a school for remembering how to dance with Life
Feeling Alive 101
When was the last time you felt… curious, joyful, enough? Like your life is truly yours?
It’s not because you don’t have these feelings — it’s because most schools, workplaces, and the endless scroll of daily life weren’t designed for curiosity or joy or enough. In this class we’ll remember together and practice noticing and basking in our aliveness in everyday life.
Things we’ll explore:
- remembering what feels good
- letting go & finding space
- discomfort, awkwardness, (the joys of) uncertainty
- enough vs. abundance and scarcity
- agency, permission, potential
- moving in the world, in relationship with Life
6 sessions, weekly on Tuesdays, 7-8:15pm
In-person, Somerville, MA
Starts Sept. 15, register by Sept. 10
$250 – founding-cohort rate
register →This will take you to a registration page with FractalU Boston.
questions?
What is this? Who is it for?
A class for people tired of feeling so much stress, scarcity, separation and powerless, and ready to feel alive – joyful, curious, connected, agentic – again. Together, we remember what aliveness actually feels like and practice holding those feelings in a system built to make us forget.
What happens in a class?
Over the course of the six weeks, we'll practice:
- Remembering what “good” feels like
- Leaning back and letting go
- Being with discomfort and awkwardness
- Enoughness, as an alternative to scarcity
- Recognizing our agency, power, and potential
- Honoring our relationship with Life
Each class incorporates a mix of community check-ins, guided somatic meditations, imagining/visualizations, story-sharing, and practicing with peers. It's less “sit in a circle and talk about your feelings” and more structured practice with activities you'll be able to use long after the six classes end.
Who's “teaching”?
Olivia Powell, someone committed to nurturing imagination, agency, and aliveness in our communities and ourselves. Olivia is a somatic coach, storyteller, imagination activist, learning and experience designer, and workshop facilitator who's designed and led experiences with Columbia's School of the Arts, organizations across tech/healthcare/consulting/you name it, and local communities. That said, Olivia is not to “teach” i.e., be an expert who's hands you that one technique you've just been missing. Her role is this class is to invite you in, cultivate the conditions for aliveness in the class, and guide the practice; your role is to actively tune in and participate in your experience.
I know I'm alive, why would I take a class in this?
You're exactly right – you already have and know everything this class is about. So why join? Because so many parts of our daily lives are designed to pull us back towards stress and scarcity. So many of us feel stuck in some version of a life that's: Wake up, go to work, be at work, come home, complain about work, do something for yourself if there's time, maybe more caregiving or cleaning, go to bed, repeat. It's hard to practice noticing and honoring what else life has to offer alone. The class format offers structured time, regular practice, maybe some new insights or ideas, and perhaps most importantly, intentional connection.
How will I know if this class helps?
You might notice feelings – like joy, wonder, contentment – that you'd normally rush past and let yourself bask in them instead. You might catch yourself mid-scarcity-spiral and remember there's another way to think about satisfying needs. You might start noticing the rhythm of your days, what's actually working for you and what isn't – and remembering that you have more say in the matter than it might feel like you do.
The end goal of this class is not to escape your rhythm, blow up your life, opt out. Or to get a certificate of aliveness. It's about expanding your awareness and skillfulness in a way that helps your daily rhythms feel truly worthy of your life.
Story Class
Play with the building blocks of story to help us imagine – and create – the worlds we actually want to live in.
Do you love stories (romantasy, fantasy, sci-fi, all of it) but get tired of the same tropes (enemies-to-lovers, far-out worlds, characters who have to go from rags to riches or save the entire universe just to make things better for their community, their family)? Still believe, despite it all, that stories are essential and expansive and can be more than just escapist?
Me too.
In this series, we'll explore key elements of storytelling and worldbuilding; interrogate them alongside more regenerative perspectives on power, lineage, relationships, and more; and remix them to map out stories that reflect the worlds we actually want to live in. All while still trying to keep things compelling and cohesive.
Note: This is not just for writers. Any kind of storyteller, artist, person is more than welcome!
6 sessions, weekly on Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm
In-person, Somerville, MA
Starts Sept. 17, register by Sept. 11
$300 – founding-cohort rate
register →This will take you to a registration page with FractalU Boston.
What will we be doing?
Each class will include a mix of:
- Peer check-ins
- Story element deep dives
- Imaginative activities
- Artifact creation (e.g., writing, painting, music-making)
- Sharing and reflection
With your guide, Olivia (& Lupin) — who spent years finding her way back into relationship with creativity, power, and potential after school disconnected her from them, and who’d be honored to walk alongside you.
Pinned to the wall of our schoolroom is a long roll of poster paper, covered in things people wish they’d been taught — the stuff that never made it onto a syllabus, but that we all needed anyway.
