"Our world is increasingly a world of separation. Life in modernity has untethered us from our social nature and bombards us with temptations to numb the pain of disconnection through a wild variety of addictive substances and activities. Unfortunately for us, the experience of being human can not be selectively numbed. When we succumb to the temptation to numb ourselves to pain and fear we numb ourselves to joy and connection as well.

In order to un-numb ourselves, we must become aware of the addictive patterns we have come to rely on to protect us from pain. We must also open ourselves up again to our natural range of emotion, with all its many highs and lows.

The word vulnerable comes from the Latin word vulnerāre—to wound. It describes our inherent capacity to be harmed, to feel pain. Part of what sets humanity apart from many other species is our ability and willingness to care for each other when we are wounded, hurt, or vulnerable. Correspondingly, we are set apart just as much by our ability and willingness to be open to and to be seen receiving care when we are wounded, hurt, or vulnerable. Our amazing ability to collaborate creates in us the potential to embrace vulnerability as a source of creativity, connection, and contrast.

In this Salon we will explore vulnerability as a potential path to reconnecting with the vibrancy of our human nature:

• How can we un-numb ourselves and take on responsibility for our experience of the entirety of our emotional range?
• How can we un-tangle ourselves from the addictive patterns we substitute for vibrancy and belonging?
• How can we un-earth lost fragments of ourselves and artfully mend our sense of wholeness?
• How can we re-learn collaboration and stay open to one another in the face of fear and discomfort?
• How can we re-imagine a healthier balance between individuality and community, between transparency and boundaries?
• How can we re-connect to ourselves and each other with the faith that our woundedness, hurts and vulnerability will be cared for?

Join us!" - Salon Host Maybe Gray

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Good to read or watch pre-Salon:

• Korean kintsugi artist Yee Sookyung's "Translated Vase"
• How a 15,000-Year-Old Human Bone Could Help You through the Coronacrisis
• Researcher-storyteller Brené Brown's famous TED talk on The Power of Vulnerability
• Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ****, on Vulnerability as the Key to Better Relationships
• Vulnerability and subversion in the performative art of Marina Abramović
• Loneliness, a Kurzgesagt inforgraphic video on the dangers of disconnection
• The Vulnerability Hangover, an episode of Kent Dobson's podcast Hints and Guesses on the "cult" of vulnerability and the dangers of oversharing

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Time zones:

• 11:30 am in San Francisco
• 2:30 pm in New York
• 7:30 pm in London
• 8:30 pm in Berlin
• 11:30 pm in Dubai

Why not add the ii Calendar to your calendar?

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You will be sent a Zoom link before the event, when bookings closed.

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