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Foundational 5 Group

March 30 – April 27, 2026

7:30pm EST / 4:30pm PST

Mondays for 75 Minutes

REGISTRATION CLOSED

Registration Deadline: March 28

Email onlinecourses@thrivetdoay.org if you want to be contacted when our next group is scheduled.

Join us for 5 weeks and find practical solutions to everyday problems.

Life Can Feel Hard

Many of us are experiencing increasing levels of overwhelm, anxiety, depression, irritation, or a sense that something is missing. When life challenges feel bigger than we have the capacity to handle, our relationships suffer and we can struggle to find satisfaction in life. 

A Satisfying, Joy-Filled Life is Possible!

If you desire to live a life marked by joy, peace, and relational connection, even when life gets tough, we have good news! You can build your capacity and emotional reserves to remain steadier and more joyful by developing a handful of skills, which we call “relational skills”. No matter what life challenges you face or which areas you would like to grow in, these simple skills can make a big difference!

The Foundational 5 Group will help you on your journey toward real life transformation by taking you through the Foundational 5 Introductory Course with a facilitator. Every week you will review the 5 foundational skills you can develop to grow your capacity.

Join us as we learn together and practice how to:

  • Become more aware of your relational state.

  • Build joy with others.

  • Calm yourself from stress or busyness.

  • More naturally look for and appreciate the good in your life.

  • Connect with Jesus and gain His perspective on your life and the world around you.

Developing these foundational skills takes practice and intention, but the benefits are well worth it! 

REGISTRATION CLOSED

What's included?

  • 1-year access to The Foundational 5 Introductory Course.
  • 5 weeks of 75-minute online group sessions led by a trained facilitator.
  • Each session covers one of the introductory course lessons and includes:

An overview of the skill being covered that week.

A skill assessment.

1-2 exercises to practice the weekly skill.

Group discussion in breakout rooms.

Review of an example of this skill in scripture.

Weekly Schedule

A printable schedule to keep you on track.

PDF DOWNLOAD

The details

Length: 75-minute Zoom call, weekly for 5 weeks.

Mondays: 7:30-8:45pm EST / 4:30-5:45pm PST

Cost: $64 Individual | $32 Practice Plus Members (with coupon)

To enquire about group or family rates, email onlinecourses@thrivetoday.org. Note: Only available for groups who view the classes together from 1 screen.

How to Enroll in the Group: Click the link and purchase the course. You will receive your Zoom link and other important details, upon registration.

Registration Deadline: March 28, 2026

REGISTRATION CLOSED

Note: In the unlikely event we don’t meet our minimum registration number and have to cancel, you will be refunded in full.

FAQs

Can I miss a session, and will they be recorded?
  • If you need to miss one session that is okay. But to get the most out of the group it is best if you can attend most/all of them.
  • We have not decided if these will be recorded, so we cannot guarantee that you can review a missed session via recording.
  • Yes, definitely! The content in the Intro Course is valuable no matter how many times you go through it. But this group is an especially great idea if:
    • You purchased the Intro Course but didn’t go through all of the content.
    • You went through the content but would like to be able to better understand the different skills and continue your practice.
    • You want people to practice the exercises with.
  • Yes! It might largely be a review for you, but it never hurts to review these foundational skills. The practice you will get in the group is always helpful because maintaining our skills requires that we continue to practice them.
  • This group is a highly suggested prerequisite for the NEW resources we are launching this year on managing unpleasant emotions. 
  • Yes, this would work well if you have a group who wants to go through the material together but you want someone else to lead you through the course. If you would like to facilitate your own small group, check out the facilitator version of this course. 
  • If you want your small group to join this weekly group with us we recommend you each purchase the group course individually, or if you’re gathering together in one room each week, please email us.
  • If you are curious how it would work for you to take your own group through this course at another time, it would be great for you to join us and see it modeled!
  • While we have no way of knowing for sure, this group will most likely have around 20-30 participants. However, you will have an opportunity to discuss what you’re learning in small groups of 3-4 each week.
  • Both this group and Habit Builder groups provide opportunities to practice and discuss with peers, but they differ in the following ways:
    • This group provides an overview of all Foundational 5 skills, while Habit Builder groups dive into one specific skill.
    • This group lasts 5 weeks, while a Habit Builder Group ranges from 8-10 weeks.
    • This course includes a little more teaching.
    • The Foundational 5 groups are typically larger.

Skills Covered in this group:

What is this skill?

The Relational Circuit skill helps us identify and activate the system in our brain (known as our Relational Circuits or “RCs”) that enables us to experience joy, feel compassion, and engage with others as we stay our best, most relational selves.

Why do I need this skill?

  • The Relational Circuits skill helps us to be more aware of how we show up in our relational interactions (i.e. whether we are being kind, relational, and our relational circuits are “on” or our relational circuits are “off”) and to recognize the impact we have on others. 
  • With this skill we learn what it looks like to be our best selves and ways to get ourselves in a better, more attuned relational state when our relational circuits go off. 
  • Learning to live with our relational circuits “on” improves our enjoyment of life as well as the quality of our relationships.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SKILL 0

What is this skill?

The Share Joy skill helps us build and share joy, where we are glad to be together with God and each other.

Why do I need this skill?

  • Your brain is designed to function best in alternating rhythms of joy and peace. These rhythms enable you to better think, be creative, and navigate through life. 
  • Joy allows us to form healthy bonds and increases healthy brain growth.
  • As joy increases in your life, you will have more emotional bandwidth, or capacity, to handle life’ s challenges well. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT SKILL 1

What is this skill?

Simple Quiet involves learning to calm ourselves or downshift from a higher energy level to a lower energy level.

Why do I need this skill?

  • Quieting (shalom) after both joyful and upsetting emotions is the strongest predictor of life-long mental health. 
  • Lowering my own energy level so I can rest as I need to makes me feel stable. 
  • Because our brains run best on alternating rhythms of joy and peace, this self-soothing capacity also sets us up to build more joy in our lives.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SKILL 2

What is this skill?

The Create Appreciation skill focuses on remembering positive memories, relationships, and gifts from God in such a way that our brain responds as if we are reliving the moments all over again.

Why do I need this skill?

  • Learning to create appreciation rewires our brain to look for and expect the good things in life.
  • This skill helps us activate joy from the past and bring it into the present moment, making joy accessible anytime, anywhere. This is why we often refer to appreciation as “packaged joy”!
  • High levels of the emotional state of appreciation closely match the healthy, balanced state of the brain and nervous system. Therefore, creating a strong feeling of appreciation in yourself and others relieves stress and unpleasant emotional states.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SKILL 4

What is this skill?

Learning to See What God Sees involves noticing and interacting with the presence of God so we see life and relationships from God’s perspective which leads to greater peace.

Why do I need this skill?

  • Practicing this skill will help you learn how to identify the unpleasant emotions we all feel and get back to a place of God’s joy and peace. 
  • The more we develop this, the less we will feel the need to avoid emotions and/or the less we will get stuck in them. 
  • This skill will help us to be more tender with ourselves and with others who are feeling difficult emotions like fear, anger, or sadness, leading to deeper relationships. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT SKILL 13

By practicing these simple, yet powerful skills, we can grow to live more like Jesus, love more like Jesus, and experience more of His joy and peace in all circumstances.

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