Events Calendar
THE ART OF SURRENDER

hosted by Rev. Tonia Pinheiro
with guest sibling Nirmala Nataraj
at Presence of Essence, Sunday, September 14, 2025
7-8:30 pm ET $22

Join us and our guest sibling Nirmala Nataraj on Sunday, September 14, 2025, 7:00-8:30 pm ET as we explore the art of surrender – as both a mystical practice and a creative act — while honoring the profound difficulty of softening in a world that so often demands we stay braced.
Nirmala: For many of us, especially those inhabiting Black and Brown bodies, surrender can feel dangerous in a culture where vigilance has been necessary for survival. Through a weaving of guided meditation, contemplative writing, and shared silence, we’ll enter a space where we can listen differently—to the body, to the breath, to what moves beneath language. Together, we’ll ask what it means to let go without abandoning ourselves, to court safety without collapsing, and to open to the intelligence moving through us even when the world teaches us to guard against it. You’ll leave with embodied prompts and inner pathways—tools for cultivating your own relationship with surrender as a practice of power, tenderness, and radical belonging.
This session will be recorded.

NIRMALA NATARAJ is a New York–based writer, editor, book midwife, theater artist, and mythmaker. Her work lives at the crossroads of creativity, mythology, storytelling, and collective liberation. As a multi-genre collaborator and creative facilitator, she believes in generative solutions in the midst of chaos, the coexistence of messiness and magic, and breathtaking beauty as a natural consequence of this wild ride. She is trained in a variety of methods of narrative-based collective healing, including Family Constellations, Psychodrama, and Playback Theatre. Some of the passions she brings to her facilitation include movement (especially 5 Rhythms), guided visualization and the induction of visionary states, the cultivation of radical intimacy with the human and more-than-human world, and creative collaboration from unexpected prompts. You can check out her work at nirmalanataraj.com or subscribe to her Substack newsletter, The Diving Bell Spider.
TO REGISTER
To register for Presence of Essence – The Art of Surrender with Nirmala Nataraj
use this “Wake Up! Works – Tonia P – Sanctuary” PayPal link
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=MYDMJ2LGUYLM4
to donate $22 per person by or before 11 pm ET on Friday 9/12/25
Please include “9/14 Art of Surrender” in the note field.
You will receive the Zoom link by email after payment is received.
Email Rev.ToniaP @ gmail.com with any questions
NOTE: There will be no refunds for this event but you will receive a copy of the recording.
Presence of Essence

a weekly gathering with Tonia and kindred spirits to facilitate
the conscious Presence of our Soul Essence in daily life.
Sundays at 7 pm ET, for 60-90 minutes on Zoom
~ starting Sunday, May 4, 2025 ~ all ages and identities welcome!
Details and how to register on Group Events page.

Transmission Meditation
Past Events
A meeting with Master Tehuti Sat. Feb 22, 2025, 1 pm ET on Zoom

Noir Roots Fair - Saturday, October 5, 2024 - Pittsfield MA


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