Exercises / Practices

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West, guest contributor 

Often when we meet someone for the first time, we introduce ourselves by saying what we do, where we live, what we enjoy. Rarely do we speak about the most elusive yet most important aspect of our lives: who we are. 

This is very possibly because we don’t know, not really. This is because each of us is living in a particular Structure of Interpretation: a kind of ‘bubble’ comprising messages about what was acceptable or not in our family a…

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By Janet Solyntjes, guest contributor 

The Open Question

For the past few decades, I have been immersed in various teachings, trainings, and pathways that have inspired me to repeatedly ask the question, “Why am I really here?” Outer circumstances and inner stirrings have led to these contemplations. My intention behind this offering is to guide, support, and lead you into various contemplations so that your deepest wisdom can emerge from beneath any st…

By Cheri Lovre, guest contributor 

The first thing to remember about any crisis is: We’re going to come out of it. 

Right now, after months of living with Covid-19, many people feel disoriented. It’s like we’ve lost our North Star. No one can be sure of the best course to follow. But the North Star is there in the sky. We just can’t see it right now because the lingering fog of uncertainty is still all around us. 

The vaccines that are emerging now will help, but the uncertainty related to CO…

By Gayle Van Gils, guest contributor 

“We all need to be the iguana,” says comedian Nick Kroll in a New York Times interview, which strikes me as a statement that pretty much sums up our current situation.  The metaphor is about the adaptability of a species of marine iguana Kroll experienced in the Galapagos that can survive even if its tail is bitten off by a bird.  Kroll says that he relates this to his life in this way: “The landscape is changing.  I can either dig my feet in and be like, ‘…

By Steven M. Cohen, guest contributor 

Thanksgiving has been a special holiday, a day where both sides of our family and some friends gathered together for a feast.  The more the merrier, and without the entanglement of religious significance. In 2020, COVID-19 changes everything. What once brought only joy now brings fear, particularly with respect to our elderly parents. Likely, it will be too cold to gather and eat outside, and likely too dangerous to bring everyone together to eat inside. W…

By Michelle L. Maldonado, guest contributor 

What happens to one of us, happens to all of us. These words repeat themselves like a song’s refrain playing over and over again in my mind just as strongly today as when my family and I first began to speak this phrase some time ago.

For many in our families, communities, and places of work, the vision and wish for equality and equity, coupled with wise and compassionate action to transform societal conditions, have been a life-long endeavor. For o…

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West, guest contributor 

The “Integral” in Integral Coaching has a few different meanings. It points to the multiple traditions and disciplines that weave together to form the method itself. It indicates the ways that coaches synthesize all they know and are learning to support their clients. Perhaps most importantly, it names how we are supporting our clients to integrate themselves so that they are bringing their full aliveness to all domains of life. 

In this l…

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West, guest contributor 

Many of us spend the majority of our days in conversations of one kind or another. This is particularly true for coaches, therapists, and other practitioners who spend their time supporting others’ development. Bringing greater mindfulness to how we approach conversations with anyone—our clients, colleagues, partners, children, friends, and others—holds the potential to make these conversations not only productive, but transformational. 

T…

By Georgina Miranda, guest contributor 

I have a little ritual when I climb literal mountains. I share this with you now, as many of us have been climbing metaphorical mountains of our own day to day in these uncertain times with new obstacles being presented in our work and life around every turn. It’s natural for fear to arise and we all have the power to overcome it. The key is to overcome or move past the fear, otherwise, we can find ourselves in a state of paralysis or heightened stress. F…

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By Mo Edjlali, Mindful Leader Chief Community Organizer

Through our work, I’ve had the privilege to get to know a great many meditation teachers and facilitators. This includes from my own personal practice and mindfulness training, those who have spoken at our events, our adjunct MBSR certified instructors, and the 120+ Workplace Mindfulness Facilitators that we have certified. Of this group of teachers and facilitators, there are those who are world re…