“The meaning of earthly existence is not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prosperity, but in the development of the soul.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author.
Richard Foster, Quaker and author
“He who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love, will not have anything to give others.”
Thomas Merton, munk and author
WHAT KIND OF EVENTS DO WE OFFER?
In our events we invite you into our world, where you can learn the secrets of storytelling and filmmaking – or dive deeper into the issues we explore in our films.
We offer spaces and opportunities for viewers to engage with the topics of our movies through online and offline events and courses.
Check out our calendar to see what’s up. Here are some examples of upcoming events:
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SOULSPACE FILM WALKS
Learn to film and take good pictures with your cell phone while exploring a new area of town in a group setting.
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SOULSPACE FILM SCREENINGS
Watch soulful films and discuss the experience with special guests.
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SOULSPACE BREAKS
A daylong spa for your soul with room to rest, reflect and go deeper.
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SOULSPACE WALKS
Short guided pilgrimages with different topics that can last a day or an afternoon.
THOMAS-RETREATS – faith and doubt with the Apostle of the East.
This retreat is inspired by Thomas the apostle and the unique spirituality connected to him in the Bible and in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Central topics will be exploring our experiences of both doubt and faith. The retreat is open for everyone on a spiritual quest but will be within a Christian framework.
WHAT ARE OUR RETREATS LIKE?
A Soulspace retreat is a time just to be and to connect deeper with yourself and with God.
We aim to create an accepting, non-judgemental and playful environment to go deeper and explore your soul questions and your spiritual quest.
Different ingredients in our events are: creative expression, movement, journaling, divine reading, dream work, contemplative practices and time just to be in solitude and silence. We draw on the wisdom of Jesus, historical and living Mystics and different Christ-centered faith traditions. We also offer individual “soulspace sessions” – with deep listening and spiritual direction, for those who want that.
Expect to eat super-healthy vegetarian and vegan food, as well as opportunities to heal your body through juicing and fasting.
We offer both short retreats, soulspace breaks, that is only an afternoon or a day long – and longer retreats. Many of our retreats will be connected to our films and topics of our films, like our upcoming documentary about Thomas, the apostle of the East. The aim is always to inspire the participants to live more soulful, creative and courageous lives and to invest in soul health.
WHAT IS THE SOUL?
Soul is most often defined as the immaterial essence, animating principle or driving cause of one’s life, a quality that kindles emotion and spirit. “Our soul is like a stream of water, which gives strength, direction and harmony to every other area of our life. When that stream is as it should be, we are constantly refreshed and exuberant in all we do,” says the author Dallas Willard in his book The renovation of the heart. On the other hand, wisdom traditions around the world tell of soul illness, in which body, mind and spirit are out of alignment with each other. We speak of loss of soul, a time when we lose touch with our true selves and our direction, intention and meaning, or when we are not fulfilling our life purpose.
The idea of soul has permeated our lives for centuries, from shamanic soul retrieval to religious practices offering purification of the soul. It is sometimes referred to as a spark of God, or the place in us where the God-spark originates and lives. This is the understanding of the Christian Mystics, like Theresa of Avila. In her famous book “The Interior Castle” she writes: “I thought of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent crystal, and containing many rooms, just as in heaven there are many mansions. (…) Nothing can be compared to the great beauty and capabilities of a soul; however keen our intellects may be, they are as unable to comprehend them as to comprehend God, for, as He has told us, He created us in His own image and likeness.”
WHY SOULSPACE?
In our fast paced, busy and full lives, it’s often a challenge to find time and space to quiet the mind, unwind tension in the bodies and connect with your own heart and soul – and with God. While we live in a rocket-speed society, we have wagon-train souls. Often when we slow down, we have the opportunity to reflect and feel things that the speed of life does not allow us to acknowledge. Slowing down and being still can allow issues and questions to surface that we need to pay attention to and explore. Deep inside are desires, passiongs, longings, regrets, motives about God, family, work and other dimensions of life. Our souls and inner life long to be attended to and listened to. We believe we all need to make space and time for this kind of soul care. It helps us figure out what truly matters in our lives and then realign ourselves to those higher priorities. Thomas Moore, a psychologist and author, said that the great malady of this time in Western history is the “loss of soul”. Without soul, we base our lives on doing, getting, achieving and performing. Our egos protests when someone challenges these actions. But we have a sacred hunger for more… Moore reminds us: “When the soul is neglected, it doesn’t just go away, it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence and loss of meaning.” Attending to our soul will help us heal, grow and fulfill our purpose – because unattended, the soul will not thrive. This begins with time and space. Sometimes we need to “get away from it all” for a major overhaul, but most times day-by-day maintenance is the most important part of soul care. For those of us caught up in a long list of to-dos, soul care can be difficult and counterintuitive. Therefore it is often good to get help to make the space and the framework for it.
WHAT IS A RETREAT?
In its simplest form ‘retreat’, means ‘to withdraw, to drawback.’ A retreat is time consciously set aside, a deliberate act of stepping outside of normal routine by withdrawing from the noise and pressures; to be in a quiet place with space to listen to our souls and to God.
Spiritual retreats are an integral part of many Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian and Sufi communities. Retreats first became prevalent within the Christian Church during the 16th and 17th centuries. Today, people from all Church traditions (and none) enjoy the benefits of retreat.
A retreat can either be a time of solitude or a community experience. Some retreats are held in silence, and on others there may be a great deal of interaction, depending on the format. Retreats are often conducted at rural or remote locations in a beautiful natural setting, often at a retreat centre such as a monastery.
When we take time to withdraw and make space for our souls to breathe, we place ourselves in a position for God to care for us and attend to our souls. The greatest benefit is often fresh ways of seeing, stepping back to gain a greater view and new perspective.
SOULSPACE RETREAT MANIFESTO
These are ten important principles that guides our retreats:
SOULSPACE RETREAT MANIFESTO
These are ten important principles that guides our retreats:
1. We lean on the wisdom and the way of Christ – and believe that the soul has an inborn need for a relationship to God. But – you do not need to believe in Christ to attend our events or retreats, and we will listen to your perspectives and pressure no one to believe the same as us.
2. We believe the spiritual journey inevitably confronts all of us with questions that need to be expressed and lived, not simply answered. “When someone asks, “What is the meaning of life?” he or she should not be given an answer but encouraged to explore the question. To offer an answer is to shut down the quest and stifle the spiritual hunger that it reflects,” writes psychologist and author David Benner. We agree and want to create safe spaces to explore the big questions of life. We are all on a spiritual journey. Where we are today, will not be where we are in five or ten years – but every season of our souls journeys should be respected and attended to.
3. “To listen to another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service one human being ever performs for another,” writes quaker Douglas Steere. Yet, in this noisy, distracting world – people often talk past each other, eager to be heard but somehow deaf to what is being said. We value the listening life and believe that it’s very important to learn to listen across diverse backgrounds, cultures, religions and belief systems. This is a form of spiritual hospitality.
4. We believe in the value of silence and living the contemplative life. Science has proven that silence releases tension in the brain and in the body – and even grows our brain. Spiritual masters of all religions also teach the value of stilling the mind and centering the heart. As we settle into the stillness, we notice the stirrings of our soul, our deeper longings, and God’s quiet whisper to us.
5. We believe feelings are the language of the soul. They are the cry that gives the heart a voice. To understand our deepest passions and convictions, we must learn to listen to our emotions. Ignoring our feelings, is turning our back on reality. Listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God.
6. We believe in the power of creativity to care for and cure the soul. We believe that creativity is our birthright and that creative expression can help you to know yourself more fully and deeply, access the intuitive powers within you to heal – and naturally nurture the soul.
7. We believe our human languages are far too limiting to express the full spectrum of profound knowledge, insight and revelation that the soul has to share. We believe our souls communicate with us through symbols, metaphors – like in dreams – stories, poetry and other forms of art and deep feelings – among others.
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We are inspired by the Mystics and agree with the words of the respected theologian and priest Karl Rahner; “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all.” A mystic simply means one who has moved from mere belief systems or belonging systems to actual inner experience. Faith can’t survive on the meager nourishment provided by the mind alone – by ideas, doctrines and arguments. Faith needs the nurture that comes from encounters with the Divine and experiences of the Holy.
9. We believe that the body and the soul are very closely connected, and that our bodies often know before our minds the state of our souls. When our lives are out of control, our stomach gets knotted, our neck tight, a tightness fills our shoulders, our fingers close up into a fist, our body posture closes up. We value an embodied spirituality which listens to the body as “a major prophet” and a spirituality where we are invited to delight in the senses we have been given and in the physical world we have been born into.
10. We believe that making a positive contribution to the world in which we live is the rent we pay for the space we occupy on the planet. But as Thomas Merton says: “He who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love, will not have anything to give others.” As we allow ourselves to be led beside still waters, we are best able to discern what is ours to do, trusting that we can make a difference in our own gifted ways.