We welcome for the first time Oren Jay Sofer, who will be teaching a virtual retreat at the Garrison Institute August 28 – 30, 2020 based on his recently published book, Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication (Shambhala, 2018). The interview below is based on details from his book. To learn more about the upcoming retreat and…
We live in a time of great uncertainty, with the triple threat of increasingly volatile climate change, political polarization, and income inequality. It feels like the political, economic, and governance systems of our civilization are not only unequal to these challenges, but being fractured by them. In times of great uncertainty, people tend to grasp at leaders with views they…
Joan Borysenko, author of Pocketful of Miracles, writes of December: [It is]. . ‘the month in which all the forces of nature are aligned to help us give birth to the light within. Midwinter has cast a spell over the land and all of nature sleeps. Members of the human tribe gather by the fire to hear the old stories…
Much of contemporary mindfulness is based on the newly emerged field of “contemplative neuroscience,” which looks at the effects in the brain and overall health of contemplative practices such as different forms of meditation and mindfulness. In the contemporary mindfulness practices such as those offered through the “Search Inside Yourself” curriculum, many of the exercises and skill building are derived…
Design is often an invisible force in our lives, shaping and etching our world; sidewalks determine walkability, paint color can soothe or repel, and classrooms and houses of worship can foster either connection or discord. Design is in the mundane–the length between the car pedal and the driver’s waist–and the not-so-mundane, like astronaut suits. The latter is at the heart…
Think about your local walk to the park. You head down that shady street, turn left at the corner store, cut up that little alleyway, and – voila! – you are surrounded by bounding dogs, trees, and giggling children. Or maybe not. Maybe you have to navigate an urban obstacle course littered with poorly thought out street crossings, concrete corridors,…
Overwhelm is a modern plague, taking up news headlines, physician trainings, corporate employee workshops, new modes of therapy and more. With the rise of social media and a decrease in off-screen connecting, many of us are left confused, anxious, questioning our decisions, lonely, searching for meaning, and looking for a way to escape stress and find the way back to…
In the corporate world, many of us struggle with the relentless changes that happen at work that often disrupt our lives and increase our stress. The responsibility of helping people through change, or ‘change management,’ tends to fall upon leaders, change managers, project managers or human resources. However, generally whatever little time there is to perform change management is usually…