Athena Challenge Women's Intensive 2026

Art by The Bridge Brothers

Hello Dear Beings ~
 
This is the yearly invitation to join a 6-week long intimate circle of activating accountability and support. For seven in-person meetings, we’ll come together and consciously call upon the balance of Alpha directive support and structure and Omega flow, multiplying that internal relationship exponentially through the reflective mastermind and commitment of a group of eight powerful women.
 
Past circles have been fertile grounds for focus, with multiple launched projects and businesses, significant personal growth, and lasting friendships. This is an opportunity for an accelerated, supported detox and reset for your life. We begin the final Monday in January and close the second week of March, making this a richly invigorating way to launch the year.
 
THE CONTEXT: A 6-week-long intensive exercise of clearing space and seeing what can be fostered in a focused container of radical self-care, discipline, and sisterhood support.
 
THE PURPOSE: To take on a rigorous, intense challenge that serves as a catalyst for positive change in all the realms of life most important to us. By closing off the usual escape routes, we have an opportunity to experience and move through the underlying emotional and mental habits we’ve been avoiding addressing. In bringing extraordinary intentionality to our day-to-day living, through wholeheartedness, joyful engagement, generosity, and loving-kindness while addressing and clearing out all breaches in integrity, we consciously step into a powerful vision for ourselves.
 
FORMAT:
~ 7 weekly in-person, mastermind-style meetings creating a clear 6-week-long container
~ An accountability partner for daily support
~ A Slack workspace to keep in touch with the group throughout the week
~ Shared integrity agreements witnessed and held by the group
~ Weekly visioning assignments to focus and inspire all major areas of your well-being
~ A worksheet to support the awareness and deep clearing of everything from relationship challenges to getting an oil change.
~ A group volunteer shift (approximately 4 hours) with an organization agreed on by the group
 
INTEGRITY AGREEMENTS:
~  You agree to make the following overarching commitments during the Athena Challenge Intensive:
~ You agree to treat your physical body with utmost kindness through a renewing, healthy regimen of nutrition and exercise, as well as sound healthcare.
~  You agree to get adequate rest and sleep, taking exquisite care of yourself physically and emotionally.
~ You agree to remove all "check-out" activities from your lifestyle. No casual TV watching, casual Facebooking, casual online video watching (i.e. YouTube), or video game playing.
~ You agree to absolutely no use of alcohol or drugs. This is non-negotiable and includes marijuana and any other substances intended to alter consciousness, even in a ceremonial setting. (Managed medications prescribed to you by a licensed physician should, of course, continue to be taken. Medicinal cannabis use is also supported, along with clear agreements to the group. One “Conscious Yes” pass is allowed to each participant for one premeditated event that occurs during the Challenge.)
~ You agree to communicate daily with your accountability partner. This can be via phone, text, MarcoPolo, email, etc., as agreed upon by you both.
~ You agree to be coachable, to expand and grow, and to maintain regular communication with the group regarding both your successes and challenges.
~ While we participate in the Intensive as a group, drawing strength and inspiration from one another, you agree to be fully responsible for your own experience and well-being. What you get out of the Intensive will be directly proportional to how much energy and awareness you put into it.
~ You agree to attend all meetings and participate with generosity. (Other than for the opening and closing circles, one pre-planned absence is allowed.)
 
Along with these underlying agreements, additional personal commitments are encouraged to help clear stagnant energies and make room for more vitality. These are outlined in a document you will receive one week before the start of the circle.
 
ATTENDANCE:
Meetings will take place at my home in Oakland, punctually from 6:30-9:30 pm. Attendance at all meetings is mandatory. One pre-planned or emergency absence is permitted, except for the opening or closing meeting. Absences beyond this will be considered a withdrawal from the program. Attendance for a group volunteer project is also mandatory; the form and date will be determined by the group.

The in-person meetings are an integral part of this container. Zooming in is not an option.
 
DATES:
January 26th – Introductions and orientation
February 2nd – Focus on career and financial visioning
February 9th – Focus on relationship visioning
February 16th – Focus on sexuality and health visioning
February 23rd – Focus on home and community visioning
March 2nd – Focus on spirituality and world impact visioning
March 9th – Closing the container
 
EXCHANGE: The financial agreement for the program is $600, with $200 of that being returned to you at completion. The $200 from anyone not completing the program, for whatever reason, will be donated to a charity of the group’s choosing.
PayPal $50 to [email protected] to secure your spot (friends and family option, please) or Venmo to @Just_Lisa. The balance is due by the first meeting. Send me an email at [email protected] if you have any questions at all.
 
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
In 2010 I participated in an AC guided by Anna Liisa Wijnen Moter that rocked my world. That group ultimately extended the experience in various formats for over a year, continually refining what best served the group. Much of the format and material we’ll be using was developed by Scott Swanson for a San Francisco men’s group and was picked up, added to, and adapted for women by Anna Liisa. It’s with much gratitude and honor to them, and to all those who’ve come before, that their work is being carried forward now.
This will be my 10th year of refining and guiding this practice.