Details
Facilitated by
Brooke Thomas
Date/Time
Saturday | 1:00pm - 4:00pm | June 6
Cost
$39 to Members | $49 for Non-Members
Location
The Hive: A Center for Contemplation, Art, and Action | In Person
1628 Hoffner St Cincinnati, OH 45223
About the Class
Domains
Description
Meditation, mindfulness, and embodiment were never meant to be escape routes from the world or tools for polishing the individual self. Though often repackaged in the West as self‑improvement strategies—wrapped in the familiar paper of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism—these ancient practices were originally communal practices. They were meant to be lived in the middle of the mess, held in Sangha, and carried into the world as sources of clarity, compassion, and wise engagement.
This practice period returns to that original intention. Together we explore what it means to let our contemplative life move with us—into our relationships, our communities, and the places where suffering calls for response. We practice not to become better at sitting alone in a quiet room, but to become better at being together: more grounded, more courageous, more available to one another and to the world.
At the heart of our time is the teaching of Strong Back, Soft Front, as offered by Roshi Joan Halifax. This embodied practice invites us into a posture of courageous presence—a strong back that holds integrity, boundaries, and moral clarity, and a soft front that remains open, tender, and responsive to the suffering around us. Compassion as soft front. Courage as strong back. Both necessary. Both trainable.
Through guided meditation, embodied practice, reflection, and shared inquiry, we explore how awareness becomes action—how inner steadiness supports outer engagement, and how contemplative practice can help us meet these times with resilience, humility, and heart.
This Class Is For:
You’re longing for a contemplative space that is rooted in community, not individual self‑optimization.
You want practices that help you stay present and grounded while engaging the real demands of the world.
You’re curious about Strong Back, Soft Front as a way to cultivate embodied courage and compassion.
You feel the limits of “solo practice” and want to explore meditation as something lived with others.
You’re seeking ways to bring your contemplative commitments into relationships, community work, and justice‑oriented action.
You want to practice turning toward difficulty—not with collapse or defensiveness, but with clarity and care.
You’re ready to explore what it means to be more fully human, more fully connected, and more fully available to the world around you.
Intention of the Hive
When you join a Hive experience, you're invited into our intention to create a group experience that's inclusive, rooted in mindfulness, and dynamically relational. We aspire for each Hive experience to model these intentions, and even to refine them as we continue to learn how to gather in a way that's transformative! The embodiment of these intentions by Hive facilitators, Members, and class participants is what makes the Hive the unique and healing social container that many experience it to be. To view our Hive Intentions for gathering, click here.
More About the Facilitators
Brooke Thomas
is an educator, meditator, and lover of nature and the human spirit. A trained mindfulness meditation teacher through Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield's certification program, she currently serves as a mindfulness facilitator for nonprofits, schools, and businesses in Cincinnati. In her guidance, Brooke explores themes of connection and radical compassion through meditation, movement, and nature-inspired practices. Brooke is an advocate for the integration of mindfulness in all areas of life as a way to support individual and collective wellbeing and liberation. An avid hiker and backpacker, Brooke weaves her passion for nature and adventure into her work and offers a variety of tools to support people of all ages and backgrounds in developing a sustainable mindfulness practice that is playful, practical, and rooted in care.