As part of our “Garrison Talks at the JCC” event series at the Marlene Myerson JCC Manhattan, meditation teacher and author Sharon Salzberg recently spoke with Dr. Chris Willard, a psychologist and educational consultant, and Dr. Mark Bertin, a developmental pediatrician and mindfulness teacher, about how to cultivate resilience in our children. Sharon Salzberg: Do you think it’s harder for kids these…
This post was originally published on July 5, 2018. We have chosen to feature this piece because the insights it contains are as timely as ever. We look forward to our first Social Justice Forum conversation with Rhonda Magee and Jonathan Wiesner on Thursday, June 18th. Please click here to register. For some, mindfulness practice inherently raises awareness of our…
Omid Safi is a celebrated academic, Islamic scholar, On Being columnist, and author of several books including his latest, Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition. With a strong focus on contemporary movements and linking mystical traditions of Islam with the work of Dr. King and Malcolm X, his new book renews and refreshes our sense of hope and…
Humankind’s ability to thrive in a changing world depends on a major overhaul of the way cities are built and organized, and a dramatic increase in the amount of land protected for the sake of biodiversity. Those were key components of the Garrison’s Institute’s recent symposium, Pathways to Planetary Health (April 17-19, 2018), along with regenerative economics and pervasive altruism.…
What does mindfulness look like in the modern workplace, and how do you successfully integrate it into an organization? This spring, we sought to explore these questions at our event, Mindfulness in the C-Suite: When Wellness and Well-Being Matter. Co-hosted by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and the Garrison Institute, the event featured a panel discussion moderated by Rachel…
It is a beautiful, sunny day not long before the summer solstice and I am hiking once again in the mountains near my home in western North Carolina. For weeks before this, the late spring sky has been overcast, or it has rained – seemingly non-stop in dismal and uncharacteristic bouts of oppressively tropical humidity followed by sudden and torrential…
In your journey to understanding what it means to be human on this planet at this time, it can become quite overwhelming to think of the many ways of comprehending the nature of reality. What is life all about? How do we create well-being in our individual and collective lives? How do we stay aware of what is happening in…
In a small, cinder-block room lit by shards of afternoon sun sneaking in through windows in the ceiling, thirteen jail guards in dark blue uniforms sit quietly on gray plastic chairs. The only sound comes from the blowing fan and the occasional squawk of their handheld walkie-talkie radios. The room is labeled “chapel,” though the only sign of that purpose is…