How the Right Livelihood Quest Process Works

The Right Livelihood Quest is a journey of 8 weeks, delivered in a blended (both virtual and in-person) approach.

The Quest is conducted in small and intimate groups of up to 20 participants, in three sequential phases. Phase 1/Preparation is the first 4 weeks of the Quest, where you engage in a series of weekly webinars, guided activities, reflections, experiences, and readings. This is done individually, and you complete it wherever you are. Phase 2/Retreat is a residential 5 day face-to-face retreat – a deep dive and is the core of the journey. Phase 3/Integration happens after the retreat part of the Quest is complete, guiding you to assimilate and integrate the retreat experience and impact into your life. When this phase is complete, you join our growing community of practice of past Quest participants.

Two important and essential philosophies and frameworks of support for the process of the Quest are the Enneagram and the Hero’s Journey.

The Enneagram

With a diverse and mysterious history, the image of the Enneagram (ennea-nine, gram-image) dates back at least 3500 years and represents within it an entire universe of dynamic rhythms, patterns, and laws that can be applied to virtually any aspect of reality.

The Enneagram of Personality is a complex psychological map that points to nine distinct personality types often called “fixations” which, when properly understood, can illuminate a myriad of unconscious behaviours and motivations operating within us that are keeping us stuck in repeating patterns and habits. When we can see these fixations for what they are, we can begin to de-identify from these predictable, unhealthy patterns of personality and ultimately connect with something far more real, essential and expansive within us.

“The Enneagram model suggests that each individual views 360 degrees of reality through a narrow slice of perception based on early coping strategies that were used to adapt to the environment in childhood. These coping strategies grow into patterns of perceiving the world and shape what we pay attention to and what we don’t pay attention to.” – Beatrice Chestnut

Throughout the Quest, we will use the Enneagram’s core teachings of awareness and presence to frame many aspects of the journey and provide context and guidance to the deeper aspects of the inquiry.

The Hero’s Journey

Joseph Campbell’s lifetime study of the world’s mythologies brought us the distilled essence of the movement of all our lives through what he called The Hero’s Journey, the monomyth. This is the same story that we all know intuitively and love to watch again and again in our favourite Hollywood movies or read in our favourite books. We recognize it because we are all doing it. This process of transformation through challenge and adversity seems to be a universal template for our souls evolution.

Our soul is on a journey and there are stages that we must go through for our growth and evolution. The particular predictable stages along this cyclical journey also happen to correlate with the movement around the outside of the Enneagram. Starting and completing the journey at point 9, each point on the Enneagram correlates to a process along the Hero’s Journey and aligns closely to the journey of the Right Livelihood Quest.

Before You Start

To embark on this journey with us, you need to say YES to the following:

  • I am committing to attending all the scheduled activities and experiences of the Quest, be they in-person or virtual.
  • I am ready to commit to a deep, evoking, and transformative journey, which will bring up both beauty and challenges.
  • I am ready to engage fully, without holding back, into my own inquiry and also be a supporter to my cohort members.
  • I have a contemplative/reflective practice (journalling, meditation), or, at the very least, I am ready to start exploring one that would resonate. Having one as you go through the program is a mandatory requirement. I am more than happy to share our experience and resources that can be of help for you.

Phase 1/Preparation includes:

  • Weekly webinars, introducing the themes and the activities.
  • Enneagram typing process (for those who don’t know their Enneagram type).
  • An overview of the Enneagram and the Hero’s Journey, as well as their relevance to the process of the Quest.
  • Weekly emails with instructions to guide you through the process. There will be a weekly theme, a reflection question, a task to complete (for instance, make a collage on a particular topic), and a description of an activity to undertake in Nature (once or several times during the week).
  • Reading the “Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life” book by Gregg Levoy, and reflect on the insights and ideas that are resonating for you.
  • You will get the opportunity to introduce yourself and get to know the other participants. Thus, by the time you arrive to the retreat, you will have already met the other participants, and formed connections that will enrich everyone’s learning and growing experiences of the inquiry process.

Phase 2/Retreat of the process is the residential in-person retreat. Some of the activities that happen during this phase are:

  • Morning movement – gentle, yet engaging, movement and somatic activities that tap into the wisdom of the body.
  • Experiences that blend diverse indigenous wisdom with psychological and adult learning modalities.
  • Theoretical and experiential learning processes blended with large and small group dialogues, individual experiences in the natural world, quiet solitude and reflection time, creative expression moments, and free contemplation/reflection/rest times. Rich, diverse, evoking, insightful, and fun (among other things).
  • One-on-one time with the retreat facilitator(s), to deepen the inquiry and insights into the various dimensions of the Why Me?™ Framework.

Phase 3/Integration guides and supports you to integrate the experience of the Quest/retreat into your life:

  • Weekly webinars.
  • Guided activities and online dialogues.

Once the Quest journey is complete, you are invited to join a private online community of practice of past, present, and future Quest participants (as a lifelong membership offering). This will become your opportunity to continue integrating the learning of the journey in a community of like-hearted and like-minded others.

The Blended Quest in-person retreats take place in various locations throughout North America, and expanding to other geographical regions as well. The focus is on locations that are fairly secluded and away from “civilization,” situated in beautiful natural settings, with all your needs being taken care of. There are options of sleeping in tents, cabins, and other arrangements, all depending on the specific location and the group you are joining.

I am available to you during and after the Quest, for any support, questions, or further explorations that you might be interested in.