SDI Encounters

Ep022 - Travel with SDI Journeys - Rev Seifu and Frederica Helmiere

We're mixing up the format of the podcast this week! Our Events and Journeys Director, Frederica Helmiere, is doing a series of episodes on spiritual travel. We begin with this conversation between Frederica and our Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares.
SDI has been facilitating travel experiences around the world for over 25 years. We believe in seeing the world in the most unique way possible, and we want to share our knowledge and passion for travel and spirituality with all of those whom we guide.
To learn more about our Journeys, you can check out www.sdijourneys.org.
We've also got Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares in studio playing guitar!
Remember to hit that "follow or subscribe" button as next week we’ll release part 2 of this conversation. 
Your comments and suggestions can be sent to: Podcast@sdiworld.org
Our main website can be found at: https://www.sdiworld.org 
Thank you for tuning in. Please click the [Subscribe or Follow] button so you don't miss an episode.
 

Ep021 - This Life That is Ours - Parenting and Pilgrimage with Lauren Burdette

Lauren Burdette is a writer, spiritual director, and podcast host. She’s a former SDI New Contemplative and has mentored people through the New Contemplative program. Lauren has written a book called This Life That Is Ours: Motherhood as Spiritual Practice, and her podcast is called “Life as Spiritual Practice” – we talked about her experiences with the SDI community, and finding the Divine within the landscape of raising three young children.  
Remember to hit that "follow or subscribe" button so you don't miss an episode.
Your comments and suggestions can be sent to: Podcast@sdiworld.org
Our main website can be found at: https://www.sdiworld.org 
Thank you for tuning in. Please click the [Subscribe or Follow] button so you don't miss an episode.

Ep020 - Leaning into Holy Hybridity - Karen Erlichman - Part 2

Karen Lee Erlichman provides psychotherapy, spiritual direction and mentoring in San Francisco, integrating spiritual practices and body-centered resources to support healing. 
This episode is part 2 of our conversation with Karen. In Part 1 from last week, Karen shared her personal story, and how she discerned vocational calling. It’s interesting to hear Karen describe her journey as a ‘hybrid’ –– a phenomenon of discerning that one’s true identity is fluid, and moves into, out of, and between, many various categories and vocations, without being pinned down into any of them.
NOTES
https://www.sdiworld.org/seekers - The website Karen says in our conversation that she references frequently. It's full of resources on the work of a spiritual director, how to find a spiritual director, and for those who are curious about spiritual direction in general.
Form Karen:
Tara Mohr - "during our conversation about credentials and feeling like enough. I’ve reviewed Tara’s books for Presence in the past too."
https://www.taramohr.com
 
Mercy Center-Burlingame, CA
http://mercy-center.org
 
Jewish meditation center:
Chochmat haLev (means “wisdom of the heart”)
https://chochmat.org

Ep019 - Vocation and Calling with Karen Erlichman - Part 1

This episode is part 1 of our conversation with Karen Erlichman, with this week’s focus on vocation – the process of discernment around work, life, and identity.
Karen Lee Erlichman provides psychotherapy, spiritual direction and mentoring in San Francisco, integrating spiritual practices and body-centered resources to support healing. She is a senior consultant for Ethics of Care and Resource Development with The Dinner Party and a faculty member in the Jewish Spirituality program at the Graduate Theological Foundation.
Remember to hit that "follow or subscribe" button as next week we’ll release part 2 of this conversation. 
Your comments and suggestions can be sent to: Podcast@sdiworld.org
Our main website can be found at: https://www.sdiworld.org 
Thank you for tuning in. Please click the [Subscribe or Follow] button so you don't miss an episode.
 
LINKS to people and places mentioned during this podcast:
Tara Mohr: https://www.taramohr.com
Mercy Center-Burlingame, CA: http://mercy-center.org
Jewish meditation center: Chochmat haLev (means “wisdom of the heart”): https://chochmat.org

Ep018 - Living a Life of Contemplation with Jan Lundy and Jeanette Banashak (Part 2)

This episode is part 2 of our conversation with Jan Lundy and Jeanette Banashek. Here we talk more about the training program they facilitate, called the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute – which educates and equips people to be spiritual directors and companions. We also get into our own personal practices – mindfulness, taking silent retreats, and a little more on trusting one’s inner wisdom – which lets face it we’re all trying to learn how to do.
Remember to hit that "follow or subscribe" button as next week we’ll release part 2 of this conversation. 
Your comments and suggestions can be sent to: Podcast@sdiworld.org
Our main website can be found at: https://www.sdiworld.org 
Thank you for tuning in. Please click the [Subscribe or Follow] button so you don't miss an episode.
 

Ep017 - Spiritual Fluidity with Jan Lundy and Jeanette Banashak (Part 1)

Jan Lundy and Jeanette Banashak are longtime members of SDI, they are spiritual directors, and founders of a unique training program called the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute – which educates and equips people to be spiritual directors and companions.
This episode is Part 1, with a focus on what it looks like to be a “spiritual independent” or “spiritually fluid”. It doesn’t mean you have no faith tradition (though it might), but in your life’s journey to commune with mystery and the ground of all being, you may find that no one particular tradition has all the answers you seek. What is perhaps most true is that each person’s spiritual journey is unique, and not easily identified by a way of thinking or an ideology. Jan and Jeanette both have been on this journey personally and vocationally. 
Remember to hit that "follow or subscribe" button as next week we’ll release part 2 of this conversation. 
Your comments and suggestions can be sent to: Podcast@sdiworld.org
Our main website can be found at: https://www.sdiworld.org 
Thank you for tuning in. Please click the [Subscribe or Follow] button so you don't miss an episode.

Ep016 - Experiential Companionship with Sharon Seyfarth Garner

Sharon Seyfarth Garner, a spiritual companion, retreat facilitator, and director of Belly of the Whale Ministries.
Sharon facilitated a participatory art project called the Prayer Mandala Wall, which incorporated coloring and companionship as forms of prayer at the SDI annual conference in 2019. Listen in on our conversation with Sharon about this project and using coloring as a form of spiritual practice – a means of quieting ourselves and attuning ourselves to deeper presence - what we refer to in this conversation as God, but also known by other names such as the ground of all being.
Your comments and suggestions can be sent to: Podcast@sdiworld.org
Our main website can be found at: https://www.sdiworld.org 
Thank you for tuning in. Please click the [Subscribe or Follow] button so you don't miss an episode.

Ep015 - Receptivity and Connection through Singing Bowls - Stacy Au Coin and David Summerfield

Stacy Au Coin and David Summerfield facilitated a workshop at our Annual Conference this past March 2019 called “Seeking Connection Through Sound, Meditation, and Creative Exploration." The description of their workshop states, “Singing bowls during meditation help carry folks into stillness by slicing through the chatter of the mind. From this place of stillness we find the connection with our inner Self, our intuition, our connection to the Divine (or Creator), and we prepare the way to authentic open engagement with others.” They stopped by for a podcast conversation with host Matt Whitney during the Conference. To learn more about Stacy and David's work, visit passagesandpathways.com
Your comments and suggestions can be sent to: Podcast@sdiworld.org
Our main website can be found at: https://www.sdiworld.org 
Thank you for tuning in. Please click the [Subscribe or Follow] button so you don't miss an episode.

Ep014 - Remember Yourself with Rev. Seifu Anil Singh-Molares

This week’s episode features an ‘in-house podcast’ conversation with our Executive Director, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares, about a quarterly publication we produce called "Listen".
Listen is described as “A Seeker’s Resource for Spiritual Direction”, which offers art and illustration and a written reflection. For our April issue of Listen, Reverend Seifu titled his reflection “Remember Yourself”, which reflects on how we consider the spiritual journey to be about striving towards new insight and discovery, but might actually be about striving towards remembering, or recalling.  
Your comments and suggestions can be sent to: Podcast@sdiworld.org
Our main website can be found at: https://www.sdiworld.org 
Thank you for tuning in. Please click the [Subscribe or Follow] button so you don't miss an episode.

Ep013 - Dani Forbess on Embodied Spirituality

Dani Forbess is a pastor and spiritual care provider in the Seattle area, and was a presenter at our Post-Conference Retreat in Seabeck Washington. She studied at Seattle Pacific University and Princeton Theological Seminary, and has served in pastoral roles in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Cape Town, South Africa, Los Angeles, and now in Seattle.
In this episode we went deep into how Dani lives out Christian spirituality in her work as a pastor and a mother.
Your comments and suggestions can be sent to: Podcast@sdiworld.org
Our main website can be found at: https://www.sdiworld.org 
Thank you for tuning in. Please click the [Subscribe or Follow] button so you don't miss an episode.