having real wisdom.

This Isn’t About Perfection or Publication

Some want to become the next famous literary figure. Good for them.

That’s not what this course is about.

We don’t care if you’re a “good writer” or a “bad writer.”

And you won’t be getting tips on how to become “a great writer.” (You can learn those elsewhere.)

Instead, this course will offer you straightforward exercises and inspirations to discover meaning in your life story. It will help you to search inside yourself, to release the stuck ideas and patterns that have been keeping you from being your whole deep and powerful human self.

“I Want to Keep My Writing Private!”/”I Want to Share With Others!”

Both options will be available.

For those wanting to explore on their own, the writing sessions will allow you the space, time and tools to go beyond the surface of your experience. This can happen at your own pace, and you’ll have plenty of time to continue if you wish when the session is over.

For those wanting to share and discuss their writing with others, online forums will allow you to post things you’ve written and dialogue with others about the process of exploration — without anyone trying to edit your grammar.

Find Your Own Way Forward

Come with us.

Look back at your life and uncover your path forward.

Nothing is ever wasted.

Every experience reveals something about you.

Squeeze the essence out of your experience and taste the richness that exists inside you.

Journal Your Way To Self-Discovery

Schedule/Dates: Oct 14-Nov 18 (Thursdays)

Each 90min session will begin at:

5pm San Francisco/8pm New York

“Bio-breaks” can happen during the writing portion of each session.

This course is particularly important if you:

✅ Feel stagnant

✅ Love to write, but never do

✅ Hate to write, but want to like it

✅ Want to find real meaning in life

✅ Feel lost

✅ Have been through a lot

✅ Are seeking real change

✅ Want to discover your genuine inspiration

"Excellent. 5 out of 5 stars. I found the atmosphere very supportive.”

D.H.

Mediator/Counselor

Presenter

Gregory Heffron MFA Nonfiction Writing, University of Iowa
Executive Director, Senior Teacher of Green Light Communication

Gregory Heffron MFA Nonfiction Writing, University of Iowa Executive Director, Green Light Communication

Greg is a 2003 Graduate of the University of Iowa’s prestigious Nonfiction Writing Program. He began teaching writing at a university level in 1998.

In 2004, he was certified to teach mindfulness/Buddhist classes in the Shambhala tradition and has taught across North America and Europe.

From 2009, he taught the mind/heart/body discipline of Green Light Communication and became its Executive Director in 2011.

“Through the years, I have been privileged to witness how effective Green Light Communication is — whether I’m teaching basic mindfulness to newcomers, or diving deep with advanced meditators or those in the helping professions. Everyone benefits.“

In addition to an array of introductory courses, Greg has developed and teaches Advanced Certification and Teacher Training courses across three continents, and in countries with cultures as diverse as Ukraine, Canada, Austria, Chile, United States, Switzerland, Poland and Holland.

“For me, it has been humbling and inspiring teaching across cultures, feeling each person’s uniqueness and our shared humanity. Regardless of who we are, we ALL struggle with disconnection, and we ALL long to feel connected.“

“In my own life, I have experienced a groundswell in my capacity to navigate life’s communication challenges, and feel more and more connected to myself — and to humanity as a whole.”

What kind of meaning will you discover?

Greg worked with a student a few years back to explore her history. This snippet gives you a sense of what you might do if given the chance:

My grandfather moved like a ghost. When I woke up, he was there, silent and sitting. His eyes looked past us little kids, as if he was already gone from this world. I looked at him straight on. Not because he didn’t make me nervous. I just knew he wouldn’t even notice.

I didn’t even know to be frustrated. Like kids do, I just accepted his silence like the sky or the trees. I remember I asked my mom one time why he was so quiet, and she shushed me.

I didn’t know about “the war.” And even if I had, I really wouldn’t have understood how “the war” caused him to be like a ghost.

Later, as a teenager, I read some short stories about Vietnam. Even if it wasn’t his war, I felt the smallest little sickness inside me. It was the littlest seed of understanding. But I was young and didn’t think about it again for years.

My mom never talked about her mother leaving. Others mentioned it. Aunts and uncles, in hushed voices. But my mom never did. Not with me.

Did she with anybody?

I think of her as a teenager and wonder who she turned to in that silent house when she felt alone, like I did as a teen. Older siblings meant she was there when it all happened. She lived it, while they just heard about it, the… what to call it? Was it a fight? Was it just her packing up? How do you even write about something with so few details?

And yet, this unknown incident, this black hole in my family’s story, shaped my mother. And after my father left, she shaped me.