Mindful U at Naropa University

Charlotte Rotterdam: Finding Courage in Contemplative Education

February 17th, 2020  |  47 mins 38 secs

charlotte rotterdam, college, contemplative, contemplative education, courage, david devine, education, higher education, meditation, mindful, mindfulness, naropa, naropa university, university

"Absolutely. You know we might have an idea about something, but then when you begin to express it from a creative place it's almost like you have to feel into it. If I want to write a poem about sadness it's not just about my ideas about sadness. At some point as I'm writing I need to stop and feel into what does sadness feel like? And then I might even think about a very specific situation in my life that brings up sadness. And then what arises from that place as a poem is coming from a non-conceptual place. Non-conceptual knowing and yet I've expressed something and I might even express it in words like with a poem. So, what we're trying to do in contemplative education is to bring both of those together. So, it's not in spite of conceptual knowing -- concepts are great, thinking is great -- but that there are other ways of knowing that are equally important and maybe if we bring them all together then there's a richness of knowing that begins to emerge."

Miki Fire: Discovering the Self Through Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy

July 1st, 2019  |  46 mins 47 secs

buddhism, college, contemplative, david devine, education, environment, environmental justice, higher education, miki fire, mindful, mindfulness, naropa, naropa university, therapy, transpersonal, transpersonal wilderness therapy, university, wild life, wilderness, wilderness therapy

"I do think here at Naropa specifically we do have a transpersonal orientation, a transpersonal lens that we then incorporate into all of our classes. So, the contemplative education piece is very much interwoven in what we do in the field. And so, we incorporate contemplative practices, we talk about how nature based experiences themselves can be forms of contemplative practice and inquiry. We also do introduce the transpersonal model. So how do we work with those kinds of experiences that the transpersonal orientation has really taken in and not pathologized. And being in the outdoors for many people, depending on the context, also can be quite evocative of experiences that do not fit cleanly into our usual psychological frameworks or when they are they're often pathologized."

Joanna Macy: The Work That Reconnects Part 2 of 2

May 6th, 2019  |  36 mins 30 secs

activism, activist, bodhisattva, buddhism, climate change, college, community, contemplative, contemplative education, crisis, david devine, deep ecology, earth, eco system, ecology, education, equality, higher education, joanna macy, mindful, mindful u, mindfulness, mother earth, naropa, naropa university, nuclear activist, nuclear guardianship, planet earth, social change, social justice, social responsibility, the great turning, the work that reconnects, university

"We talked about the spiral of the work that reconnects and then you talked about how once you dare to really see and speak what you've wanted to keep at arm's length, once you refuse to turn away and really suffer with your world and then you realize that the world is flowing into you and the living planet becomes alive for you. And then it generates for you. So that's we call seeing with new eyes. Everything looks different. And we use practices that are inspired by what we call deep ecology like the council of all beings. Where we step aside from our human role, which is only the last chapter of our long planetary journey. We've, as we know from the life forms we had in the womb of our mother, you know we had a tail and gills and fins. And so that we capitulate that ontogeny."

Joanna Macy: The Work That Reconnects Part 1 of 2

April 29th, 2019  |  53 mins 16 secs

activism, activist, bodhisattva, buddhism, climate change, college, community, contemplative, contemplative education, crisis, david devine, deep ecology, earth, eco system, ecology, education, equality, higher education, joanna macy, mindful, mindful u, mindfulness, mother earth, naropa, naropa university, nuclear activist, nuclear guardianship, planet earth, social change, social justice, social responsibility, the great turning, the work that reconnects, university

Alicia Patterson: Deep Wisdom & Healing of the Pelvic Bowl

April 22nd, 2019  |  49 mins 30 secs

alicia patterson, college, david devine, education, healing, health, higher education, meditation, mindful, mindfulness, naropa, naropa university, pelvic, pelvic bowl, pelvic floor, pelvic wisdom, psychology, somatic, somatic therapy, therapy, university, wisdom, women, womens health

"The pelvic floor muscle tissues are connected very intricately and beautifully, and I feel like it can be complex in some ways to the abdominal muscles. And I think of the pelvic floor as the foundation of a building, it's like the ground level of the body. If the foundation of a building is off or suffering or it's not right, the whole rest of the building is off. So, that's my best metaphor is that the pelvic floor is our foundation. It's so connected to our legs and our feet and the way that we walk and move and dance through the world. And it supports everything above it. So, the reproductive organs, the digestive system, all the organs, the heart, the voice, the throat, and the brain are supported by the pelvic floor. And I've had huge changes in my digestion and rewiring of my nervous system and real cognitive and mood balances from working with my pelvic floor that before, I was trying a million different things to feel better. For me, the pelvic floor is like the Holy Grail."

Rick Snyder: Decisive Intuition, Using your Gut Instincts to Make Smart Business Decisions

April 15th, 2019  |  49 mins 48 secs

buddhism, buddhist, business, college, compassion, contemplative, david devine, decisive intuition, education, higher education, intuition, mindful, mindful u, mindfulness, naropa, naropa university, rick snyder, smart business, university

"Emotional intelligence has completely revolutionized our lives and our business space. And because that's there there's now this foundation around intuitive intelligence. So, this is the next nuance that I'm really passionate to bring in, is that emotional intelligence is foundational and key. But it's not the whole story of how we discern information and how we navigate the world, even though emotions are supercritical and a big part of that. Intuitive intelligence also weaves in a greater, wider array of data information that we have to be able to learn to discern. So, it's even a little more refined in some ways. So that's what I'm really excited about is bringing this next wave to the business base and then also beyond that too. So that people give themselves more permission to trust themselves on a fundamental level. And bring their empowerment and their gifts forward without apology."

Nashalla Nyinda: Tibetan & Asian Medicine in Relationship with Western Biomedicine

April 1st, 2019  |  49 mins 45 secs

acu pressure, asian medicine, ayurvedic, college, herbalism, higher education, medicine, meditation, mindfulness, naropa, naropa university, nashalla nyinda, tibetan medicine, university, western medicine

"It's said in Tibetan medicine that you have to have all five elements plus karma in order to be incarnated at all. So, even to obtain the precious human body you have to have all five elements in karma. So you're going to choose certain parents and situations. They're going to give you some genetic factors which are going to influence your inner elements and then also you're going to have the diet and the behavior that your mother has during your pregnancy is going to influence it. The outer environment is going to influence it and then very early on in life -- your life situations are also going to influence it. So, family systems, psychology, all of that has an impact on the choices we make. So, somebody could be inherently one type of being and perhaps their family system either didn't recognize or support that and so they made a choice in order to compensate on a psychological level."

Sue Wallingford: Healing Generational Wounds Through Art Therapy

March 18th, 2019  |  42 mins 48 secs

art, art therapy, college, education, healing, higher education, khmer rouge, naropa, naropa university, psychology, sue wallingford, therapy, university

"Creativity is inherent in us as human beings. I think that we've, in some ways, lost the connection and the right to have our own creativity and our own artistry. For me, just touching into that in of itself is healing. It also takes you into a different part of your brain. It accesses different parts of your psyche and your spirituality and your soul in a way that maybe verbal therapies don't quite touch. And so, it's a deeper more integrated avenue dealing with you know whatever it is that you're working with."