Birthday/Focus Circling
Setup: Groups of 3-6
Time: 20-60 minutes (pr. person)

This practice is best done with a designated leader who sets context for the practice and has the responsibility of starting and ending the circle and directing the groups attention and awareness to the person being circled during the duration of the circle. There is an art to leading these circles and you will likely have significantly different experiences with a leader/group who has never tried this before and someone who has some leadership training. 

1) Select the Circlee (the person who will be circled)
– Check with your group if there are anyone who feels a desire to be circled for the amount of time you have decided on.

2) Meditation/Context setting
Invite the group to settle in with eachother and the Circlee by doing a short meditation and context setting. In the meditation you can invite the group to close their eyes, notice what its like for them in the moment, get more in touch with their bodies etc. to support the group to land in the present moment together. 

The context setting is your moment to name what you would like to invite the group into during the Circle.

Context setting. Example 1: 
“We now have 30 minutes to be with X in their world. I feel a bit nervous stepping into this and notice that I feel a need to calm myself down a bit, but actually what I want the most is to be with X from a place of allowance where my nervousness is also welcome. Where all of me (and you all) is welcome. I feel more excited now. I hope you are too. When you are ready to be with X, you can open your eyes and we will see what wants to happen.”

Context setting. Example 2: 
“I feel super excited about getting to be in the world of X for the next 30 minutes. I want to invite you all to really see if you can behold X as a piece of art as we do this practice. Not something to be changed or fixed, but something that is simply happening in front of us and has an impact on us that we can share in the service of connection. I want to invite in a few moments of silence as we open our eyes and bring ourselves into connection with X. Lets begin.”

End the Circle
Ending a Birthday Circle can be tricky.