Success Story: Theory of Change. The journey towards wellbeing Success Story: Theory of Change. The journey towards wellbeing

Guest post in collaboration with:

Muhammad Imran Kazmi, Senior Finance Manager in Khwendo Kor

Muhammad Imran Kazmi is the Senior Finance Manager in Khwendo Kor (KK), a well reputed local-based non-for-profit organisation in Peshawar, Pakistan. In 2019 KK was one of 8 social change organisations chosen to participate in  The Wellbeing Project’s Organisational Exploratory Program (OEP). The purpose of the OEP was  to support the organisations through a learning journey to build wellbeing into the heart of their cultures.

Consistent with its vision to build a society where women and girls live with dignity and self-reliance, organisational wellbeing within Khwendo Kor would be defined by a participatory culture and supportive community giving opportunities for every staff member to learn and grow.

Whenever there is change, there will be some resistance to that change: it is a normal human response to uncertainty. Imran explains his own resistance: “At first, I could not accept the idea of wellbeing in the context of Pakistan, where we have such challenges with education, with electricity, with so much. And I did not like the idea of sharing my learning with staff, with connecting with more people.”   

He goes on to say: “I have a stammer tongue by birth and before joining the wellbeing project I was not accepting this problem. All the time I was crucially blaming myself and complaining to GOD for this given. It was always a big challenge for me to accept when I was given a chance to speak in a meeting or a public gathering. Only the thought of it brought always fear in my mind that if I stammer, I would be embarrassed and thus lose self-confidence.”

The OEP was, from the beginning, framed as a learning journey. Everyone came to understand that there were no one-size-fits-all answers. This was an exploration by the participating organisations to define what organisational wellbeing meant to them and identify how they might work to improve it. Learning would come whether the impact was as expected, or not. And learning would be shared among the 8 organisations.

Imran says: “Since I joined OEP in 2019 I had several check-in sessions with our organisational coach. I have a learning attitude, so I have positively learnt a lot from this journey. Since joining the OEP, I slowly and gradually started accepting it.”

“I worked on myself and learned through various session. I did research in internet to found ways to address my stammering and YouTube videos to learn on how to overcome stammering. Once I started accepting my stammer problem, it really worked out and now I don’t feel shame if stammer. This has really built my self-confidence and now sometimes when I speak, I don’t even stammer anymore. For this I feel very grateful first to myself because I’ve learned to change and to The Wellbeing Project /OEP team and Khwendo Kor (KK) for providing me with this beautiful platform not only for organisational wellbeing but also for my personal wellbeing.

Based on my experience I developed some powerful wellbeing indicators which has not only bought miracle change in my life but also a positive attitude. I recommend everyone to apply these in their life.

Regular practice meditation.

Acceptance.

Believe in yourself.

Expressing gratitude.

Calm and peace to have healthy mind.

Be happy and stay positive.

Exposure to nature.

Focus on yourself.

Be aware of the present moment.

Don’t think about your past and future that has yet to come.

Let the ego go.

Having said that, one indicator ACCEPTANCE from the above list has changed my life.

Last year, in 2022, one of our senior Board of Director Dr. Salma Masood Khan and myself have attended The Wellbeing Summit for Social Change in Bilbao, Spain. There we learnt from different sessions and met with beautiful souls across the world. This was an extraordinary experience for me as it was my first ever experience to travel abroad in an airplane. This international exposure was also an additional booster for me to learn and share mutual experiences. Upon our return, we have prepared a PowerPoint presentation and successfully conducted a one-day session on wellbeing to all our staff.”

As for powerful organisational wellbeing indicators, KK is currently heading into its mid-term Strategic Planning Review Process with organisational wellbeing top of mind. Initially Imran was primarily responsible for the KK wellbeing work. Now the KK Human Resource function is taking the lead -reviewing policies through the lens and perspective of wellbeing, looking at salaries, providing interest-free loans to staff, and offering retirement benefits to which the organisation and the staff members contribute.

Imran offers his own powerful wellbeing guidance. “Last but not least my humble submission is: Love yourself, care yourself so that you are able to love and care others as well”.   

A “Pénc” for African Wellbeing: Convening social change actors at a critical moment A “Pénc” for African Wellbeing: Convening social change actors at a critical moment

Guest post by

Elena Bonometti, CEO of Tostan

African, community-centered, collaborative models are showing a way forward that is organized around locally driven and globally supported efforts. Locally-led initiatives, capacity development for communities and agency-first programs are mapping ways to both address unequal and antiquated power dynamics, and ensure that communities are centered and leading as they face shared global challenges.  

Yet even with promising directions like these, the realities of rapid, multiple global crises and growing challenges have also created a largely unaddressed and growing risk: those at the center of social change and wellbeing efforts are being stretched increasingly thin. In particular, there is a growing risk that the wellbeing of the social sector and community leaders is declining when the world needs it the most. 

Wellbeing can be defined in numerous ways. In Tostan’s work in partnership with communities, it is communities that define what wellbeing means for them and their goals. Commonly we see themes around health, finance, education, women’s leadership, equality, and governance emerging. These are lessons we must take into professional, personal and community-wide projects to consider wellbeing not as a “nice to have” but as absolutely essential to social cohesion. 

The potential challenge  of a decline in wellbeing is especially relevant  in West Africa, where a  social sector already confronted in recent decades by major issues — in health, education, economic hardship and many others — now faces many new challenges simultaneously – as climate change joins pandemics, challenges to peace and security and the erosion of democracy, and increasing inequality. 

Yet West Africa also has many positive aspects and major contributions to make to our world – ways of seeing and being that promote inclusion and respect and increasingly feel relevant to a fragmented world. As my colleague Carina Ndiaye, Chief Partnerships Officer for Tostan puts it:

In Senegal we call it Teraanga. For openness, sharing. It means: we invite you to come in.  But this cultural norm is present throughout the region and throughout the continent…Through Teraanga, the concept behind the Hindi word Namaste (meaning: the light in me sees the light in you), is extended and reinforced to say, what is mine is yours. Not only materialistically, but the earth, the sun, the sea, and the unseen as well. From visitor to member. From transitory to influenced. In our culture, the ‘you’ never stands alone. What affects you, what ails you, what reinforces you also affects me and my community. And community means any, and everyone, who walks our way and crosses our path.

In Senegal and across West Africa, when challenges arise, a community gathering – referred to as a pénc in Wolof – is called to bring together the community for discussion. 

For all these reasons Tostan and our partners will host an African-based, African-led, globally connected pénc – a convening at the intersection of wellbeing as a global goal–and growth of wellbeing as a daily practice in our organizations, communities, and personal lives. To support the emergence of sustained impacts in wellbeing through practices of wellbeing. wellbeing within ourselves, our organizations, our communities, our nations, and around our world. 

Together with partners like you we hope to convene a discussion among African actors about critical local, regional and global issues at the heart of wellbeing across the continent. 

Guest post by Sara Taggart, Global Grassroots

Dear Friends,

Over the years, and increasingly so, folks interested in Global Grassroots have asked, “How does your work connect to the issues of climate change?”

With Earth Day approaching, we have been thinking a lot about this question. While Global Grassroots did not start as an “environmental” organization, we certainly believed (and continue to see) that the root causes of so many issues faced by the grassroots women we ally with are intertwined with their ecological contexts.

This became increasingly clear as teams began to focus on sustainable access to clean water as a strategy for addressing multiple barriers to wellbeing, from health and hygiene to gender-based violence to childhood nutrition to economic and educational inequality.

At our recent Wisdom Lab presentation, Women, Water & Wisdom: Mapping the Ripple Effects of Conscious Social Change in Rural Rwanda, we shared different ways that women changemakers are creating sustainable solutions to the challenge of water scarcity in their villages.

As the chart below illustrates, when teams create a water source that is clean, close to home, safe to access, affordable and available in the dry season, the interdependent processes by which community members experience positive changes in health, nutrition, gender equality, education, family harmony, economic well-being, and even infrastructure development are profound.

Conscious Social Change in Action – Principle #4: Engage Mindfully

Last month we looked at the importance of ensuring balance within ourselves, so we can be more present in the moment and more effective in our interactions with others.

As we cultivate the capacities of mindfulness, we become adept at setting aside ego, assumptions, and bias to inquire and listen. We are less likely to think our way is the only viewpoint, less likely to create division and blame, and more likely to seek out understanding across difference so as to identify common ground.

Drawing from a broader set of perspectives and inviting greater participation across whole eco-systems gives us a more comprehensive understanding of an issue and stakeholder needs, ideas, and priorities, which we can use in collaboratively designing for change.

Mindfulness trains us to look at reality with greater curiosity.

Instead of seeing failure, mindfulness encourages us to examine circumstances with an eagerness to learn so that we evolve our solutions for greater efficacy. Rather than getting fixated on pushing forward our own narrow agenda or thinking it is all up to us to fix, mindfulness drives us to lead with more openness, question our thinking, seek out more diverse expertise, and be willing to compromise as a strategy towards progress.

This fuels innovation and drives sustainability, informed by all voices who are more likely to feel a level of ownership in a creative solution’s outcomes, rather than an unwilling subject of its implementation.

The goal of conscious social change should really be the sustainable wellbeing for all, including quality of life, economic, social, mental, spiritual, physical, and material wellbeing, as defined by the person themselves.

It is thus critical to ensure the poor, vulnerable, marginalized, and exploited should come first and lead the process of defining and achieving wellbeing for themselves. We ask what is helpful and determine our unique way to serve as an ally – not overly control, not abdicate control, but partner.

We use presence to stay attuned to the changing needs of those we aim to serve, so we do not stay stuck on our own agenda or abuse our power. This transformational paradigm is inner-driven with a focus on serving the highest common good. Finally, conscious social change invites us to examine our role in the systems that uphold the status quo too.

What we didn’t know for sure – or at least didn’t have the words to explain – was how Global Grassroots’ mindfulness-based model might be having an additional impact on the inner qualities of the women changemakers and their community members, particularly in nurturing the kinds of mindsets we may all need in order to navigate increasingly daunting climate crises, wherever we happen to be born or live.

Participants in our Ripple Effects Mapping inquiry pointed to powerful changes — such as an increased sense of agency, compassion, individual and community resilience, collaboration, solidarity and a sense of belonging — all of which seem to be contributing to the sustainability of their efforts and a recurring theme of optimism and hope for the future.

While we cannot yet prove that Global Grassroots’ Conscious Social Change model is causing these shifts, participants’ reflections on their lives over the past six years gives us real reason for HOPE as well!

Over the coming week on social media, leading up to Earth Day on April 22, we will share key insights, photos, and mindfulness practices to help illuminate the connections between the work of these amazing women and our collective global responsibility to secure a healthy, safe, vibrant and sustainable planet for ALL of our children’s children, and beyond.

Practices to Help Us Engage Mindfully

Deep Listening – One of the most powerful practices we can develop is learning how to listen, really listen, to others. This can be much harder than it sounds. It can require that we set aside the many possible distractions outside of ourselves (devices, noises, etc.). But the real work comes in setting aside the distractions within ourselves as we tune into what another is telling us. Try this during your next important conversation:

  • Take a deep breath in, and an even longer exhale
  • Relax the muscles of your face and jaw
  • Allow your breath to slow as you begin to absorb what someone is saying to you
  • As they speak, notice when your mind has wandered away. Are you thinking about what you will say next?
  • Without self-judgment, gently lead your mind back to the present moment (feel your feet on the ground, or press two fingers firmly together)
  • Recommit to deeply absorbing what is being said

When the other person has finished, perhaps say, “Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I want to take a moment to let it all sink in before I say anything more.” Then do this! Take your time before speaking or moving forward. See what happens.

Website

Global Grassroots

New Hampshire, United States.

Field of Action: Social change. Women’s Justice. Ecological Belonging.

Ecosystem Network

Since 2006, Global Grassroots has trained more than 700 emerging change agents across East Africa who have designed nearly 200 civil society organizations reaching 198,000 people.

Their inner-driven approach, called Conscious Social Change, results in powerful impacts on our change agents and them, in turn, upon their communities.

When applied to the water sector, this results in significant shifts in health, violence, and education indicators, recording an unprecedented sustainability rate of 96% among water ventures they have funded since 2008, which are serving nearly 78,000 people with access to clean water and hygiene supplies, a critical need during COVID-19. Women belonging to Global Grassroots groups and programs understand systemic change and use their water solutions as sustainable hubs to target a range of other priority local issues affecting women.

When women lead, communities succeed.

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Women are the fabric of society, but in impoverished areas, they lack the tools to solve local social issues.”

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Reports & Research

Women, Water & Wisdom: Mapping Ripple Effects of Conscious Social Change in
Rural Rwanda

Have you ever thought about the link between wellbeing and water?

The benefits of clean water go well beyond physical health. In communities where clean water is scarce and has to be fetched on a daily basis, its availability reduced stress and increased safety: 

“According to participants, the incidents of injury, violence, and abuse related to fetching water dropped since the new water sites launched, particularly improving the safety of women, girls, and other community members for whom the journey had been dangerous.”

Read the full report to learn more about the power of water and community-led change: 

READ REPORT

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``WHY INNER WELLBEING IS ESSENTIAL FOR ALL CHANGEMAKERS`` THE BUSINESS OF GIVING WITH DENVER FREDERICK ``WHY INNER WELLBEING IS ESSENTIAL FOR ALL CHANGEMAKERS`` THE BUSINESS OF GIVING WITH DENVER FREDERICK

Social activists have a disproportionately poor quality of life. Many struggle with depression, burnout, high divorce rates, and financial pressure. And while 75% of changemakers surveyed felt that looking after their wellbeing was very important, only 25% reported they actually did to a great extent.

The Wellbeing Project was created to change the culture of the field of social change to one welcoming of inner wellbeing, and to catalyze an infrastructure to support everyone working in the field. They believe that wellbeing inspires welldoing. And here to discuss this work with us is Aaron Pereira and Sandrine Woitrin, the project leads of The Wellbeing Project.

TRANSCRIPT & MORE

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: RECIPES FOR WELLBEING COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: RECIPES FOR WELLBEING

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Recipes for Wellbeing was set up as a not-for-profit association with the intention of shifting the culture of changemaking from one that leads to burnout to one that includes a focus on wholebeing.

Can you share the intention behind creating Recipes for Wellbeing and what communities the Recipes for Wellbeing serve?

Recipes for Wellbeing first emerged in 2016 as a spontaneous collaboration between changemakers interested in exploring practices to cultivate their wellbeing. Two years later, three of these changemakers – Alessia Cervone, Greta Rossi, and Tariq Al-Olaimy – decided to set up a not-for-profit association with the intention of shifting the culture of changemaking from one that leads to burnout to one that includes a focus on wholebeing and enables changemakers and their teams to thrive and to create positive change in the world. The communities we serve are changemaker communities.

Changemakers are those acting for a purpose that serves other people and the planet. They often sacrifice their wellbeing to change the world. Changemakers are driven by an intrinsic motivation to improve the lives of others and to be stewards of our planet. They choose purpose over pay-checks – The Possibilists 2021 Report.

We believe that their changemaking work should no longer come at the expense of their wellbeing. If you wonder whether this is an issue at all, we invite you to check out the results of The Possibilists in-depth study on changemakers, which highlight that “59% of young changemakers have experienced some degree of burnout since they started work on their initiatives” (The Possibilists 2021 Report, P17). What’s more, “66% of young changemakers cannot compensate themselves at all or can only pay themselves a small token amount” (P13), “59% say they are juggling various responsibilities and are stretched too thin” (P12).

MIND, BODY, SOUL & HEART MIND, BODY, SOUL & HEART

Recipes for Wellbeing focuses on four categories: Mind, Body, Heart, and Soul – can you share the intention behind focusing on these aspects and their role in deepening our understanding of wellbeing?

We know there are both internal and external conditions influencing our wellbeing. For instance, The Possibilists study in 2021 revealed how young changemakers “do not perceive their broader (national) contexts as being particularly supportive of their work and efforts to grow their initiatives” (P19). In particular, systemic inequalities (64%), the state of the economy in their home country (62%), and the financial opportunities in their country (61%) were the issues most cited as negatively affecting their work (P19).

At Recipes for Wellbeing, we focus mainly on the internal conditions to transform them into leverage points to change external conditions. We have identified the following four internal wholebeing dimensions: Mind, Body, Soul & Heart.

Mind: Wholebeing for the mind concerns the well-functioning of our minds so that we can cope with stressful situations and work fruitfully, whilst also realising our creative potential to make a contribution to the world. It is not about an absence of mental disorder or ill-health, but about acknowledging and accepting all thoughts.

Body: Wholebeing for the body is about cultivating a kind relationship with our body and supporting its well-functioning by developing healthy eating habits, engaging in regular physical activity, and avoiding preventable diseases. It is not about an absence of physical disorder or illness, but about embracing and appreciating our body as it is.

Heart: Wholebeing for the heart is about fostering compassionate, balanced, and supportive relationships with ourselves, other people, and the world to cope with the emotional burden of our changemaking work. It is not about an absence of difficult feelings or emotions, but about experiencing and integrating the full range of human emotions.

Soul: Wholebeing for the soul is about discovering and nurturing a strong connection with our unique and deepest identity, as well as with the larger consciousness that animates the cosmos and everything in it. For some, wholebeing for the soul is deeply connected with religious affiliation, whereas for others it is about surrendering to the flow of the universe.

However, we do not stop there.

In fact, in the past couple of years, we started to look at the intersection between wellbeing and specific systems and topics, ranging from community wellbeing to digital wellbeing and gender & wellbeing.

INDIVIDUAL, COMMUNITY & NATUREINDIVIDUAL, COMMUNITY & NATURE

Finally, it is important to stress that we do not focus on individual wellbeing alone (like many other wellbeing initiatives do), but we look at the intersection of three interconnected and interdependent ecologies:

  • Individual: Wholebeing comes from a deepening centre, a clarity about who we are, what we need, and what is required for us to survive and thrive in our environment. As individuals we only exist in community, and we are also Nature.
  • Community: Wholebeing comes from expanding our circle of compassion to accept and embrace that we are not isolated from others and that when our community thrives, we can thrive too. Our human communities only exist in community with the more than human world.
  • Nature: Wholebeing comes from re-discovering and re-kindling a more harmonious relationship with the human world, and a reconnection back to the Earth community of which human communities are an intrinsic part of.

Can you share more about your recently launched recipes?

One of the main wellbeing offers we have for changemakers is our Online Wellbeing Commons – a freely accessible library with over 210 “wellbeing recipes”. These are activities for individuals and teams to cultivate wellbeing across the various dimensions, systems, and ecologies. This library has benefitted from numerous donations from wellbeing experts and practitioners all over the world, and in the past few weeks, we have added over 40 new recipes (marked by the “new” badge next to them).

Among the new recipes, you can find a variety of wellbeing practices, from activities related to burnout such as “4 tips to avoid WFH burnout” to tips for financial wellbeing with “Healthy money habits”; from ways to support LGBTQIA2S+ folks with “LGBTQIA2S+ allies in the workplace” to tips for the perfectionists amongst us with “Coping with unhealthy perfectionism”; and from creative activities to process emotions such as “Catharsis through clay” to practices to be more mindful parents such as “The parenting plate”. Not to mention our newest category, already featuring seven activities for community wellbeing.

If you would like to donate a wellbeing recipe, please reach out to the team at Recipes for Wellbeing at info@recipesforwellbeing.org.

This Funders Group Wants Philanthropy to Take the Lead on Nonprofit Worker Wellbeing This Funders Group Wants Philanthropy to Take the Lead on Nonprofit Worker Wellbeing

Words:

Wendy Paris
Journalist

Changemakers are burned out, as we’ve been hearing for the past few years. Now, leaders from a dozen philanthropies are tyring to make a difference through the Funders & Wellbeing Group (FWG), a learing collaborative launched in 20222 with the aim of increasing members’ own understanding of the connection between effective social change and the welfare of changemakers — and pushing philanthropy as a whole to take the concept of wellbeing more seriously.

The FWG is a program of the Wellbeing Project, a global nonprofit founded in 2015 by Ashoka Fellow Aaron Pereira in reaction to his own burnout. The Wellbeing Project has a staff of 35 and works to “normalize and create access to wellbeing in the social change sector,” according to its website. The project is focused not only on the West but also the Global South, where the toll on those in the helping professions can be even greater and access to support even more scarce.

Twelve organizations joined the first two-year cohort, with at least two participants from each group coming to meetings, including one from senior leadership. The current members include the group’s main funder, Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Global, as well as the Ford Foundation, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, Laudes Foundation, Segal Family Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Imaginable Futures, Camelback Ventures, the Hewlett Foundation, Alana, the SHM Foundation and Global Fund for Children.

The FWG is a small program in the Wellbeing Project’s overall scope, operating on initial funding of about $70,000 from Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Global, and an annual fee of 5,000 euros per participant. Still, its creation points to philanthropy’s growing interest in bolstering the welfare of those working to make the world a better place.

Funders play an important role in the wellbeing of organizers and nonprofit workers, of course, given that philanthropic dollars often cover salaries and benefits. And a handful of funders, including the Durfee Foundation, support wellbeing-focused initiatives such as employee sabbaticals and other forms of worker care. The nonprofit Fund the People is also advocating for philanthropy to prioritize nonprofit workers’ wellbeing.

Still, the importance of wellbeing more generally remains largely overlooked, said Dana Preston, the Wellbeing Project’s development and partnership lead. “Wellbeing is underfunded because it’s not considered essential. It’s considered a ‘nice to have,’ ‘woo-woo,’ a luxury, hippy-dippy. We still have a way to go for wellbeing to be recognized as essential to lasting change.”

Putting wellbeing on the agenda

Preston said she runs up against a generalized dismissal of wellbeing in her development role at the project. One way she argues for its importance is by having funders experience it themselves. In her job at the Wellbeing Project, she does this by arranging outings, such a week-long “inner work” retreat. The Funders & Wellbeing Group is another such experience. “This is strategic for us,” she said. “If we can work with philanthropy to understand that wellbeing is essential, that will unlock funding for it and create momentum for changemakers.”

As of December 2022, the group had met four times and established goals, including implementing an action plan within their own organizations and collaborating with other group participants on the larger project of shifting philanthropic norms.

Bad habits take time to die

The FWG is also part of philanthropy’s critique of its own practices that replicate the negative power dynamics of capitalism. These include things like demanding, competitive RFP processes, exhaustive reporting requirements for even small grants, and chronic underfunding of nonprofits — all of which can compromise the wellbeing of nonprofit leaders, employees and the communities they serve, said Jessamyn Shams-Lau, co-chair of the FWG.

Moving beyond these practices is of immediate, practical importance. “We see a lot of nonprofit leaders burn out and leave. This is not only ethically wrong, but also illogical from the perspective of longevity,” said Shams-Lau. “Their ability to stay engaged in this work means we will not lose the knowledge and wisdom they built up over the years.”

I’m Feeling Optimistic About 2023, Thanks to Advice From The Dalai Lama’s Doctor I’m Feeling Optimistic About 2023, Thanks to Advice From The Dalai Lama’s Doctor

Words:

Molly Longman
Journalist

I’ll say it — I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about 2023. Let lightning strike if it will.

I feel this way, seemingly against the odds. I’m one of those masochists who reads the news faithfully each morning, taking in the passing of increasingly draconian laws, the “tripledemic,” mass shootings, climate change… and, don’t get me started on the capitalistic voyeurism-nightmare that was #christmashaul TikTok. I could — and have — written pages on these issues individually, so grouping them together almost seems flippant. But we live in a world where we’re constantly forced to skip from one tragedy to the next, like a rock on a lake that happens to be polluted, on fire, and full of genetically altered one-eyed fish.

Okay, okay… I know that doesn’t sound optimistic, but I’m feeling that way in spite of all of these things, even with the knowledge that 2023 will bring its own set of challenges. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about a series of inspiring conversations I had back in 2022 with Barry Kerzin, MD, who happens to be the Dalai Lama’s physician. We spoke at The Wellbeing Summit for Social Change, and I watched him give a talk and workshop. By the end of the week, we were discussing politics and the concept of hell over tea.

Dr. Kerzin isn’t just a nice guy and a famous physician, but a Buddhist monk, an author, a professor, a nonprofit-founder, and the creator of the meditation app AIMIcare. He gets a lot done — and not just because he wears sneakers under his monastic robes. Dr. Kerzin is fueled, in part, because he’s learned through grief, training, and time to have a lot of compassion for people. And that mindset of loving-kindness has led to his pursuits. A lot of people (okay, me!) might initially roll their eyes at the phrase “loving-kindness” — which means putting out positive energy toward yourself and others, often through meditation. But after talking to Dr. Kerzin, it’s not hard not to feel like there might be something to it. In fact, my conversations with him resonated so much, I came back to the tapes of them while thinking about what I wanted to accomplish in 2023. I was especially struck by the way Dr. Kerzin had gone through difficult times — he lost his mother at a young age, and then his wife — and yet found a path that helped him stay steady and make the world a better, kinder place.

There are several nuggets from our talks that I’m taking into the new year with me, and I’ve laid them out here. Hopefully, they’ll speak to you too… and maybe even make you feel optimistic.

Start with self-compassion

The idea of self-compassion can seem antithetical to the whole “I’ll be better in 2023” shtick, which is why I’m starting with it. Whether your plan this year is to move your body more or improve time management, it’s difficult not to be hard on yourself the first time you skip a workout or forsake your to-do list. But negative self-talk can impact us in big ways, and even subconsciously affect our ability to be tolerant of others.

You can challenge the harsh voice inside your head by just noticing when it’s putting you down. Say, if you catch the voice telling you that you’re going to completely fail at all your New Year’s resolutions just because you had one setback. Just recognizing that you’re having these thoughts is a great first step on the path to self-compassion. Then, it’s a matter of redirecting those thoughts to more warmhearted ones (maybe think of an affirmation you’d give to your bestie if they were in the same situation, and write that down or remember it).

Dr. Kerzin also recommends working hard to notice if the negative voices in your head are really echoes of your past. If someone has told you, directly or indirectly, that you aren’t smart or attractive, it’s easy “to internalize those things,” he says. “And the more we do that, we make them our own. It becomes like our own voice saying those things, even though it didn’t start out that way. It was somebody else putting us down. We need to recognize that this is not ours. That gives us permission to slowly just throw that stuff out. Don’t buy into it.”

Another easy way to practice self-compassion: “Doing things we enjoy and that are meaningful to us — do them!” Dr. Kerzin says. “It’s okay, whatever it is.”

Be kind to others, too

Being nice to ourselves lays the groundwork for how we treat others. “Having self-compassion — giving more kindness and gentleness to ourselves — is a foundation,” Dr. Kerzin says. But, “if we stop at only being compassionate to ourselves, that’s when it can become selfish. The more we have compassion for ourselves, the more we can help others, engage with, and listen to them… In the same way that we’re getting in touch with our own pain, when we’re with someone and they are in pain, we can better figure out what we can do to help.”

We can put kindness into play in 2023 in myriad ways — just listening to a friend when they’re upset, volunteering, donating, forgiving someone, or giving a colleague the benefit of the doubt.

And, as with the circle of life, these acts of compassion towards others also end up being in service of ourselves. “Helping others is actually a wonderful way to help ourselves,” Dr. Kerzin says. “We feel good when helping others.” In other words: “Compassion is a win-win.”

Now, it’s easier to be compassionate to some than to others. There are people who get under our skin — and those we don’t even like. When you come across these folks, Dr. Kerzin says it can help your mindset to “make a distinction between the actor and the action. People have to be held accountable for their actions, but you can still have compassion for the person.” This is because, in Dr. Kerzin’s view, if someone is doing wrong, they’ll have to pay for their harmful actions in the future, one way or another. As Taylor Swift has said, “karma’s on your scent like a bounty hunter.”

Develop an inner safe space, even when the world outside is crazy

I mentioned my love of the news — there’s a lot of upsetting stuff screaming up at us from our phone screens. And immersing ourselves too much in such events can make us feel powerless. So much is still out of our control, no matter how much we protest, recycle, and call our Congresspeople.

That’s why it’s helpful to cultivate a space where you can go to find peace despite any external chaos that’s coming from your phone, community, coworkers, or even your friends and family. You can do this through mindfulness, meditation, or journaling. “There are various ways we can go inside in the present moment and observe what’s happening,” Dr. Kerzin says. “Ask yourself: What am I thinking? What am I feeling? What are my emotions? What’s my mood? What are my attitudes?… Rather than reacting, we are just observing. The more we take this approach, slowly with time, we’re less influenced by external affairs.”

Maybe you’re thinking: I have tried meditation and I’m not a fan. But it doesn’t have to be a formal “sit down and count your breath” kind of ordeal. It could be just taking a stroll in the park and noticing your body move. You could also try noticing the sounds and tactile feeling of doing the dishes, something my favorite meditation app Healthy Minds recommended to me. Or going to yoga or a concert or sitting in a church, mosque, or temple, and noticing how your five senses are responding.

“If we develop this practice to go inward and observe without reacting or judging, our inner life can let us develop a home; that home is in our hearts,” Dr. Kerzin continues, placing his hand over his chest. “It’s inside. And it’s something we can always return to, regardless of the climate catastrophe and the pandemics. It gives us a place of safety. A place of joy. And that’s something we can reach in the face of external calamities.”

That’s not to say we should stay in and ignore the pivotal issues around us. Knowing we have this safe place to come home to can give us the strength to turn outward again and fight for the causes we care about. “Having this home in our hearts gives us the strength, inspiration, and courage to go out and fight for what is right the next day,” Dr. Kerzin says. “Of course, ‘fight’ with love and compassion, ‘tough love.’”

Consider your “purpose” — not your goals

“When I was young — six, seven or so — there were two questions that were coming up for me regularly,” Dr. Kerzin says. “I’d ask, Who am I? and What am I doing here? These questions arose spontaneously. My life has been a lot about answering those questions,” Dr. Kerzin says. “I’ve come to the conclusion — it’s still an open question — but what I’ve come to is my purpose is to serve and help others.”

Having a purpose, whatever it may be, is different from having a “goal.” “Goals are temporary but a purpose is more meaningful,” Dr. Kerzin says. Now, having goals is by no means a bad thing, but they tend to be specific and time-related — I want to start volunteering or I’m going to run a half marathon this year — but “the purpose we’re talking about here is a deeper one underlying what’s meaningful and important about your whole life.” Dr. Kerzin prefers the “purpose” framing because he believes too much goal-setting can take you away from the present moment — meaning you can forget to appreciate the beauty of where you are right now.

If you’re not sure of your purpose, you can journal about the very questions Dr. Kerzin was asking himself as a kid: Who am I? What am I doing here? Once you know your purpose, it’s also important to ask: what tangible steps — both long- and short-term — can I take to achieve this?

Don’t put too much pressure on your purpose — it could be ever-changing and as simple as “make the lives of those I interact with a little better” or “do my part to raise awareness for a cause I care about.” When in doubt, “follow your heart,” Dr. Kerzin says.

Take the “middle way”

The “middle way,” is a Buddhist philosophy that involves steering away from extremes — from high highs and low lows in life. Dr. Kerzin happened to write a book about it. These days, many of us spend a lot of time creating highlight reels of our best lives — all the schnazzy shit we got for Christmas, for example. Or we’re venting about negative things to our friends and followers. This culture can make it harder to follow the Buddhist ideology, but not impossible.

“The middle way has different contexts,” Dr. Kerzin says. “It means on the one hand, in terms of our behavior, not to get too caught up with luxury. If we’re treated to something or buy something nice for ourselves, that’s fine, but don’t get too attached to it. Realize it’s not the only way to find happiness. It’s more of a way to find pleasure. But happiness is something in addition to pleasure, and it’s more lasting — subtler, more balanced and centered. But it’s also inside ourselves in our inner home.”

This comes back to having that “home” inside our hearts and minds — that concept helps us be a little less influenced by external trappings.

“Remember, pleasure comes from our senses: That painting is beautiful or this food is over the top,” Dr. Kerzin adds. “These are beautiful things. But they don’t last. They come. They go. If we don’t have them, sometimes we get pretty blown out of the water. We get depressed. But if we’ve cultivated this safety — this warm kindness, this love inside ourselves — we can develop this sense of a middle way, finding inner peace of mind.”

Don’t take yourself too seriously

Having a sense of humor makes life easier. And not taking yourself too seriously helps you avoid both acting arrogant and telling yourself you’re not enough. And if you do notice you’re freaking out over something small — or you’re feeling superior to others — Dr. Kerzin knows the best medicine: “Have a good laugh at yourself and move on.”

Last year, I left my conversations with Dr. Kerzin — and the uplifting Wellbeing Summit in general — feeling re-energized. I told myself I’d do a mindfulness meditation daily and really focus on the idea of compassion. I felt like I had a new lease on life. But, not long after the summit, the real world came crashing in like a tsunami and I felt like I was drowning in those dirty waters I mentioned before. Instead of morning mindfulness sessions, I’d jump out of bed and head straight to my desk, where I’d hunch over my laptop for hours. I was extremely hard on myself — I felt I was never doing enough. I wasn’t practicing compassion towards myself and, sometimes, towards others.

It’s true, I spent a good part of 2022 doing the opposite of everything I’d learned at the summit and from Dr. Kerzin. But there were also times — not every day, but often enough — in which I did come back to these ideas of compassion, mindfulness, and the middle way. I certainly was not always consistent, but I did make progress. I’m acknowledging those baby steps as an act of self-compassion.

So, I’m kicking off 2023 with my purpose in mind, hoping that I’ll grow in these concepts even more. That’s why I’m feeling good about it. And if the year is all uphill from here, I’ll employ another one of Dr. Kerzin’s lessons: I’ll laugh at myself for leading this story with the word “optimistic.”

How business leaders can face the mental health crisis How business leaders can face the mental health crisis

Read Spanish Version

October is World Mental Health Month yet, mental health remains a topic that eludes us in the business world. Perhaps because it feels like a personal issue, we hardly understand our role in the face of a challenge that is highly public. 

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to have an immersive experience in one of the most important global meetings related to mental health and wellbeing, which is a more holistic way to explore it. From the very first welcoming remarks, I was all in:  “Emotional wellbeing plays a central role in the private sector, it is essential for innovation and collaboration,” said Edwin Macharia, Global Managing Partner of Dalberg, in front of more than 1,000 people who met in the Spanish city of Bilbao the first week of June 2022.

The Wellbeing Summit for Social Change brought together the most influential minds at the intersection of mental health, holistic wellbeing, activism, arts, and scientific research. In the convening, the Summit speakers collectively presented the enormous challenge that we face as a society and the wellbeing of our people.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as “the state of physical, mental and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease” and mental health as “the state of well-being in which each individual achieves his or her potential, copes with normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can contribute to the community.”

The pandemic and its sequels present unprecedented challenges for humanity in terms of mental health. In the last two years, conservative estimates of suicides are at 700,000 people per year; with no alternative explanations, doctors continue to attribute more and more illnesses to stress. If the previous number makes a strong impression on us, when taken to a more specific period, every hour of the day, 81 people commit suicide in the world; besides, we also find the terrifying phenomenon of school shootings, femicides, clashes for racial reasons, and more. Poor mental health is estimated to cost the global economy between $3 and $5 trillion per year due to reduced productivity.

In Latin America, mental health continues to be a taboo topic in the business world, it is rarely talked about but its effects can be noticed more and more often. At best, it is approached tangentially, only when the impacts become visible. But diagnoses of mental health pathologies are only the tip of the iceberg. Business leaders must address the issue through practices, services, and tangible actions that start from the preventive side.

One of the speakers at the Wellbeing Summit, neuroscientist Richard Davidson, presented a collection of scientific findings on what he calls the brain’s ‘neuroplasticity’ – our quality of having a mind that can be molded through repetition and practices that reconfigure how it is programmed. The main thesis is that compassion and happiness are skills that can be learned. Below are a few of the findings that back up this theory that we can train ourselves to shape the health of our brain:

  • The brain of a monk in a meditative state can be replicable – Davidson proposes that the ability to be present, and aware of one’s own thoughts is a preventive path toward mental well-being. In a 2004 study (Lutz et. al) gamma oscillations, which predict levels of perceptual clarity, were measured in the brain of a Buddhist monk with years of meditation experience. The wave oscillations in the brains of the monks in a meditative state were significantly broader. That is, when the brain is present and perceptive, the gamma waves open up; in states of fear or uncertainty, they contract. The important thing is that monks have the ability to control it with practice, and incorporating habits consistently can create the same effect in the general population- we don’t necessarily need to be super-meditators to reap the benefits.
  • The ability to connect with others reconfigurates the brain – A 2013 study (Weng et al) worked with a group of people by offering training in meditative techniques for cultivating compassion. In just two weeks, the neuroscientists found tangible differences in brain scan images of those who had participated – their levels of “DPLFC-Nacc connectivity”, which is associated with altruistic behavior (an indicator of mental health), looked clearly dilated in the scans. Again, visualizing scientifically the effects of human connection on our brains.
  • A sense of purpose correlates with longevity – A meta-analysis of studies from the last decade (Cohen et. al, 2016) found that a sense of purpose (even in the most mundane daily activities) is a powerful predictor of longevity and prevention of cardiovascular events. The well-being effects are real – a 2019 study by Evans and Soliman found a strong correlation between average life expectancy and well-being across 151 countries: those who live in countries with the highest perceived well-being levels live up to 30 years longer on average than those who live in countries with low levels of emotional wellbeing.

A century ago, the habit of taking 3 minutes after each meal to brush your teeth didn’t exist globally. However, as a society, we incorporated it as an important action for our survival as a species. This principle of encouraging habits, and promoting healthier minds, can have enormous effects on the different crises we face. The difference is that this time we have advances in mobile and wearable technology (smart watches, tracking devices, etc.) that allow us to accelerate the incorporation of good habits exponentially.

For this reason, it is not surprising that Dr. Barry Kerzin, the Dalai Lama’s personal physician, relies on a mobile application to make practices of compassion and altruism more accessible to the population. Or that Betterfly, the Latin American unicorn start-up, encourages good meditative habits by rewarding users with medals that make it easy to donate to causes. The potential to generate a positive impact through business models with purpose-driven innovations is enormous.

The greatest challenges we face as humans have always presented big opportunities for the business community that wants to make a difference. The good news is that we can train our brains to create mental wellbeing and that we can promote these habits thanks to advances in mobile technology.

With an opportunity like this, it is a matter of time before the business sector takes the lead in building a society that is more connected with itself and with its purpose. This is how the intangible mantra that “inner peace can create peace for the world” becomes more tangible and viable every day as this unique intersection of meditation teachers, scientists, and start-up leaders turn their wills into a new reality. This is how the business world can face the mental health crisis: not only with will but also by leveraging technology and exercising the leadership that this public challenge demands.

Author bio

Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter is the Global VP of Purpose and Communities at Betterfly, the first social unicorn start-up, with operations across Latin America. Before her current role, Michelle was the CEO and co-founder of IMPAQTO, a B Corporation with a mission to support impact entrepreneurs reach their goals by building the ecosystem and network they need to thrive. Michelle is a recent mother of twins and a member of The Ecosystem Network at The Wellbeing Project.

Fatima-Zahra Maelainin

Co-Chair of the Expert Community at Orygen Global

What made the Wellbeing Summit for Social Change different was the mindful curation of physical spaces and the thoughtful creation of psychological havens that allowed us to foster connections with ourselves and others, and engage in transformational conversations opening the space for a collective identity to emerge; an identity that puts our humanity at the forefront.

The words in my journal read: “This space is different. I am invited to put down all my hats, so I may arrive fully, intimately. I assumed it’d be frightening, but it feels peacefully liberating.” And a few pages later: “In this space, we celebrate our humanity, in its most open, raw, and honest expression.”

Indeed, we were in a space that celebrated our humanity before our roles and contributions. It reminded us of our worth as humans, regardless of our titles and achievements, and of the importance and necessity of continuously re-inventing our self-narrative.

As leaders and actors in the social change sector, we often get too immersed in the realities we deal with, becoming too consumed by the limitations we face and the challenging ambiguities of our endeavours, oftentimes pushing beyond exhaustion to continue serving. Ultimately our sense of self and personal worth become deeply attached to our role and contributions, and we lose sight of the many facets of our identity as we stick to a single self-narrative. With time, we either burn out or forcibly readjust our expectations, ultimately confining our imaginations and debasing our sense of self and contribution to the world. At least, that’s what happened to me, and a number of others I shared my story with.

The Summit arrived into our lives with a gift: a much-needed opportunity to revisit our assumptions, unleash our imagination, and embrace the shifts we experience as we rethink our narratives – the kind of inner work we often mention and rarely dive into.

My most memorable lines from the summit were:

“How do you walk away when the world is still so messed up? Sometimes, you just have to. Because you’ve planted the seeds well, and you can trust that someone will continue the work. And while you still have the energy, you can be someone else: a friend, a mentor, a witness.”

I spent the next month following the summit reflecting on my relationship with my own personal narrative, and poured it all into a ‘letter to self.’ It reads:

“you spend years and hours building a narrative, making sense of your identity, who you are, where you come from, what you seek, and what you stand for, and as soon as the words connect into a story coherent enough to share with the world, you start to experience dissonance. 

confused and curious, you look inwards, demanding answers. 

slowly you begin to notice that your personal evolution outpaces the process of expressing it. gradually, you start to realize that every time a sense of self is crystallizing, a shift in your inner landscape is well underway. 

and so, like most of us, you often numb yourself into denial, desperately holding onto an established identity in a vain attempt to avoid the all-too-familiar pain of meaning-making that you know awaits you if you listen to the emerging voice within.

you choose denial because it is a space that allows you to dismiss every thought and every feeling that may cause you to waver and wonder. 

you and I choose denial because we live in a world that disapproves of a story-in-the-making. because those of us who understand that self-knowledge is an iterative journey, never a destination, require additional bravery and tenacity to search for wholeness in the midst of incessant external incentives to settle. 

but, sticking to one narrative is, simply put, stagnation. 

to be human is to honor our complexity, fully, by refusing to settle for a reduced, prematurely bounded narrative. 

to be human is to continuously generate stories that make sense of our experiences, reinventing our self-narrative time and again as we continue to integrate the new with previous identities. 

here’s to continuous becoming.”

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About Fatima-Zahra About Fatima-Zahra

Fatima-Zahra Ma-el-ainin is a Moroccan psychologist and poet who brings together her background in program development, principles of systems work, and her rich experience facilitating paradigm-shifting workshops and discussions to rethink systems, narratives, and policy. FZ is a member of The Ecosystem Network at The Wellbeing Project and currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Expert Community at Orygen Global, an advisor to the WEF’s Global Shapers Community, and a member of The Lancet-LSHTM Commission on the Emotional Determinants of Health. She was invited to speak at the UK Parliament, TEDx, IAYMH, and the WEF’s Annual Meeting in Davos, among other platforms. In her free time, you’ll find her writing poetry, hosting conversations, or finding stillness in nature or a cozy teashop.