a four-month practice community about orienting our lives towards what we really care about and the worlds we are longing for

Subscribe at joycast.substack.com for updates

<aside> ℹ️

Download a 1-page PDF here.

</aside>

<aside> 🎟️

APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN! Please fill in this form (opens a new page). Deadline for the March-June 2026 cohort is Thursday, March 19th.

</aside>

personal compass captioned.mp4

A fresh-for-2026-realities redesign of the much-loved Life Architecture community learning and action series, this 4-month programme invites participants to collectively imagine and practice living in ways that are more alive with what we truly care about.

This will be a space to practice economies of mutuality and interdependence, rather than scarcity and individualism. Starting in March, will meet once a month for 4 months, with support prompts and resources for in-between.

Online using Zoom, plus a repository of online resources and a couple of Berlin-based meetups.

What is Personal Compass?

“In indigenous ways of knowing, it is understood that each living being has a particular role to play. Every being is endowed with certain gifts, its own intelligence, its own spirit, its own story. Our stories tell us that the Creator gave these to us, as original instructions. The foundation of education is to discover that gift within us and learn to use it well.

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss

The goal of the the Personal Compass series is to walk a small and committed cohort of folks from a starting point — what do I care about? what are my values? what are my intentions at this point in my life? — through to the first steps of how they could actually put those into practice for the movements that move them, and to do so in a sustainable, regenerative way (ie, not charging towards burnout in the first steps).

In-between, we practice dreaming and experimenting, two essential but oft-forgotten steps on the way to (as my longtime friend and co-organizer Kes always says) “doing-the-thing.” And rather than just solo-talking to a coach or reading our way through another self-help book or online course, we get to talk to other people along the way.

In the final lap, we’ll document our intentions and map a plan-of-action, including what support we might need to call in.

There’s a lot of power in daring to say things out loud to other people — even if I didn’t believe this on a spiritual level, there’s a lot of neuroscience to back it up. By having this process happen in and through a facilitated, conversation- and creativity-based space, folks not only get the benefit of verbal processing and naming things out loud, but also have conversation partners who are going through the same thing, get real-time feedback and support for their ideas, get inspired to dream a bit bigger or a bit wilder or a bit weirder, and even find co-conspirators for activating the things they are dreaming of and longing for.

Most importantly, though this four-month programme, we create a temporary community of care, practicing what interdependence can look like when we are moving towards what we are longing for — personally and collectively.

Questions we’ll explore

Using participatory, conversation- and creativity-based methods, we will explore some of these questions together:

• What are my personal ethics and intentions in this life? What do I really care about, and why?
• What shifts might I like to make in how I spend my precious life energy?
• According to my ethics, which movement(s) are calling to me, and what might it look like to show up in active solidarity in a sustainable way?
• What are my personal strengths, based on my own lived experiences, wisdom, knowledge, learnings and skills I already have? Are there further skills/learnings I might want to explore to help me show up in my values for the moment we find ourselves in?
• What sorts of concrete possibilities fit within the frames I am outlining for myself? What are the areas where I have some agency to change things? What are the areas where I have less agency / feel more restricted, and why?
• What's a possible plan for regenerative, long-term engagement around the things I care about? With whom do I need to connect to support me and keep me accountable in this journey?
• And more…

This is for you if…

• You’ve noticed (or at least started to suspect) that the world as we have known it is collapsing
• You’re feeling scared, tired or overwhelmed by that fact
• You want to connect to likeminded cuties who are struggling with these questions, to support them while supporting yourself
• You have experienced or are scared of experiencing burnout related to the ways you show up in your ethics
• You know you care about other people and the earth we share, but you get overwhelmed trying to figure out how to put that love into action while surviving late capitalism

What you can expect:

• A series rooted in a shared vision of a world where everyone can thrive, recognizing that we are all affected differently by the systems we live within, and bringing that knowledge and experience to the table.
• Consent-based, trauma-informed, inclusion-oriented space that invites you to arrive as your whole damn self, just as you are.
• Mix of many different activity types for different body/mind and learning types. For example: personal reflections; paired, small group and larger-group conversations; creative and art practices; embodiment/somatics/movement practices; daydreaming; creative writing.
• Starting in the very squishy place of outlining our “why” (ethics/intentions) and moving through to the very practical and material (concrete next steps and action plan).
• Conversations with a community of peers, rather than a 1:1 with a coach or therapist. There is a track record of very sweet and supportive people signing up for this! Maybe you are one of them? :)
• Honestly? It’s just cute and fun and wholesome af.

Session dates (intent is for you to join all sessions)

16:00-19:00 CET (15:00-18:00 UK, 10:00am-1:00pm U.S. Eastern, 7:00am-10:00 U.S. Pacific)

• March 22nd — Grounding
• April 26th — Dreaming
• May 24th — Experimenting
• June 28th — Emerging

Pricing

Money, resources, access and identity are all such personal and (sometimes) emotional topics.

I offer my services on a sliding scale. What does that mean? (Hint: it’s NOT about offering my labor at a “for-sale” price!)

Read more about my commitment to sliding scale here.

The price-points for this programme are:

• Supporting others price: 125€ per 2.5 hour session (500€ total)
• Full price: 75€ per 2.5 hour session (300€ total)
• Financial need price: 50€ per 2.5 hour session (200€ total)

<aside> 💚

If you can pay on the higher end of the scale, you can help fund the course for those who can’t — a beautiful chance to practice cross-class solidarity before we even begin!

</aside>

These can be paid up a lump-sum before we start, or in monthly instalments.

As an independent facilitator, these prices go directly into covering my personal costs of living (rent, food, medicines, insurances, etc.), so that hopefully I can continue to offer these kinds of workshops directly to my communities in a sustainable way.

Money, resources, access and identity are all such personal and (sometimes) emotional topics. For that reason, I’m always happy to be in conversation with you about them, if for some reason the above doesn’t feel right to you. You can use the contact form on this website to reach out!

About your facilitator

Hi, I'm Sarj. I'm a seasoned facilitator and community care organizer based in Berlin. Learn more about my lineage and commitments here.

Questions?

Feel free to write me here.