NAVIGATING RESILIENCE IN CHALLENGING TIMES- A SERIES FOR PHYSICIANS Please join us for the weekly, 8-week, funded series lead by Melissa Berry Appleton, a local Chaplain in our community, and Dr. Alysha Mackenzie-Feder, Kelowna Pediatrician. Through practice and generative discussion, we will explore the lived experience of physicians in these times. Exploration on: Compassionate engagement, empathic distress, and exploration or moral injury and despair. Work will be done using the model of G.R.A.C.E training designed by Zen Abbot, Dr. Roshi Joan Halifax and Dr. Cynda Rushton. Supportive accessible practices will include simple meditation and restorative movement, no previous experience required. Wednesday evenings 7:00 -8: 30 pm Sept 20-Nov 8th (First session Sept 20, Last Nov 8th) Doors to open at 6:30 pm where light refreshments will be provided Location: Yoga House Kelowna 1272 St. Paul Street, Downtown Kelowna This series is fully funded by the Kelowna General Hospital Foundation and supported by the KGH Physicians Society. Registration is open to all Kelowna-based physicians. While commitment to the full 8 weeks is ideal, we understand the challenge of schedules, if you must miss a session or two that is ok. To sign up please send an email to: KGHPhysicianWellness@gmail.com

Spirit of Zen ~ Meditation & Yoga Retreatwith Melissa Berry Appleton & Suniti DernovsekSeptember 12-17th, 2023Stowel Lake Farm, Salt Spring Island(2024 - June)Annual retreat on Salt Spring Island. Stowel Lake Farm is a thriving organic farm, leading Canadian retreat center, and community, located on 100 acres of mixed forests, fields, rocky outcrops and rolling hills. The food, the facilities and the land are an exceptional venue to meet all the right elements of retreat. This retreat is in the spirit of Zen, Secular Buddhism, and tending to the body with care. It will be about the simple treasures of practice. Beautifully bare bones. Our time together will be a blend of traditional yoga practice, silence, stillness, connection, breath, sound, the ground and deep rest. Together we are gently resurrecting bodies of goodness. Wonderful for beginners and well established practitioners alike. Well suited for healthcare professionals, care providers, people in transition, and all those needing a backward step to pause, appreciate life and contemplating next steps.Spirit of Zen was designed to offer a good taste of tradition, ritual and form of a Buddhist meditation retreat while also considering accessibility for those who feel more monastic forms of retreat present barriers to attend. We offer this retreat with the heart of a householder, deep respect for the complexities of 21st century living and those who have experienced burnout or trauma. Everyone!There will be two bursaries offered at a 50 percent reduced rate to people of the BIPOC and LGBTGQ+ community as a means to remove financial barriers to participation for those whose lived experience is perpetually laced with institutional bias and discrimination. Individuals representing marginalized people who are actively engaged in outreach or social justice initiatives are highly encouraged to apply, in the hopes that these teachings may ripple out to the communities in which you serve.

Bio here :: www.melissaberryappleton.com

What an exciting year it has been! Michael Stone and The Centre of Gravity Foundation has been gifted, moved to Kelowna and renamed as Enso Foundation for Contemplative Engagement. Michael Stone and guest faculty will be providing innovative programing to our community over the next three years as we vision The Okanagan Dharma Centre together - a modern, world-known centre right here in Kelowna. I am thrilled to be leading this movement along side Michael Stone, an incredible Board of Directors and creative British Columbia community leaders. In the meantime you can read about our programing at www.ensofoundation.com

Residential Treatment Program, Continuing Care and Alumni Program.

Senior Executive Recruitment for the Public and Not for Profit Sector.