Presenting Breema at Conferences

Recently we gave Breema presentations at conferences for medical students and at a large international conference called Science and Non-Duality, showing that Breema is something people can receive in many different contexts.

Roxanne Caswell and Angela Porter gave a one-hour class at the University of California Integrative Medicine Conference in San Francisco. This was the 12th time we participated in this conference, which is organized by the medical students themselves.

Roxanne: It was good to see that a lot can be accomplished in one hour! We did a body-centered meditation, a couple of Self-Breema, the back-to-back exercise, and standing on the heels—formulating about Breema throughout the whole thing. Then we opened it up to hear their experiences in the last five to ten minutes. People were very willing to raise their hands and talk about their experiences. One woman said, about standing on the heels, "I and my partner—no separation between us."

Angela: It was clear that it doesn't have to be complicated to do a presentation like this, and for people to benefit. We brought the minimum of mats and materials. The atmosphere became very unified very quickly, and spoke for itself. It seemed like bringing No Judgment to the little obstacles that happened beforehand, as we were setting up, supported the atmosphere within myself, which supported the atmosphere of the class. Formulating came alive from my own wish to benefit myself from what I said, as a student of this teaching.

Roxanne: The format was a big support too. People came into the room very nervously, their body language expressing fear of others, they couldn't even get into a circle. By the end you could see how much more comfortable they were with each other.
The way we formulated throughout was key to this class, and also in the circle hearing one person's experience supported everyone else's.


  Yasmin Bar-Dor went to the Netherlands to present Breema at Science and Non-Duality, a conference dedicated to exploring the interconnectedness of all life from both scientific and spiritual perspectives. Gudrun Lieger, Lidwien Pikkemaat, and Angeline Delicaat met her there to support the pre-conference workshop as well as the one that took place during the conference itself. I asked Yasmin and Gudrun to tell me about their experiences, and what was most supportive in this setting.

Yasmin: This conference took a lot of networking! For me, every meal was an opportunity to do that, by speaking with the other people at my table. We also put a notice on the board that we were offering Breema mini-sessions. I had no idea until a few minutes before the start of the workshop how many people were going to come, and then this mass of people came in the door, many more than we had mats for. I was so grateful I had made a plan that included many different options of what to do. Everyone stayed for the whole class, and it was clear they were working with Body Comfortable and the other principles. Many people spoke in the circle. They mentioned feeling more connected to others, more balanced and connected to their body.

Gudrun: I learned so much at this conference—how to connect with people, how to present Breema to the people there. There was so much to choose from, so I imagined how I would choose what class I wanted to do if I was a visitor. We put flyers about Breema and the cards with the Nine Principles—all the cards were gone, and people were very attracted to the flyers and articles with the photos of Breema. We were talking about Breema during the breaks and the meals, and when we participated in the discussions that took place during the "World Cafe," a section of the conference that everyone participated in, where we sat at large tables together and each person took 4 minutes to talk about a question that was put to us. The first question was "How do you see non-duality?" Then we stood up and chose a different table, and answered the second question, which was "How did you come to your spiritual approach to non-duality?" And then "How do you use this in your life?" Really these questions were a gift! Fully participating in listening to the others and their statements was a support to keep the aim of Breema alive for myself, and then I could speak simply from my own experiences. It was so inspiring and so supportive to me, to see what a gift I have in Breema. From all this that we did we had 25 people in the workshop. The conference attracted many scientists, many artists, many spiritual teachers and their followers—a very mixed group, but they were very receptive and seemed to have more connection to their body after this one-hour class.

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The Summer Intensive is coming up soon—July 13-19. Many instructors will be participating from all over. Please keep it in the foreground, let people know about it, and consider coming yourself!