LearnLearnhttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013-05-15T21:41:43ZSquarespaceWhere's the Spirit? Words, waves, and well-beinghttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/5/15/wheres-the-spirit-words-waves-and-well-being.htmlStill Harbor2013-05-15T20:33:01Z2013-05-15T20:33:01ZSPEAKING OUT "To This Day" ... for the bullied and beautiful by Shane Koyczan TED Talks
In honor of the spoken word; in honor of self-acceptance; in honor of the beauty in all of us… we share this video of Shane Koyczan performing his poem, “To This Day.” Koyczan explores how hurtful children and adults alike can be to one another while simultaneously asking the difficult question of how as a society we should teach children to understand and love who they discover themselves to be. His expression bursts forth, confirming that yes indeed he is a writer, as he realized at age 19 when he wrote the words, “I will love myself despite the ease with which I lean toward the opposite.”
What do all surfers (think waves and wetsuits) have in common? Peter Bregman found himself on the beach looking out at a bunch of surfers of various abilities fall off their boards into the water and stand up again. With clear insight, he shares how the mindset of a surfer may help us all avoid procrastination and, with practice, cultivate the courage, motivation, and skill needed to conquer some of life’s most difficult or dreaded tasks. His post offers helpful reflections on the fears and feelings that often prevent us from acting.
How can you integrate spirituality in health care settings? What are the core components of spiritually-informed clinical care? Colleen Sharka shares reflections on her participation in the Spirituality and Health Care Institute at Spiritual Directors International 2013. In a thoughtful interview, she shares three essential components of providing spiritually integrated care as well as wonderful insights from leaders in holistic healing.
]]>Reflections from Spiritual Directors International 2013http://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/5/15/reflections-from-spiritual-directors-international-2013.htmlStill Harbor2013-05-15T19:50:08Z2013-05-15T19:50:08ZLast month, Colleen Sharka, Still Harbor Spiritual Director, joined around 500 spiritual directors from around the world in St. Paul, Minnesota for the annual Spiritual Directors International 2013 Conference. In addition to participating as a conference attendee, Colleen spoke on a panel entitled “Compassionate Person-Centered Care: Strengthening Interdisciplinary Collaboration,” as part of the Spirituality and Health Care Institute preconference workshop. After some contemplative time, she was excited to share some of her reflections with us:
Q: What was the overarching theme of the Spirituality and Health Care Institute this year?
A: This workshop offered a space for health and spiritual care providers to come together and share ideas for how they can continue to work for interdisciplinary and spiritually integrated care. When clinicians and other care providers who are part of the circle of care for others are willing to communicate with each other, the impact is astounding. Not only are medical and therapeutic outcomes maximized, but there is also an increased likelihood for deep and lasting bio-psycho-social-emotional and spiritual transformation for the client/patient. Through small group discussions, the workshop emphasized that integrated care is not only critical for maximizing clinical outcomes for patients and clients by promoting health in mind, body and spirit, but it also decreases the isolation felt by clinicians.
Q: What were some of the key takeaways from your panel discussion on compassionate, person-centered care?
A: It was a very lively and intellectual conversation on the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and spiritual accompaniment in integrated clinical care. My goal was to highlight the three essential components of providing spiritually integrated care:
All caregivers need to attend to their own spiritual practice and self-care.
The quality of the clinical relationship and, if applicable, the client’s relationship to a higher power are integral to the therapeutic process.
Community is key; integration of all sources of support, including other health and spiritual providers, drastically decreases the possibility of fragmented care that can lead to unintentional harm.
Dr. Henry Emmons, an integrative psychiatrist, pointed out that while much of clinical care involves depression, only 20% is true major depression and 80% is stress or situational. In his statement that “an erosion of resilience is taking place in three ways: 1) physical body, 2) unsettled mind and 3) illusion of separation,” he really emphasized the need for integrated care that addresses all of these layers, particularly for those on the margins of our society.
That said, the largest takeaway, in my opinion, was Dr. David Moen’s call for a social movement to shift the norms of care, not just for individuals, but also for the larger health care system. He challenged us all, as he moderated the panel and dialogue, to shift “…from command and control to engage and empower; from fear to trust; from shame to acceptance; from expertise to inquiry; from guardedness to vulnerability; from autonomy to collaboration; from hidden to transparent.”
Q: What quote, idea, or concept from conference do you find yourself still thinking about today?
A: Wow, that is tough as there are so many…
It would probably be best summarized by a quote from Pema Chodron: “What we do for ourselves concerning self-compassion transforms how we see the world.” This theme of compassion as a way of life and being was woven throughout all the presentations, including one of the keynote speeches by Joyce Rupp. She was quick to acknowledge that while it is never convenient, compassion is essential, requiring awareness and action founded in an attitude of oneness. Compassion requires self-compassion first and foremast, since our propensity for self-compassion translates into our compassion for others.
Next year’s conference will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. To stay updates on the event details, click here.
Colleen discusses what spirituality meanns to her:
]]>Where's the Spirit? Humility, chaos, and revolutionhttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/5/8/wheres-the-spirit-humility-chaos-and-revolution.htmlStill Harbor2013-05-08T19:44:14Z2013-05-08T19:44:14ZSEEING THE (SOMETIMES) UGLY TRUTH A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Enlightenment: Confessions of a wayward monk by Shozan Jack Haubner Tricycle Magazine
“To take your seat in the zendo is to discover the packed marquee of fantasies playing on an endless loop in the backwoods multiplex of your imagination.” What happens when you sit for meditation? What is the most important thing you need for the spiritual path? Shozan Jack Haubner takes a shot at answering these two simply complex questions. He wonderfully demystifies what unfolds in his interior life during meditation and suggests how we all might better orient ourselves for spiritual exploration and discovery. With a good dose of humor and humility, he takes us on a journey with his reflections.
What is the relationship between your emotions and your spirituality? How can spirituality free you from the emotions that bind you? In a meandering reflection on these questions, Tariq Ramadan helps sort out how emotional states and spiritual states differ and how nowadays we often confuse the two. In conclusion, he helps us understand how spirituality is indeed transformative action (as opposed to passive reaction): “Spirituality consists in the added meaning that is inherent in even the simplest human actions. It may take the form of faith, thought, art or love, but it always involves a choice, and act of the free will...”
Is it courageous to cultivate our contemplative lives? Is it wise to share our insights with others and receive their revelations? This article highlights how the new interspirituality movement is becoming an ever more essential element in envisioning new structures, narratives, and forms. McEntee and Bucko posit, “Young people are no longer interested in living in a world that doesn't feel like their soul's home, and they are willing to question the way things have been done in the past. It is to this questioning, this questing, that we believe Interspirituality has so much to offer, and can speak to the younger generation in a way that nothing else can.” Read their post to find out more.
]]>Where's the Spirit? Love, certainty, and creativityhttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/5/1/wheres-the-spirit-love-certainty-and-creativity.htmlStill Harbor2013-05-01T20:26:31Z2013-05-01T20:26:31ZHAPPINESS IS LOVE What Makes Us Happy, Revisited by Scott Stossel The Atlantic
What makes you happy? Do you know? Years of research have revealed a likely answer. The key lessons learned from “one of the longest-running longitudinal studies of human development” in the world are put quite simply in the last sentence of this article, “The seventy-five years and twenty million dollars expended on the Grant Study points … to a straightforward five-word conclusion: ‘Happiness is love. Full stop.’” We hope this age old wisdom helps move us all in the direction of investing a bit more time and money in both teaching and practicing love.
If you like this topic, you may also be interested in reading, “The medium chill,” a post by David Roberts at grist.org, which muses on the topic of happiness and shares our notion that “we have lamentably little [in terms of infrastructure and institutions] for people who want to know how to foster more and better relationships…”
DOUBT IN FAITH Rocked by Doubt by Lulu Miller on RadioLab (Episode: Are you sure?)
How do doubt and faith interact in regards to the core beliefs you hold? How do you journey with the questions and insights into life that shake you and make you wonder if you’re right? Is there a role for doubt in your faith? RadioLab’s episode, “Are you sure?” tackles these questions head on. We share here the first story, “Rocked by Doubt”, in which a young man with doubt seeks proof of the God he once believed in with such conviction. If you choose to listen to the full episode, we warn you that the third story—“Reasonable Doubt”—does include some graphic content about sexual assault and violence.
What are ways of integrating contemplative experiences into meetings and conferences? This video from W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s 2012 “Michigan Communities in Action Annual Convening” is a wonderful example of the power of collective contemplative exploration. Regardless of the resources or scale you are working with, collective expression and engagement with poetry, art, silence, and other creative endeavors almost always reveal insight into our selves, our organizations, and our collective purpose. Watch the video and consider the ways you can think outside of the box in designing your next meeting or conference. (And, of course, feel free to contact us if you need some help.)
]]>Where's the Spirit? Navigating difficult timeshttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/4/24/wheres-the-spirit-navigating-difficult-times.htmlStill Harbor2013-04-24T19:49:06Z2013-04-24T19:49:06ZTENDING TO THE DISCOMFORTS
What do we all need spiritually following a crisis, trauma, or difficulty? Tending to the spiritual discomforts that emerge after experiencing a critical incident in our lives or communities is very important to cultivating resilience, and it is impossible to do without resources and support. You may have spiritual resources and support all around. You may be seeking them. Either way, read this latest document posted on our website to learn more about spiritual accompaniment for difficult times.
Signs throughout the city read, “We are One Boston.” Yet, there seems to be some resistance to living out the reality of what this slogan requires of us. The “Healing Our City” interfaith service apparently did not extend invitations to the secular, humanist, and atheist leaders of our city. To learn more about the event and the feedback from across the city, read Becky Garrison’s article. We urge you to consider—whatever your faith or moral tradition—how can we move our politics to more fully live out the notion of our interdependence?
Have you ever seen a salmon make its way up river? Courtney Pinkerton helps us understand why sometimes the most courageous acts of our lives don’t feel graceful or smooth. Using Mark Nepo’s salmon metaphor, she shares how perhaps we—like the salmon—can use the power of a current to propel us forward. This may mean we have to be vulnerable and orient ourselves to challenges in a way that feels precarious. But after all, to the casual observer a salmon jumping upstream is purely courageous even if, to the fish, it is experienced as a dangerous “lurching.”
]]>Where's the Spirit? Love in Bostonhttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/4/17/wheres-the-spirit-love-in-boston.htmlStill Harbor2013-04-17T19:13:15Z2013-04-17T19:13:15ZWe are surrounded by love in the wake of tragedy. This week, we celebrate this Spirit of love here in Boston and beyond.
LOVE IS COMMUNITY
Vigils sprang up throughout the City of Boston yesterday, demonstrating the resilience that lies at the core of our human experience. Love expressed through community is what the Boston Marathon represents, and it is precisely such love that we must remember to nurture in the face of violence and hatred. See more photos from yesterday's vigils here.
Choosing holy anger over what Raushenbush terms demonic anger requires a lot of us both in terms of commitment and awareness. It is not easy to recognize that the most profound kind of love may emerge from this holy anger. He wonderfully evokes Harold Kushner, who wrote, "If suffering and death brings us to explore the limits of our capacity for strength, love and cheerfulness, if it leads us to discover sources of consolation we never knew before, then we make the person or event into a witness for the affirmation of life rather than its rejection."
Martin Luther King, Jr. once urged this nation to love deeply in the face of hatred. May we remind ourselves of his words, which articulated so poignantly the way in which love and power must be one force operating together for good.
]]>Spiritual support in tragic timeshttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/4/16/spiritual-support-in-tragic-times.htmlStill Harbor2013-04-16T20:15:29Z2013-04-16T20:15:29Z
Dear friends,
At times of crisis such as these, Still Harbor recognizes one of the great paradoxes of humanity. In watching the news of the Marathon Monday events in Boston, we find ourselves bearing witness to destruction caused by human hatred and simultaneously experiencing the vast compassionate and loving response of people from all walks of life coming together to care for one another. While this is the big-picture reality of life on any given day, it has the potential to fill us with complex emotions of grief and awe when it is brought into such extreme focus in one place at one time.
Given this, Still Harbor is offering a number of opportunities for those who may be seeking spiritual accompaniment this week (read them here). If you find yourself wanting to talk to someone, hoping to connect with the community, or looking for a place to meditate and pray, please consider stopping by the Center this week. We also encourage you to let others know that Still Harbor is a resource for spiritual support this week.
With love and solidarity, All of us at Still Harbor
]]>Where's the Spirit? Looking inside and outhttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/4/10/wheres-the-spirit-looking-inside-and-out.htmlStill Harbor2013-04-10T20:33:37Z2013-04-10T20:33:37ZCREATING REASON
Umair Haque asks, “What do you do when reach the edge of heartbreak?” and proposes an answer: “you create a reason to take you past the edge of heartbreak.” What is your reason for being? How do you surrender to it? Haque offers a few insights into how to create your reason in his blog post. To us, it sounds a lot like connecting to your divine source and discerning your call.
SEEING YOUR SHADOW
Shadow Within by Christian Houge Global Oneness Project
Are you wise and destructive? Respected and feared? Have you ever felt like a member of the pack and lonely all at once? Shadow Within, a photographic essay by Christian Houge, beautifully documents wolves in nature and offers us a glimpse into the paradoxes we embody. Houge writes, “[Wolves] can reflect back to us the parts of ourselves we are afraid to see: fear, social hierarchy, aggression, and loneliness.” What lies in your shadow? How do these images encourage your contemplation?
How does your environment help you avoid the pitfalls of an “all work, no play” attitude in life? What are the spaces you inhabit that invite you to different ways of being present? Wake Forest University has taken on a redesign of its campus quad to make it more inviting to connection, creativity, and community. We should all take a cue from this important initiative. Space matters.
]]>Where's the Spirit? On depth and realityhttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/4/3/wheres-the-spirit-on-depth-and-reality.htmlStill Harbor2013-04-03T20:16:25Z2013-04-03T20:16:25ZGOING DEEP
Is there a way to integrate spirituality into the workplace without limiting it's scope or rendering it meaningless? Marianne Williamson articulated strongly at Silicon Valley’s Wisdom 2.0 conference how she feels, “Only in modern America could we come up with some ersatz version of spirituality that gives us a pass on addressing the unnecessary human suffering in our midst." Drda further articulates in his blog, "real wisdom requires asking the most challenging and probing questions, the ones that disarm the ego and cut to the heart of the matter." Does this kind of spirituality fit in your workplace?
What does it mean to be human? By examining the life and death of his son, Ted Gup articulates poignantly the way the modern medical world has seemingly made being human a condition to cure. He writes, “Instead of enhancing our coping skills, we undermine them and seek shortcuts where there are none, eroding the resilience upon which each of us, at some point in our lives, must rely.” To us, this is a call to make spirituality an essential component of human development.
Can you find the abundance in moderation? This question is at the heart of many spiritual traditions. New research suggests our contentment is not tied to enjoying more of the pleasures we crave “but to recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” So, as Marsh and Willer write, Lent “might actually feel pretty good in the end.” Is this surprising?
Source: Diagnosis: Human (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/opinion/diagnosis-human.html?_r=0) Source: Wisdom 2.0 and the Protection of the Spiritual Commons (http://www.realitysandwich.com/wisdom-spiritual-commons) Source: Why Lent Makes People Happy (and Netflix Doesn't) (http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/why-lent-makes-people-happy-and-netflix-doesn-t?utm_source=wkly20130329&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=titleMarsh)
]]>Where’s the Spirit? The silence and the noisehttp://www.stillharbor.org/blog/2013/3/27/wheres-the-spirit-the-silence-and-the-noise.htmlStill Harbor2013-03-27T21:57:31Z2013-03-27T21:57:31ZEvery Wednesday, we share links to articles, videos, and other content from across the wonderful world wide web that move and/or challenge us in our exploration of spirituality and society. We encourage you to share reflections and commentary on what we share here and out in your own communities. Enjoy!
What is your relationship to silence? Have you discovered a sacred silence in which you have felt your voice? Where is the space in your life to open up to the mystery of life and all its creations that is found silence? Richard Rohr writes, “Silence now seems like a luxury, but it is not so much a luxury as it is a choice and decision at the heart of every spiritual discipline and growth.” Read his complete contemplation on the matter that was published in Sojourners here.
Mindfulness is sexy. It has scientific backing. It’s the hot new thing. Or is it? What is mindful practice really? What does it require of you? Why and how might you engage with it? If you are seeking happiness or a stress-free life, will you find it? Alina Tugend relays her experience trying to understand mindfulness practice in this article. We, like Alina, suggest that if you want to practice mindfulness, you should find a teacher. We also think that exploring the ancient contemplative roots of the practice is important. Because… frankly, it is not a new idea.
As we mentioned last week, we enjoy a good dose of Brené Brown, whose research and writing opens up a new language to help us explore vulnerability and shame. We couldn’t help but share her second episode with Oprah because of her excellent understanding of how damaging comparative suffering can be on our lives. Do you hide your pain because you believe others are suffering more? How does your pain heal if it remains unspoken and judged? What happens if you share your pain with those who can hear it, regardless of whether it is petty or profound? Brené Brown says, “Compassion is not a pizza. It’s not finite… Compassion, empathy—infinite. It grows exponentially.”
Source: Finding God in the Depths of Silence (http://sojo.net/magazine/2013/03/finding-god-depths-silence) Source: Living with a Whole Heart (http://www.oprah.com/own-super-soul-sunday/Full-Episode-Oprah-and-Brene-Brown-Part-2-Video) Source: Mindful Practice Requires Practice and Purpose (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/your-money/mindfulness-requires-practice-and-purpose.html?_r=0)
HEALING TOGETHER
