Read
Listen
Watch
Participate
Citizens of Two Worlds: Embracing the Duality of “Majesty” and “Muck” in Our Transformative Era
This Earth Day, we’re reflecting on words...
What are we feeding and sustaining?
What are we feeding and sustaining? How can a specific project, partnership, or engagement feed into justice and repair? Do our actions today carry prospects for peace and tranquility in the longer-range future?
My Dark Companion: Grief
Sometimes we are supposed to be falling rather than standing upright. I am thinking of the life cycle of a leaf. A portion of a leaf's life span consists of being firmly rooted on the branch of a tree, while at some point in time, the season comes where the leaf falls from the tree to the earth. If I could put myself in the experience of the leaf for a moment, I imagine the liminal moment between the leaf being firmly attached to the branch and the leaf finding itself unfastened by this uncontrollable gravitational pull to the earth, a moment of grief and fear. I understand our human lives to be similar to that of a leaf.
Indy Johar on The Common Good and Exploring Islands of Coherence
On Friday, March 22, 2024, Indy Johar joined...
CARE: An Adult SEL Program with Proof
Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) is a unique evidence-based program designed to help those working in educational settings ( e.g., PK-12, Higher Education, OST) reduce stress and enliven their work by promoting awareness, presence, compassion, reflection, and inspiration – the inner resources they need to help themselves and their students flourish, socially, emotionally, and academically.
3 Ways to Become a More Resilient Leader: The ABCs
It’s no secret that non-profit leaders are stressed by the demanding responsibilities of their jobs. According to a study published in the Nonprofit Management & Leadership journal, major stressors include financial constraints, resource limitations, and the pressure to achieve ambitious goals while serving diverse stakeholders (Doherty, 2019). The emotional toll of working with vulnerable populations while attempting to address complex social issues creates an additional burden.
Contemplative Practice: A Harbinger and Sustainer of Wise Thinking
Insights like these don’t always come through experiences that are challenging, painful or even traumatic. Sometimes they do. Hardship is not a prerequisite for wisdom, however, it is at least part of the process – and a very potent part, at that. We all have hardship in our lives. How we respond to hardship is what reveals whether or not we have developed wise characteristics.
Lineage, Love and Justice with the Reverend angel Kyodo williams, Sensei
The Garrison Institute is delighted to present this recent Forum discussion between Fellowship Director Dr. Angel Acosta and the Reverend angel Kyodo williams, Sensei, in which they delved into the history of mindfulness in the West, contemplative entrepreneurship, and the liberative potential of meditation.
Islands of Coherence
"“When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.” Quote by Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize-winning chemist. From March 15 to 17, 2023, a group of about 80 leaders gathered at the Garrison Institute for a Pathways to Planetary Health Symposium focused on the commons. Systems change was a recurrent theme at this meeting. One participant mentioned Ilya Prigogine’s quote above about “islands of coherence” as a way to think about shifting social systems.
Dr. Bayo Akomolafe on “Postactivism”
In this talk with Garrison Institute Fellowship Director Dr. Angel Acosta, "Contemplating Postactivism: Reframing Our Approach to Social Change," Bayo Akomolafe began by asking the provocative question: “What if the way we respond to the crisis is part of the crisis?” Dr. Akomolafe is a celebrated philosopher, writer, activist, professor, and international speaker. His work produced the concept of “postactivism,” which refuses the “us vs. them” thinking of traditional activism.
Zen, Contemplative Practice, and the Emergence of Black Queer Joy
This narrative essay offers an exploration of the ways in which contemplative practice can be part of a strategy for nurturing health, well-being, meaning and joy in our everyday lives as Black contemplatives. Drawing on my experience as a Black queer scholar and college professor, attention is given to the notion of contemplative practice as a way of cultivating our internal emotional, intellectual and spiritual resources.
CARE: An Educator SEL Program with Proof
CARE is a unique evidence-based program designed to help educators (teachers and administrators) reduce stress and enliven their teaching and leadership by promoting awareness, presence, compassion, reflection, and inspiration – the inner resources they need to help themselves and their students flourish, socially, emotionally, and academically.