A Day of Relational Mindfulness

  Facilitated by James Dial | Vegan lunch provided | Capped at 13 participants

“The verb ‘to be’ can be misleading, because we cannot be by ourselves, alone. ‘To be’ is always to ‘inter-be.’” — Thich Nhat Hanh

Western culture often reinforces our sense of being separate individuals. This can be empowering, helping us more fully notice and honor our values, needs, boundaries, as well as take accountability for our choices. And yet, such a strong emphasis on “I” creates conditions for loneliness and suffering. We forget how deeply we’re shaped by the people, places, and conditions around us, and how interconnected we already are.

Recently, while meditating on interbeing, I felt grief. There was fear that opening to see experience as relational would threaten my individuality.

This fear inspired a question at the heart of this Immersion:

What if being is relational from the beginning?

Even as you are reading these words, you might notice how much of your experience seems to arise through relationship. These words, the sounds around you, your emotions, your thoughts, and even the act of reading itself all appear in a web of conditions that make them possible. What happens when we become curious about these relationships?

You're invited to a full-day journey of relational presence, where we will explore interbeing. We will notice, feel, and practice together, going beyond merely talking about interbeing as an idea.

This one-day Relational Meditation Immersion will be held at Greatwoods Zen, a Plum Village-style community center next door to Reedy Creek Park. This day offers a powerful complement to silent meditation: the practice of being with others in presence, truth, and love.

This day is not about dissolving yourself into the group, overriding your boundaries, or pretending difference does not matter. It is about becoming more intimate with the paradox, that  we are distinct, and we are not separate. Our needs, limits, longings, and choices matter. And they are always arising within a living web of relationships.

Why Come?

You might be someone who:

• Practices mindfulness and wants to bring that presence into relationship

• Is curious about what “waking up” looks like in connection with others

• Wants to explore interbeing without bypassing values, needs, or boundaries

• Longs for more compassion, honesty, and aliveness in connection

• Wants to experience the paradox of being distinct without being separate

• Is drawn to relational practice as a complement to silent meditation

This immersion is a chance to let these longings become something we practice together. Whether you have been meditating for years, or are new to mindfulness, you are welcome.

What We'll Explore

Across large-group sessions, small groups, and pairs, we'll play in the field of connection:

• Bringing language to what's happening right now, in body, heart, mind, and awareness

• Exploring how the boundaries between self and other are both meaningful and more fluid than they may seem

• Sinking into our experience in connection, letting ourselves feel the aliveness that is already here

• Listening for others’ experience and noticing how our assumptions update in contact 

• Softening control while staying responsible for our impact and choices 

This will be a more structured day, with specific practices and insights relevant to interbeing. You will also have freedom within the structure to bring what is true for you, and choose what and how you share.

What May Become Available

Each person’s experience will be different, and the day itself will be shaped by the particular group that gathers. Some possibilities include:

• A felt sense that your experience does not have to be held alone 

• More trust in what unfolds when we are present in connection

• Greater sensitivity to how your inner world and others’ inner worlds shape one another

• More capacity to stay present while being distinct, honest, and impacted

• Practical ways to bring relational mindfulness into everyday life

At the last Experiments in Interbeing event held earlier this year, the group ended by improvising a poem together about interbeing. Here are a few excerpts from that composition: "No loss, no connection. No suffering, no compassion. No planting, no reaping. No fear, no bravery. No you, no me. No in breath, no out breath. No rejection, no acceptance. No interbeing, no being.” Many people left with a profound sense of being less alone in a more easeful acceptance of the full range of experience, both pleasurable and painful.

What Not to Expect

This is not a therapy session or group healing experience, although healing can occur. It's a group exploration of truth, love, and awareness, created by the people who are present.

We don't promise comfort, breakthroughs, resolution, or specific outcomes. Instead, we create conditions where awareness, curiosity, honesty, and care can emerge in relationship. 

These experiences can include disconnection, uncertainty, and discomfort, and are often described as “a gym for emotional health.” By attending you acknowledge you are able to take self responsibility for your own physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing throughout the gathering.

You will never be required to share beyond your boundaries or participate in any exercise. We welcome both challenge and nourishment as valuable parts of being human.

We value honest expression, and we also stay attentive to its impact on others. This is a space for mindful connection, not expression at any cost. Facilitators may pause or redirect moments that move away from relational presence.

By attending you agree to the following Terms of Service: https://bit.ly/CLT_TOS

Details

🕰 Date & Time: Saturday, November 14th, 2026 | 10am–6pm

🗺️  Location: Greatwoods Zen, 2631 Buckleigh Drive, Charlotte, NC 28215

🥑 Lunch: 90-minute break around 1pm. Vegan meal provided.

🙏 Price (Sliding Scale): Scholarship:$60 | Sustainer: $90 | Benefactor: $120

 Additional scholarships available on request through the generosity of GWZ donors.

📝 Registration: Through Zeffy payment portal. Capped at 13 participants.

📩 Questions: jamesdial99@gmail.com

About Your Facilitator

James Dial is the steward of Relateful Charlotte, devoted to building local spaces of real connection where presence and growth intertwine. He is known for his clear, earnest, heartfelt presence. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Talent and Organizational Development.

If you are curious to hear James speak about how relational meditation can help us experience the “I” as relational rather than separate, listen here: The Personal & Transpersonal

Nowhere to Go, Nothing to Do

Interbeing is already here.

We don’t have to discover, force, or create it. At this daylong immersion we will simply be given chances to re-member what is already here.

Perhaps you can already start to notice it as you are reading this. There may be a resonance with these words, or a resistance, or something more subtle. That response isn’t separate from what you’re reading. The relationship is already here. You’re already in it.

If this type of connection is something you want more of, I hope to see you there.

AI transparency note: This event description was developed from my own writings, inspired by the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh and other Relateful facilitators. AI was used to help organize, clarify, and edit the writing.