Thank you all for your patience as I mourned and worked through grief, theft, and injury in the last month or so. In the meantime, I’ve also been doing a lot more healing work with clients / community members, and I’m part of a spiritual art show!

This means that I will no longer have a regular schedule for my Patreon and instead will try to update whenever I can, with at least doing a post per week (2 patron-only posts and 2 public posts per month).

As for the art show, here are the details:
187 Proudly Presents: 13 OFFERINGS
OPENING NIGHT
WHEN: November 23, 2018
WHERE: 187 Augusta Ave, Tkaronto/Toronto
TIME: 6 – 10 pm
FEE: PWYC / suggested $10
A co-creative project conjured by 13 healers, lightworkers, brujas and artists. Photography, poetry, music, altars, and art. Along with 12 other healers, I will have an altar and photographs set up to express my practice and identity as an artist-healer. There will also be some presentations of my poetry and music.
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/253115705556588/

Stay tuned, as I’ll be starting up a workshop series in December on undoing anti-Blackness and settler colonialism in Filipino/Pilipinx communities, self-accountability, and spiritual trauma work! Below are some of the titles for the spiritual mental health series (feel free to suggest more if you feel inspired):

*The Soul Wound: Decolonizing Trauma*
Based on works by Grace Nono, Eduardo Duran, and Renee Linklater, this workshop will explore both Western and non-Western approaches to healing trauma, or “soul wounds”/ “wounds of the spirit”. Lukayo will also be drawing upon their background in peer support, co-counseling, and somatic experiencing trauma counseling, as well as traditional healing practices of Bikol and general Filipino peoples. The goal of this workshop is to explain non-Western approaches to trauma while not discounting the available Western avenues of healing. The first hour will be a go around and check in with all participants, creating group guidelines together on healing and sharing space. The second hour will be a discussion and sharing with each other on soul/spirit wounds, where they come from and how colonization/racism/heterosexism/cisgenderism creates and perpetuates them, their effects on our lives, and Western and non-Western approaches to healing. The third hour will introduce some techniques folks can practice on their own.

*Protect Your Spirit: The Daily Effects of Capitalism and Colonialism*
This workshop is very similar to The Soul Wound workshop, with the first hour for check-in and guidelines, and the last hour for techniques. However, in the second hour we delve into the concept that Capitalism and Colonialism are personal and systemic demons that are haunting us. What kind of things do they whisper to us, causing pain and uneasiness? How do they force us to compromise our own values and needs? What are the ways we can build resistance to them and peace for ourselves and loved ones even as they seem to be in every aspect of our lives? The goal of this workshop is to focus on somatic, psychological, and/or spiritual techniques and sources of strength and resilience against the daily effects of Colonialism and Capitalism, while shielding ourselves with knowledge and self-forgiveness.

*Grounding: Managing Anxious Energy*
This workshop is very similar to The Soul Wound workshop, with the first hour for check-in and guidelines, and the last hour for techniques. However, in the second hour we delve into the concept that “anxiety” is a form of energy that gets trapped inside us, thus causing harm to our body and spirit. What are the ways this energy enters or grows inside of us? How does this energy get trapped? How do we release it without causing further harm and distress to ourselves and others? The goal of this workshop is to focus on somatic, psychological, and/or spiritual techniques and strategies of grounding and mindfulness that builds on folks’ already existing strengths and practices.