How We Care for Each Other
the land and our SACRED Community agreements
When we gather, we look after each other. Those holding the space and those joining it share the same care for one another, for the land, and for the space we make together. We bring the love and care we want to receive.
Inside that care, your choices remain yours. We support them with what we offer: preparation, presence, integration, and honesty about what we can and can't hold. If you need more support than our circle can safely give,
we will help you find it.
The land that holds us
We gather on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Piikani and Kainai), the Tsuut'ina Nation, and the Îethka Stoney Nakoda Nations (Chiniki, Bearspaw and Goodstoney), in what is now called Southern Alberta, the land of Treaty 7. This land is also home to the Métis, including the Otipemisiwak Métis Government and the Elbow and Nose Hill Métis Districts. The place where the Bow and Elbow rivers meet is called Mohkinstsis in Blackfoot.
We live here, play here and raise our families here. We hold that as a responsibility: to care for this land as stewards, with love, and to honour the treaty and the peoples who have cared for it since time immemorial.
How we give back
✧ We volunteer as helpers at Indigenous ceremonies, supporting the work of restoring lost access and healing pain.
✧ We learn from and support Indigenous-led events and teachers, and pay them fairly.
✧ We leave the land as we found it or better, with no trace after fires and gatherings.
✧ We pay the landholders and hosts who welcome us fairly.
The E2E Community SACRED Agreements
Every Essence to Essence gathering is a shared container. These agreements help us create a space where each person can remain connected to themselves while caring for one another and the whole.
SACRED is not about being perfect in the space. It is a shared practice of returning: to ourselves, to one another, to our core values, to humility, the land, and to the agreements that help make deeper work possible with care and healthy capacity.
-
You always have a choice, including the choice to be supported.
You are invited to listen to your own body, intuition, needs and limits. You may slow down, pause, ask questions, change your mind or say no at any point. Together we hold responsibility for the space, the preparation and the care around your experience, so your choices are supported and never left for you to carry alone.
We honour each person's right to decide, and we are right in it with you.
-
We listen to what is happening within us, between us and around us.
Attunement asks us to notice rather than rush: our bodies, emotions, needs, capacity, and the people sharing the space with us.
We practise presence, curiosity, and responsiveness instead of assumption.
"'I feel you feeling me' is the basic building block of relational intelligence.” - Thomas Hübl
-
We meet what arises with tenderness and responsibility.
Deep experiences can include beauty, discomfort, vulnerability, uncertainty, laughter, grief, resistance, and surprise. We make room for the full range of human experience without trying to fix or interpret one another.
Care sometimes includes challenge: staying with discomfort instead of escaping it, and being honest with one another in a loving way.
We care for ourselves, one another, and the shared space, and that sometimes may mean practising containment for the welfare of everyone.
Personal stories and experiences shared within the group are held in confidence. You are free to speak about your own experience afterward, while protecting the privacy of others.
Please do not screenshot, forward, or repeat another person's story without permission.
-
We honour boundaries, dignity, and the shared nature of the container.
Respect includes consent, mindful communication, physical and emotional boundaries, and allowing others to have experiences different from our own. Silence is participation too.
Before giving advice, feedback, resources, or interpretation, ask: "Would you like support, ideas, or just to be heard?"
Couples are encouraged to speak for themselves and not monitor or manage each other's experience.
Reciprocity reminds us that community is something we both receive from and contribute to. We participate with consideration for the people, place, those holding the space, land, and resources supporting the gathering.
Repair recognises that ruptures happen when people gather, even with the best of care. When someone is hurt or a boundary is crossed, we pause, listen to the impact, take responsibility and make amends where we can. Anyone can ask for repair, including with those holding the space. -
We practise honesty, integrity and clear agreements, and we meet what arises with steadiness.
We communicate truthfully, respect consent and confidentiality, and take responsibility for our choices and impact.
If something feels unclear, uncomfortable, or out of alignment, we encourage conversation rather than silent assumption.
Equanimity invites us to stay steady and kind with whatever arises, in ourselves and in one another. We let experiences come and go without clinging to the pleasant or pushing away the difficult. From that steadiness, we can respond with care instead of reacting from fear or urgency.
-
We slow down, question what we have inherited, and leave room for the sacred pause.
Discernment invites us to notice before we interpret, act, advise, or assign meaning. Not everything needs to be understood, resolved, or shared immediately.
Decolonization invites us to examine the assumptions, hierarchies, habits, and systems we have inherited, including ideas about authority, expertise, ownership, productivity, spirituality, and whose ways of knowing are valued.
We practise humility around traditions, teachings, and cultures that are not our own. We seek relationship rather than extraction, reciprocity rather than entitlement, and respect for lineage, land, community, and context.
We remain willing to question what we think we know, notice power and privilege where they are present, and make space for more relational and responsible ways of being.
We honour reflection, uncertainty, silence, grounded wisdom, and the possibility that meaning may continue to emerge long after the gathering ends.
What this looks like in practice
Promises are easy to write, we know - but these are the ones we keep, every time.
You can always say no.
Pause, step out or change your mind, and the circle stays with you either way.
✧ We ask of each other: care for yourself, for each other and for the space.
You will be seen.
We keep circles small on purpose.
✧ We ask of each other: notice and check in for clarity and meaning, before you react.
Care before and after.
Preparation before and integration after, so no one is left uncared for with what opens up.
✧ We ask of each other: come to preparation, and tell us what you need.
Your story is safe here.
Health and personal history are spoken about privately, and what is shared in circle stays there.
✧ We ask of each other: keep other people's stories in the room.
Consent comes first.
We ask before advice, touch or interpretation. We are human and may sometimes forget. If that happens, you are always free to say no, and it will be received with care. When needed, we chose repair.
✧ We ask of each other: ask first, and receive a no with grace.
Clear and fair.
Pricing and terms are clear before you pay, and we care for the land that holds us.
✧ We ask of each other: take part with care for the people, place and land.
We repair when we get it wrong.
If we miss something or cause hurt, we listen, own it and make it right as best we can.
✧ We ask of each other: name it when something lands wrong, and stay open to repair.
We will tell you the truth.
Including when something isn't the right fit.
✧ We ask of each other: speak up if something feels off.
Your meaning is yours.
We don't borrow sacred practices that aren't ours, and we help you find your own meaning without telling you what it means.
✧ We ask of each other: stay curious, and leave room for what isn't understood yet.
If we ever miss something here, please tell us. That is part of caring for each other too.