All Entries in the "Bloggers" Category
Can You Imagine An Education System That Is Academically Rigorous While Emotionally And Socially Supportive? Susan Kaiser Greenland
Our education system is in crisis. A crisis that is so severe it’s tough to imagine a way out. Just ask anyone working in the trenches and they’ll tell you how difficult it is to picture a system of education that is academically rigorous while emotionally and socially supportive. But one thing we know for sure, if that’s the educational system that we dream of, we won’t be able to create it unless we can envision it first.
Article in Publico regarding Inner Kids Training in Guadalajara, Mexico
Susan Kaiser Greenland / Fundadora de la Asociación Inner Kids
Meditación a temprana edad
En 2001 inició su proyecto a través del cual ella ha dado clases de sobre “Plena atención o conciencia atenta” en programas escolares y comunitarios en California. El objetivo es mejorar las relaciones de los menores con su mundo. Click here for full article.
New Beginnings - Susan Kaiser Greenland
For a long time I’ve been drawn to new beginnings, so it is not surprising that when a trusted advisor mentioned that me, mindfulmom, Inner Kids, and other of my professional activities were all beginning to blur together I took that as an opportunity to reflect on my professional life.
Again.
That, and my daughter’s departure for college (she’s going to school a long distance from home), has given me plenty to chew over this summer.
I haven’t yet figured it all out yet, but the simplest element to attack and conquer was, of all things, Twitter. . .
‘Mindfulness’ meditation being used in hospitals and schools - from USA Today
On June 8 there was an article in USA today about mindfulness that discussed secular meditation for both adults and children. Steve Reidman, a teacher at Toluca Lake Elementary where the InnerKids program has been taught for many years, was interviewed along with Sue Smalley who discussed recent findings in the multi-year, multi-site UCLA research [...]
PushMe PullYou - Susan Sawyers
The round freckled-faced schoolboy and I managed to uphold our promise to wander from west side to east at least once a week; every week school was in session. Hot or cold, rain or snow, we did it. Today concludes those 5th grade meanderings because by end of day tomorrow, he will move up to [...]
Miss USA- No Crowning Achievement for Same-Sex Marriage
I propose that Mr. Perez’s question inspired division, not Miss Prejean’s response; not to mention that referring to her as a “dumb bitch” didn’t exactly win over anyone who was already sure that same-sex marriage would be the death of us all.
Focus on this play, this moment !! — Advice from a Japanese baseball team. — Susan Kaiser Greenland
A misunderstanding of the concept of now can be a slippery slope that quickly leads to a nihilistic take on mindfulness practice. If you view what’s happening in the present moment as separate from past and future experience, figuring that what you say or do makes little difference is an understandable conclusion. Understandable, but completely at odds with two basic foundations of mindfulness practice.
How Passover night is not so different from any other night. — Susan Kaiser Greenland
Each year around the Passover holiday we pause, set aside all the to-ing and fro-ing for a moment, and rest.
How mindful awareness can help kids find emotional stability in an increasingly crazy world - Susan Kaiser Greenland
A new paradigm for children and families is within reach by connecting the wisdom derived from a more reflective and introspective way of being with the insights provided by education, psychology and neuroscience.
I confess! I tweet! — Susan Kaiser Greenland
Looking past the quite modern aspects of online twittering there is something rather sweet and retro about the whole thing. Twitter is, in many respects, a call back to sewing circles, ice-cream socials, and mixers. These old-fashioned social events of yesteryear were primarily about making friends, having interesting conversations, and learning something new. Not so different from Twitter’s mission to be a way for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected. At it’s best Twitter is exactly what it sets out to be.
Watching Michelle’s Garden Grow — Susan Kaiser Greenland
Okay, so how cool is it that the Obamas are tearing up 1,100 square feet of the White House lawn to plant a kitchen garden? I can’t wait to see the pictures of Michelle, Barack, and their kids tending the White House garden splashed on the front pages of newspapers around the world. It will [...]
Is the feminist fight over? Check out our poll. - Seth Greenland & Susan Kaiser Greenland
4:45pmSusan
I don’t know whether laughing at this stuff is less charged than taking it seriously.
4:49pmSeth
I think they’re responding in the way people respond to black comedy - when a person falls into a manhole some people (like me) will laugh. But that’s another issue.
The point I was making was that the younger women did not see the situation through a political prism, but, rather, through a human one. They are of the generation that believes the feminist fight to be over.
Your comment is awaiting moderation. — Kelley McCabe
I posted a comment on Diana Winston’s “Ten Suggestions for Having a Regular Daily Meditation Practice Even if You Would Rather Be Thrown into a Shark-Infested Ocean” blog entry (which, by the way, is worth reading). I looked at my post and saw this status message: “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
Ten Suggestions for Having a Regular Daily Meditation Practice Even if You Would Rather Be Thrown into a Shark-Infested Ocean - Diana Winston
Look familiar?
Your unforgiving alarm rings for all it’s worth. It’s 7AM. You crash out of bed, slamming your toe on your bedside table. You fumble for your zafu in the dark. “It’s over here somewhere,” you mumble. Hearing you awaken from the dead, your cat runs screeching. You are about to plant your still-zombiefied-self on [...]
Do Good on Your Day Off - Susan Sawyers
If you’ve ever wanted to do some public service but couldn’t fit it in with an already overloaded schedule of work, play and/or family obligations, our savvy President-elect is online to help.
The Presidential Inaugural committee “launched a national organizing effort on the eve of the Inauguration to engage Americans in service.” Their website (USAservice.org) gives [...]
More reflections on the passage of time - Anushka Fernandopulle
Another new year …..Is it 2009 already?!? How did that happen?!? What happened to 2008?!?
Wait, isn’t there some deja vu with this whole new year experience (what happened to ‘07, ‘97, ‘87 ‘77, insert year here)?
Reflecting on the passage of time (including aging and death) is considered a positive tonic for your spiritual life in [...]
Ring in the new. Seth Greenland and Susan Kaiser Greenland
10:02am Susan
It’s New Year’s Day, what are you throwing into the fireplace this year?
10:05amSeth
All of my bad qualities are going in there. It’s going to be a very big fire.
Holiday cheer - Seth Greenland & Susan Kaiser Greenland
Seth
So, the holidays…
Susan
Do you ever feel sad around the holidays?
Seth
I don’t need the holidays for an excuse, baby. Sadness around the holidays is for amateurs. I can be morose any time. Although the holidays provide a good excuse. Expectations are so high, and people are…well…so low.
The Recession Made Me an Optimist - Seth Greenland
I don’t feel like I have the luxury of pessimism any more. The country is in dire shape, the problems seem insurmountable, the leaders of the past eight years dangerous buffoons who will pay no price for their epic malfeasance. The auto industry is tanking, newspapers are going bankrupt, and Wall Street is fleecing us again with the bailout. Truly, things are awful.
And yet.
When the Going Gets Tough, Satire Gets Going - Seth Greenland
American culture has long had a carnival aspect. How else to explain the ascendancy of Paris Hilton and her fellow celebritards, or the career of Flavor Flav? But until recently, these people and their antics had been a diversion, something to be glanced at in a dog-eared magazine at the dentist’s office, or to be glimpsed on a teenager’s laptop. Not anymore. With the advent of the Palin Family . . . reality took a turn that must make all practitioners of satire quake in our boots. If this is what truth offers, our audience would do well to ask, then who needs comedy?
Publishing 2.0 - Seth Greenland
One of the more vexing decisions a novelist makes today is how aggressively to promote a new book. Time was you sold it, then moved to Paris, ran with the bulls in Pamplona, or danced in Plaza fountain after a night of drunken carousing, while the publishing house did all the work. Alas, those days have gone the way of the fifty-cent paperback. For example: to blog or not to blog? You can see how I answered that one.
A Hero for our Times - Seth Greenland
But the most piquant detail from my daughter’s B’Nai Mitzvah Tour circa 2005 was observed at – where else - a country club. It occurred during the cocktail hour, somewhere between the canapés and the cocktail wieners, when the bar mitzvah boy was going to make his entrance. The lights dimmed, a spotlight hit a pair of gilded doors on a balcony above a sweeping staircase. The music kicked in : P.I.M.P. by 50 Cent. If the bubbes and zaydes present were aware of or concerned with the lyric content (No Cadillacs, no perms that you can’t see, that I’m a motherfuckin’ P.I.M.P.) they gave no evidence of it.
Women on the Web; Good News and Bad
The Good News:I WANT MEDIAs leading “media people of the year” are women. They are Arianna Huffington followed by Tina Fey and Rachel Maddow. The remaining seven leaders are men. http://www.iwantmedia.com/personoftheyear/08.html
The Bad News: Take a look at leweb’s lineup of speakers and sponsors. The ratio is about 6 men for every woman speaker.
Novel of the Year - Head Butler - Way to go again Seth!
Jessie Kornbluth from Huffington Post and Head Butler’s sane holiday giving guide.
His pick for Novel of the Year is none other than our mindful dad’s new novel Shining City!
Shining City. Seth Greenland’s comic triumph begins: “Julian Ripps was too fat to be reclining in a hot tub between a pair of naked women, unless he was very rich or they were prostitutes. He wasn’t, but they were.” The rest is just that smart. And funny.
One of WashPo’s Best Books of 2008! Way to go Seth
From Jonathan Yardley’s Picks of the Best Books of 2008 in the Washington Post:
I’m not going to make any cosmic claims for Shining City, by Seth Greenland, but it had me laughing out loud over and over again. It concerns a rather hapless Los Angeles middle-management guy who falls into a wholly unexpected bonanza: His sleazy older brother dies of a splendidly stage-managed heart attack and leaves him a dry-cleaning business that turns out to be a front for a prostitution ring. I’d never before heard of Greenland, but Shining City sent me to his first novel, The Bones, and the two put me squarely in his fan club.
I’m Bringing Not Sexy Back-Lori Mozilo
My doctor says it’s all normal. “Normal for whom?’ I snap, “An Alzheimer’s patient in the middle of a sex change?” I lost my girlish figure long ago, I lost my girlish face in the past ten years, but now I’m losing my girlish attitude, and that one really hurts.
The Passage of Time…. Anushka
If you have little kids in your life you know how fast they grow and change every day, week, and month. But actually so do all of us! Perhaps it is less obvious to us, but it is true! The fact is, what we usually call ourselves– body, mind, emotions– is always in constant flux, changing, swirling, moving. And there is no pause button.
Vote for selective ignorance - Susan Kaiser Greenland
I often say there’s no such thing as a magic bullet - or magic wand - or whatever - but one thing comes pretty close and that’s a concept known as clear seeing. Everyone has the capacity for clear seeing already but sometimes our vision is blurred because we like it that way. Selective [...]
A Mindful Mom tries Kung-Fu, and lives to tell about it - Diana Winston
“We started with some shadow boxing. My half-hearted attempts to be aggressive were laughable even to me. But when we broke into pairs, that’s when I lost it. I can’t hit anyone. I’m a non-violent Buddhist. I’ve never swung a punch at anyone my whole life. How could I do this?”
Preschoolers At The Polls — Heather Cabot
Mindful Mom is delighted to welcome Heather Cabot, founder of the Well Mom, as one of our Mindful Moms!
Election Day got off to a rousing start over breakfast when my nearly three-year-old son stubbornly announced that he would NOT be going with me to “boat” because he did not want his feet to get wet. [...]
Prop 8 and Obama, a mandate to listen - Susan Kaiser Greenland
On a morning where an Obama presidency is cause for celebration and hope, the likely passage of Prop 8 in California is a reality check that Americans remain almost literally split down the middle with respect to our perspectives on the most basic of social issues. For those of us who supported Obama and his mandate, it will take more than just reaching across the aisle to manifest the hope for change and unity that he and his campaign have inspired. It’s going to take a whole lot of listening - active listening with a willingness to have our own perspectives shift - to come together and move forward as a more united and more evolved nation. President-elect Obama has proven to be an exemplar of this approach and, if his plans for a transition team are any indication, the hard work of open and informed conversation has already begun in his administration. Now it’s time for the rest of us to follow his lead and take these conversations to our schools, churches, temples, workplaces, and kitchen tables, truly integrating into our workaday lives the change that we believe in.
I’m such a baby sometimes - Lori Mozilo
I try to think back to when my son was first born. Was I this way? Did my husband and I overwhelm friends and family with our love for our new son? Granted, it was before the Internet and we couldn’t have afforded the postage. But, was I quite so oblivious to the fact people had other things to do besides fawn over pictures of my baby napping with Eeyore?
Looking beyond election day — Susan Kaiser Greenland
Negative feelings reside in the world of emotions, the language of which is predominantly non-verbal. Images, sounds, sense impressions, and smells are the most effective way to convince emotions, like fear, that there’s cause for alarm. Nothing speaks more powerfully to the fears of older undecided Jewish voters than images of Hitler. And to people born in communities with longstanding culturally based and unrecognized racial prejudice, the association between the first major party African-American candidate for President and a monkey is one of the most embedded, racially charged images in U.S. history.
Ferris wheels and the integration of intuition and reason. - Susan Kaiser Greenland
There is a brand new Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier, not so far from where I live. Countless blogs, news reports, articles and YOUtube videos depict the rainbow of 160,000 colorful, solar-power and wind lit LED lights that hover above the Pacific ocean and sparkle in the night sky as the new Ferris wheel spins. As artful as these descriptions might be, no amount of reading or thinking about this fantastic amusement park ride can compare to the visceral experience of taking it.