This is the city cousin of the Retreat – a working demonstration of the same philosophy and goals as our wilderness center, but in an urban setting. We believe that collective growth, the evolution of man, and individual growth and development are inextricably linked. It is in the conduct of our everyday lives that we are able to build the foundation upon which personal growth and truly spiritual lives can be sustained. The strength of this foundation is determined by all the short- and long-term lifestyle choices that confront us. With this understanding we orient our personal work and our labor within the larger community to achieving both the mundane goals of the day-to-day as well as the bigger goals of our personal and collective visions.
At Highland, individuals share, work, and cooperate in a communal living situation. While maintaining businesses and jobs oriented towards service to the greater community, we share in lifestyle skills that promote health and well being physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually. Communication, teamwork and development of programs for personal change are key tools to trouble shooting the individual and collective challenges that come up in living and working together. We are very much part of each other’s lives, while working to positively effect all the people with whom we come into contact. The aim of the Highland Project is to teach skills associated with living and lifestyle so that we and others can learn to make choices that will both create a vibrant health and outlook, and empower a positive impact on our world.
There are a variety of ways you can participate in the Highland Project. We offer different courses and workshops in areas where we feel our experience can be of value in meeting a need for others, such as: lifestyle, healing arts, somatic awareness, athletic training, foundational spiritual practices, and more. You can help at our organic gardening work parties and get a chance to enjoy a few hours of working outside and feel nourished by getting your hands in dirt, working with plants and learn about growing your own food. We offer opportunities to attend tea and music sits, conscious eating dinners, and instruction on food preparation. One of our most popular classes is the Organ Energy Systems Series—where you can learn about an innovative healing approach, oriented towards maintaining a healthy body and unraveling the tangle that keeps us from living the most abundant life we can envision for ourselves. We also offer internships for those who have participated in some of these events and want to experience more fully the benefits of working on lifestyle.
These learning opportunities are presented by individual residents of Highland on a volunteer basis, aside from their individual business pursuits. As an organization, Teachings of Value also works closely with these individual members to support their endeavors, by sharing resources and knowledge and effort to further our common goals. These include: a day care center, an elementary school, parenting skills workshops and individual counseling for both parents and children, one-on-one holistic healing work, nutritional counseling and workshops on cooking and diet, inner practices workshops, running and body workshops and coaching.
