Embrace the Grace, Celebrate the Infinite, by Nipun Mehta
What a great joy to be with you on this special day. Thank you, Dr. Carmen Valdes, Miss Ana Lim, distinguished staff and colleagues, and the larger Assumption family. And to you, the graduating class of 2018 -- congratulations! Assumption College might be the only place where two alumni have gone on to become president of the country, many alumni go on to become pioneering entrepreneurs, and numerous alumni go on to become nuns!  What an honor to be here in a space that encourages such a wide spectrum of value for society. Now, usually, commencement addresses are meant to affirm that you have the grit to conquer the world. But that's not sufficient for a class that chose its mot... posted on Jun 11 2018 (15,095 reads)

The Practice of Walking, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee & Hilary Hart
the busy-ness of our contemporary life, we are drawn into ceaseless activity that often separates us from the deeper dimension of ourselves. With our smartphones and computer screens, we often remain caught on the surface of our lives amidst the noise and chatter that continually distract us, that stops us from being rooted in our true nature. Unaware we are drowned deeper and deeper in a culture of soulless materialism. At this time I find it more and more important to have outer activities that can connect us to what is more natural and help us live in relationship to the deep root of our being, and in an awareness of the moment which alone can give real meaning to our every... posted on Jul 5 2018 (19,551 reads)

Little Panic: What It Takes to Break Free from Anxiety, by Maria Popova
and Reality are not things you can have for yourself unless you accord them to all others,” Alan Watts wrote in the early 1950s, nearly a quarter century before Thomas Nagel’s landmark essay “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” unlatched the study of other consciousnesses and seeded the disorienting awareness that other beings — “beings who walk other spheres,” to borrow Whitman’s wonderful term — experience this world we share in ways thoroughly alien to our own. Today, we know that we need not step across the boundary of species to encounter such alien-seeming ways of inhabiting ... posted on Jul 11 2018 (13,363 reads)

New Approaches to Healing Collective Conflict and Trauma, by William Ury, Thomas Hubl
Hübl: William, in all your work in conflict areas, what do you see as the symptoms of trauma? And do you see that there’s a kind of recycling of trauma as a part of the conflict you work with? William Ury: Thomas, it’s a pleasure to be speaking with you. I was trained originally as an anthropologist and was always keen to study human beings and how we related. The passionate question that’s been guiding my work is, “How can we human beings get along with each other in the midst of our very, very deep differences?” That’s led me into hot zones around the world, conflicts where you see some of the darkest and most destructive human i... posted on Nov 16 2018 (8,991 reads)

What Does It Mean to Live Wisely and Well?, by Awakin Call Editors
does it mean to live wisely and well and what does it take? How can we cultivate qualities such as love, wisdom, kindness, and compassion?”  Our guest today, Dr. Roger Walsh, addresses these questions. A man with an eclectic past, Roger has explored contemplative life as a professor, physician, therapist, celebrated author, spouse, spiritual practitioner, and inquisitive human being.   He is a former circus acrobat, as well as a record holder in the fields of high diving and trampolining. Roger claims to have no final answers about life and meaning; yet through a combination of spiritual wisdom and practical tools, he offers hope and healing for us all, individually... posted on Jan 17 2019 (6,391 reads)

Mary Oliver: Instructions for Living A Life, by On Being
Oliver was one of the most beloved poets of our times. A writer who was dazzled by her daily experience of life, and dazzled the rest of us by telling about it in her poems and essays. She deliberately stayed out of the public eye and what follows is one of her rare interviews. Read on for a glimpse of the remarkable woman who  once wrote: "When it's over, I want to say: all my life/I was a bride married to amazement./I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms." What follows is the transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Mary Oliver. October 15, 2015 KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: Mary Oliver is one of our greatest living poets, ... posted on Jan 18 2019 (46,546 reads)

Pauline Boss: Ambiguous Loss and the Myth of Closure, by OnBeing
following is the transcript of an interview syndicated from OnBeing, between Krista Tippett and Pauline Boss. Pauline Boss is Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Loss, Trauma and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss, Loving Someone Who Has Dementia, and Ambiguous Loss. Krista Tippett: What we do not know about a missing loved one, the poet T.S. Eliot said, becomes all that we know. The airplane that disappears, the kidnapped child, the natural disaster that sweeps lives off a map — this is dramatic territory human beings are not equipped to master. But loved ones go missing in other ways: incremen... posted on Feb 11 2019 (10,789 reads)

Maya Soetoro-Ng: Ceeds of Peace, by Preeta Bansal
this year, we had the privilege of hosting a beautiful Awakin Call with Maya Soetoro-Ng, where we heard about her speak about a wide range of topics: from her expansive view of the role each of us can play in building peace, to how the Presidency of her brother, Barack Obama, as well as the divisive aftermath of the past several years, both transformed and reinforced her vision of the work of building peace. By way of brief background, Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng, a peace educator consulting for the Obama Foundation, was director of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Hawaii. Her brother is former US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama... posted on Feb 24 2019 (5,967 reads)

First, the Work of Paying Attention to the World, by Awakin Call Editors
George Haskell is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist whose work is located at the thrumming intersection between science and poetry. He integrates rigorous research with a deeply contemplative, immersive approach. His subjects are unexpected and unexpectedly revelatory. His widely acclaimed, Pulitzer-finalist book, The Forest Unseen, chronicles the story of the universe in one square meter of forest ground in Tennessee. His follow-up book in 2017, The Songs of Trees, encompasses a study of humanity's varied roles within biological networks, as heard through the acoustics of a dozen trees around the world, which he visited regularly. David's innovative approaches to teachin... posted on Mar 22 2019 (5,033 reads)

Inner Strength Foundation, by The Gratefulness Team
Inner Strength Foundation (ISF) was established in 2014 to foster inner strength for outer stability in today’s youth. ISF partners with schools in the Greater Philadelphia area to offer the twelve-week ISF Teen Program — the only school mindfulness program in Philadelphia developed specifically for high school students. Through age-appropriate lessons on cultural development, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience, students become budding archaeologists of themselves. Able to excavate layers of influence and vast cultural changes, adolescents learn the invaluable skill of being able to see their personal experience in a greater context. ISF was created with an older age-g... posted on Mar 11 2019 (6,202 reads)

Wangari Maathai: Marching with Trees, by On Being
follows is the transcript of an On Being interview between Krista Tippett and Wangari Maathai. Krista Tippett, host: It’s delightful to see the late, remarkable Wangari Maathai inspiring a new generation of girls through the popular Rebel Girls book series. I’ll never forget the day I interviewed her. She’d won the Nobel Peace Prize two years earlier — the first African woman to do so, and a biologist. She’d flown from Kenya to an event in Minnesota, and we felt so privileged to have an hour with her. But we ended up spending three hours together in her hotel room, stranded by snow. Her personal presence, her visceral power and radiance, wer... posted on May 28 2019 (5,237 reads)

We Are Designed for Connection, by Tami Simon
Simon:You're listening to Insights at the Edge. Today, my guest is Diane Poole Heller. Diane Poole Heller is an established expert in the field of child and adult attachment theory and models trauma resolution and integrative healing techniques. She's developed her own signature training series on adult attachment that she calls DARe, Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning experience. She's the author of a new book called The Power of Attachment: How to Create Deep and Lasting Intimate Relationships. In this conversation with Diane, we talk about different styles of attachment, these unconscious blueprints that are so deep in all of us and have such an incredible impact... posted on May 27 2019 (11,301 reads)

Justin Michael Williams: Stay Woke, by Tami Simon
to Insights at the Edge, produced by Sounds True. My name is Tami Simon, I’m the founder of Sounds True. I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the new Sounds True foundation. The Sounds True Foundation is dedicated to creating a wiser and kinder world by making transformational education widely available. We want everyone to have access to transformational tools such as mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion regardless of financial, social, or physical challenges. The Sounds True Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to providing these transformational tools to communities in need including at-risk youth, prisoners, veterans, and those i... posted on Feb 17 2020 (6,580 reads)

Living Gratefully in the Time of Corona Virus, by The Gratefulness Team
Network for Grateful Living we often refer to gratefulness as an orientation to life with an unconditional and expansive embrace. One that isn’t reserved for that which is pleasant, desired, or going our way, rather an embrace that accepts and includes the great fullness of life — the entirety of our experience. Such an embrace opens us to the teachings and opportunities within every moment. It offers us what we need not merely to survive difficult times but to appreciate their gifts, even when the gifts take time to reveal themselves. When life feels too small or too big to handle, too predictable or too uncertain, this is when we need gratefulness ... posted on Mar 15 2020 (54,430 reads)

How I am Finding Purpose and Connection in a Pandemic, by Aanchal Dhar
was 5 p.m. on Friday, March 13, and I could feel myself slowly beginning to unravel.  As a millennial living alone in a small studio in San Francisco, I felt paralyzed knowing that orders to shelter in place would likely soon go into effect, trapping me in just 300 square feet for the unforeseeable future. The coming weeks loomed bleak and lonely, a growing shadow of despair that I knew would engulf so many of us. I was at a loss for what to do next.    My first instinct was to call Kate, a friend in her 60s, who offered some of the best advice I’ve ever received. “Find a way to transform your anxiety into action,” she said.  Maybe it ... posted on May 23 2020 (9,893 reads)

Activism in a Pandemic: Progressive Examples from Australia's Past, by Iain McIntyre
month the Commons Library provides a small taste of actions and events which challenged the status quo and pointed to better ways forward via our ever growing From Little Things Big Things Grow: Events That Changed Australia list. These posts generally focus on events from a particular month, but in response to the Coronavirus pandemic we’re also sharing protests, campaigns and events from the past which highlight ways in which we can undertake action whilst maintaining safe health practices. Please note: Levels of restriction and legal parameters vary across countries and even within countries. Many places are experiencing changing laws and different levels of polici... posted on Jun 2 2020 (4,880 reads)

Othering & Belonging, by Awakin Call Editors
powell is one of the foremost public intellectuals in the areas of civil rights, racism, ethnicity, housing and poverty. Despite a distinguished career, powell spells his name in lowercase on the simple and humble idea that we are part of the universe, not over it. He has introduced into the public lexicon the concepts of “othering and belonging.” For powell, "othering" hurts not only people of color, but whites, women, animals and the planet itself, because certain people are not seen in their full humanity. Belonging is much more profound than access; “it’s about co-creating the thing you are joining” rather than having to conform to rul... posted on Jul 18 2020 (5,898 reads)

Seven Ways to Live in the Direction of Your Purpose, by Jill Suttie
of the people I know seem to have a deep sense of purpose. Whether working for racial justice, teaching children to read, making inspiring art, or collecting donations of masks and face shields for hospitals during the pandemic, they’ve found ways to blend their passion, talents, and care for the world in a way that infuses their lives with meaning. Luckily for them, having a purpose in life is associated with all kinds of benefits. Research suggests that purpose is tied to having better health, longevity, and even economic success. It feels good to have a sense of purpose, knowing that you are using your skills to help others in a way that matters to you. But... posted on Aug 12 2020 (10,982 reads)

Are You a Highly Sensitive Person?, by Tami Simon
follows is the transcript of a SoundsTrue interview between Tami Simon and Elaine Aron. You can listen to the audio podcast here. Tami Simon: Welcome to Insights at the Edge, produced by Sounds True. My name’s Tami Simon, I’m the founder of Sounds True, and I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the new Sounds True Foundation. The Sounds True Foundation is dedicated to creating a wiser and kinder world by making transformational education widely available. We want everyone to have access to transformational tools such as mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion, regardless of financial, social, or physical challenges. The Sounds True... posted on Nov 17 2020 (9,591 reads)

5 Tips for Teaching in Times of Civil Unrest, by Ida B. Wells Project Team
STUDENTS’ FEELINGS. LISTEN AND QUESTION. Students will have powerful feelings about the changing world around them, do not shut them down. Do not tell them how to feel. Your goal is to help students explore, process, think critically and grow. Don’t substitute your feelings or perspective for the “correct” answers. Their experiences, thoughts and feelings are valid. Hear their anger and hurt. You can encourage respectful disagreement while also maintaining a safe space for vulnerable populations. Put strong discussion guidelines in place and stick to them. Don’t be shocked by student responses, learn to question and talk them through their feelings i... posted on Jan 13 2021 (6,382 reads)