What is the Liberation Experience?
PERSONAL GROWTH.
WISDOM.
ACTIVISM.
WELLNESS.
SCIENCE.
SOCIAL JUSTICE.
UNIFIED.
The Liberation Experience combines teachings from your favorite social justice activists and wellness leaders into one 8-week virtual fellowship to help you change your life and lead change in the world.
Think Patrisse Cullors meets Eckhart Tolle.
Black Lives Matter meets SuperSoul Sunday.
What makes this different
There are lots of conversations “about” change, but very few conversations that actually help change something.
This is not just another online course. It’s a virtual fellowship designed to bridge your individual transformation with the process of collective liberation.
Through live interaction, training, and weekly process groups we will inspire you to lead change for yourself, and learn techniques for opening dialogue with others.
You’ll learn deep shadow work, trauma-informed mindfulness, finding your authentic voice, contemplative wisdom, and scientifically proven, tangible tools to break through fear as we create a bigger vision for both a personal and global future (see the full list of topics below).
No one should have to do the work alone. With this in mind, our journey together is built around four pillars:
INTERACTION
Personal and social change is not a bystander sport; it takes courage, support and practice. That’s why I’ve created weekly live “process groups” that help you embody the teachings and take them into your life.
In these twice weekly virtual small team groups, you’ll get an opportunity to explore your personal experience and mindset around each curriculum topic with an experienced facilitator.
Can’t come live? No stress. We have a plan for you too.
EMPOWERMENT
We empower all of our participants to take what they’ve learned and bring it into their own communities. By the end of this program, you will know how to bring this work to your family, children, workplace, and circles of influence in a way that feels unique and authentic to you.
SAFETY
We know that you often don’t know what to say or how to say it and you’re going to make mistakes as you learn. That’s why we’ve created a safe, compassionate space with trained facilitators as you become trained to find your authentic voice in the movement for change. In our group, you can feel safe to have conversations with new people and make mistakes without being called a racist.
Together
Our Infinity Model (see more below) brings people together across divides—social, political, economic, generational, or racial—to inspire deep connection and guide us through the real, messy conversations required to make this world a better place for us all.
WHAT WILL BE COVERED IN THE PROGRAM?
The Liberation Experience is centered around the core topics that are critical for cultivating an awakened social justice mindset.
Training sessions are held twice per week and will be a mix of learning and process groups.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
The Liberation Experience will meet twice a week between April 19th - June 11th, 2021 for live discussions and teachings.
All main sessions will be recorded. Small team process groups will not—those will be totally confidential. Can't attend the live process groups? No problem. You'll also receive PDF worksheets and special prompts and practices to help you embody the teachings.
WEEK 1: TRUTH & EMOTIONS
Your hidden history.
Explore your personal history with race and racism and learn how your “hidden history” might be causing trauma that persists beyond your conscious awareness. You’ll learn how unprocessed emotions complicate racial healing. We’ll cover anger, shame, guilt, perfectionism, hope, vulnerability, and learn where emotion lives in the body.
WEEK 2: SHADOW & HEALING
What you don’t feel, you can’t heal.
Together, we will dive deep into the shadows, shining light on the hidden habits that cause us to internalize oppression and hold us back every time we try to grow.
WEEK 3: OPPRESSION & DOUBT
Oppressing others vs. Oppressing yourself.
Explore how you might be unconsciously contributing to the cycles of oppression and internalizing the same oppression that you’re hoping to fight against, and how cynicism and doubt keep us from making progress in our lives and in the world. Together, we will stop the cycles within.
WEEK 4: FORGIVENESS
Forgiving Self vs. Forgiving others.
You’ll be introduced to a 5-step Process of Forgiveness: Being Heard, Releasing Control, Accountability, Atonement, and Letting Go. Learning how to apply these lessons to your personal relationships, and to racial healing.
WEEK 5: VISION
Create a new vision for your life and the world.
Learn how we can co-create a vision where our differences are honored, but we know that we are stronger together.
WEEK 6: VOICE
Your authentic voice.
Find your authentic voice in the movement for equality. Given all we know now, what is our new vision for the world? And how do we use our authentic voice to share the movement for change? You will learn to call people “forward” instead of “calling people out,” and create scripts to enroll your friends, family members, and coworkers in this new vision for equality.
WEEK 7: EMBODIMENT
Becoming Free.
Science has proven that trauma lives in our bodies. How do we remove the trauma that’s stored in our physical bodies so we can feel fully, and truly free?
WEEK 8: ACTION
Becoming Free.
Liberation means both “becoming free” and “setting free.” Thus, true liberation empowers us to pay it forward. To fully embody the teachings, you will learn how to take this message into your own home, family, and community, and even how to start creating your own micro-communities to spread this message of hope and empowerment to the corners of the world where only you can reach.
Meet Your Host: Justin Michael Williams
Justin Michael Williams, 34, is an author, transformational speaker, and top 20 recording artist who works at the intersection of music, mindfulness, and social justice.
From growing up with gunshot holes outside of his bedroom window to sharing the stage with Marianne Williamson and Deepak Chopra, Justin knows well the pain of adversity and the power of healing to overcome. He has since been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Grammy.com, Billboard.com, The Root, The Advocate, Yoga Journal, and SXSW®.
With his groundbreaking book Stay Woke, and over a decade of teaching experience, Justin has become a pioneering voice for diversity and inclusion in wellness. His message of hope and empowerment has spread to more than 40 countries around the globe.
Justin is dedicated to using his voice to serve; to being a beacon of hope for those who are lost, and to making sure all people, of all backgrounds, have access to the information they need to change their lives. Learn more at justinmichaelwilliams.com
MEET YOUR HOST: SHELLY TYGIELSKI
Shelly Tygielski is the Founder of Pandemic of Love, a global, grass-roots volunteer-led mutual aid community that has directly matched over 500,000 people since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for over $38 million in direct transactions.
She is a trauma-informed mindfulness teacher, a community organizer, self-care activist and an author, with a forthcoming book, Sit Down to Rise Up due out in the Fall of 2021.
After spending almost 20 years in Corporate America, she turned to teaching “modern-life mindfulness” full-time and has become a “self-care activist” who focuses much of her time in communities that are underserved.
Shelly is a certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) instructor and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University.
Her work has been featured on CNN, Forbes, Upworthy, the Kelly Clarkson Show and Good Morning America and she was recently recognized by Vice President Joe Biden as being one of the individuals that is restoring “the soul of America.”
MEET YOUR SPECIAL GUESTS
Robert Augustus Masters, PhD
(Shadow Work)
Dr. Sará King, PhD (The Science of Social Justice)
Dr. Dan Siegel, PhD
(The Science of Intraconnection)
Brothers Koren
(Claiming Your Big Voice)
David Gruder
(How to Have Difficult Conversations About Touchy Topics in Good Ways)
Introducing: The Infinity Model
With the Infinity Model, Black people, white people, and people of color start as one group, but then split into “Infinity Groups” based upon race.
Throughout the sessions, you will continue to weave in and out (kind of like an infinity symbol) as you explore customized content based upon your self-identified ethnicity, with planned intersections, exercises, journal prompts, and clear action steps to call forth a deeper level of vulnerability and understanding across divides.
The goal = to bring us together.
Sometimes BIPOC and white identified people will do their work united together, sometimes in separate groups, sometimes alone, sometimes in a “fish-bowl” watching one another process—but always held in the same safe container, walking toward healing side-by-side.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BEING PART OF THIS PROGRAM?
Deeper Understanding of Self: your racial history; how history and culture have impacted your view of yourself and others; and what inherent traits/skills you might have that will help you lead social change in your own authentic way.
Broader Perspective of Others: learning from others’ stories; understanding shared racial experiences that are different from your own; creating healing up-close.
Strength and Healing: you’ll “do the work” and gain strength from accomplishment; heal personal wounds; learn how to step into your power in the parts of your life where you feel muted.
Conversation Templates: learn exactly how to call your friends and family forward into the movement for change with step-by-step templates, making those tough conversations so much easier.
Feel Liberated: Reduce fear and anxiety around not knowing or understanding; Express yourself without feeling fear of “saying the wrong thing”; find liberation in your life as you also learn to change the world.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
It’s for all of us. The Liberation Experience is an inclusive experience that brings people together across divides. People of color and white people. The privileged, and the oppressed.
Because if we don’t stand together, then we’ll never, ever be free.
Inclusivity
Here in this community, we don’t just “honor” or “tolerate” each other’s differences, but we know we are stronger because of them.
We believe that no matter who you love, how much money you have, how much trauma you’ve been through, or what color your skin is—we all deserve to live in the full capacity of the dignity, hope, purpose, joy, and abundance that is our birthright.
Regardless of your age, gender, race, sexual orientation, political beliefs, or socioeconomic status—you are welcome here.
TESTIMONIALS
HEAR FROM OTHERS WHO'VE EXPERIENCED JUSTIN'S WORK
Within 5 minutes of being in the presence of all of these beautiful faces—even though it was only on zoom—you immediately felt the connection. It was really inspiring to see so many beautiful, open-minded, conscious, like-minded people in one place at one time. And it’s a really beautiful reminder of the world we want to see, even when sometimes it doesn’t feel like it exists. ~ Shelah Marie
The Woke Lab blessed my soul. I learned that the only way out is in. We have to disconnect and examine ourselves eternally to get the best possible results, “If it doesn’t heal it repeats”. Heal one thing at a time and you will see progress. You have to be the change you want to see. ~ Xavier (FL)
After going to one of your trainings - my life changed. I’ve been far more in touch with my intuition - which has resulted in a rapid growth in my creative career. ~ Raye Z (Los Angeles)
Wow. The Woke Lab is what, I think, many of us have been waiting for. So many of us, especially white folks, feel desperate to start shaking things up and learning how to make a difference with racism and understanding white supremacy but just don’t know where to start. THIS is a start. These calls brought people of all colors, shapes, sizes, ages, backgrounds, upbringings, understandings from around the planet. We are in the fight together. ~ Kathleen (Portland)
The Woke Lab reminded me that I am not alone on this journey called life and that's ok to ask for help. When I ask, all that is required appears. This experience allowed me to recognize and embrace anger and fear as my friend and teacher. By doing so I reclaim my personal power and move forward with my life. ~ Robert (CA)
I have been an activist for many years; much newer to meditation. As I read and follow the guided meditations I realize more and more that the personal meditation practice I am creating is supporting me to be fully engaged with the world, rather than to detach from it. And I love knowing that I am part of a community. We rise together. ~ Alison (Canada)
Justin Michael Williams is a masterful presenter who fluidly weaves mindfulness. ~ Janice Lewis, Creator and Guide for Peace Club in Chicago
Thank you so much for educating us, holding space for us, and for lifting us up. This was so necessary, so needed, and so essential. Everyone that participated has left an imprint on my heart and my spirit and has officially become a part of my reason for getting up everyday and being mindful and stepping into my purpose. ~ Ra (San Diego)
