TWN Member Archives - Page 12 of 15 - The Wellbeing Project

Failure Files x The Wellbeing ProjectFailure Files x The Wellbeing Project

Failure is a part of life, especially for those working on complex issues for social change. Yet, very few people talk about failure, the deep impact it has on individuals as well as those around them, and the life lessons that come from failing.
To break this silence, The Wellbeing Project is partnering with India Development Review (IDR).

The partnership with IDR will bring forth stories at the intersection of failure and well-being through IDR’s Failure Files, a multimedia initiative that seeks to normalise conversations around failure in the pursuit of social change.

We invite you to tune into the Failure Files podcast, to hear the inspiring stories of people who have failed forward. Listen to social entrepreneurs, a Dalit rights activist, and an Olympic gold medallist tell us about their failures, how it impacted both individual and collective well-being, and what the road to recovery and resilience looks like.

EPISODE 1

Having a dream is not enough | Vishal Talreja, Suchetha Bhat

In Part I of this conversation with IDR, Dream a Dream’s co-founder Vishal Talreja and CEO Suchetha Bhat share the story of the organisation’s implosion, Vishal’s burnout, and how owning up to failure was the first step in figuring out the way to build back up.

LISTEN ON – APPLE | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE

EPISODE 2

The road to recovery | Suchetha Bhat, Vishal Talreja

In Part II of this conversation, Dream a Dream CEO Suchetha Bhat and co-founder Vishal Talreja talk about what it took to rebuild an organisation in crisis, and how that led to discovering a new kind of leadership—one that the world needs more of.

LISTEN ON – APPLE | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE

EPISODE 3

Preparing for a marathon, not a sprint | Thenmozhi Soundararajan

What does self-care mean for those who are fighting systems of oppression and discrimination that are set up against them? On this episode, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder and executive director of Equality Labs, a Dalit civil rights organisation, talks about how systems of oppression affect well-being, what healing looks like for individuals and communities, and why failure is an opportunity to build power.

LISTEN ON – APPLE | SPOTIFY

ABOUT INDIA DEVELOPMENT REVIEW ABOUT INDIA DEVELOPMENT REVIEW

India Development Review (IDR) is Asia’s largest online media platform covering social change. IDR publishes cutting-edge ideas, lessons and insights, written by and for the people working on some of India’s toughest problems.

FOLLOW IDR ON SOCIAL MEDIA :

In collaboration with Vuslat Foundation, Generous Listening will be put forward at The Wellbeing Summit as one of the essential elements of wellbeing and a way to deepen our connection with ourselves, each other, and nature.

Generous listening is the practice of listening, to oneself, to one another, and to nature – with an open mind, with compassion, and without prejudice or agenda. It is the ability and willingness to expand our horizons, reach insight and enlightenment, and form empathy and understanding across deep divides.

Generous listening arrives from the practice of taking oneself out of one’s comfort zone, knowingly exiting the echo chambers or ideological bunkers in which we exist, and making an active effort to listen to opinions, ideas, and experiences that may challenge us.

Generous listening leads to authentic connections and revelation. Through listening generously and working together to cultivate a culture of generous listening, we can transform the way we experience the world – Vuslat Foundation.

HOW IS GENEROUS LISTENING INTEGRAL TO WELLBEING?

We believe that listening plays a key role in the creation of a culture of wellbeing. A healthy relationship with self is essential for sustaining relationships with others and this in turn also affects the way we connect with our work and the world around us.

Wellbeing is the experience of wholeness and interconnectedness and derives from a lifelong journey of inner work and conscious and intentional choices.

Kindness, vulnerability, connection, and community can only be cultivated through the three pillars of generous listening: listening deeply to oneself, listening genuinely to one another, and listening sincerely to nature.

Through learning to listen deeply to ourselves, we can cultivate better mental health. Be it through self-compassionate approaches like spiritual practices, meditation, and journaling, or through seeking external guidance through therapy and more, we can embark on both self-development and self-acceptance. Only through some degree of self-awareness and inner peace, can we achieve compassion and empathy towards others. By opening the space and holding the intention to listen generously to one another, we overcome the modern epidemic of loneliness, forge authentic connections, and find paths to bridging cultural or political differences. Finally, we must listen generously to nature in order to value, preserve and seek refuge in the world’s natural environment which nourishes us and gives us life. Our common need and desire for security, safety, and belonging can be attained through cultivating a culture of generous listening.

HOW IS GENEROUS LISTENING INTEGRAL TO THE WORK OF SOCIAL CHANGE, GOVERNMENT, ARTS AND BUSINESS LEADERS TO CREATE LASTING SOLUTIONS AND SYSTEMATIC CHANGE?

Social change and inner wellbeing are deeply interconnected. Changemakers who dedicate their lives to working on some of the world’s most pressing issues must similarly demonstrate leadership in listening generously, both to themselves, to others, and to nature. To drive meaningful social change, changemakers must have an acute ability to listen to the needs and experiences of the communities around them. To consistently display the adequate courage and compassion to respond to the challenges of others, they must first and foremost possess a state of inner wellbeing. Through being able to listen compassionately and intuitively to oneself, changemakers will then be able to step outside of themselves to understand the viewpoints of others, gain a more holistic perspective, and tackle social and environmental challenges.

VUSLAT FOUNDATION AT THE WELLBEING SUMMIT

Vuslat Foundation is a global initiative that fosters a deeper appreciation of listening as the essential element of all our connections. The Foundation creates awareness about and spreads the skill of generous listening. Established in Switzerland in 2020, with offices in Istanbul and London, Vuslat Foundation works with artists, storytellers, changemakers and thought leaders. Through partnerships with academia, civil society, artists, and businesses; the Foundation develops knowledge, research, methodologies, and tools on generous listening, cultivates generous listening in the ecosystems of youth and children, and builds awareness and inspiration on generous listening–deeply aligned with the Wellbeing Summit.

nikhil-chopra-what has love got to do with it

Nikhil Chopra’s participation in the Summit involves a residency period and a 2-day long performance, during which the artist will engage in both everyday actions, and the creation of a monumental drawing and atmospheric mise en scene.

Location: Aldama Fabre
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Date: June 2 – 3
Time: 10am – 10am CET. 24 hour performance

On the second day, the performance will incorporate Bilbao’s citizens and Summit attendees around a celebration of community and art. The paintings, drawings and other objects created along these actions are a residual component of the performance. Bending gender, shape and identity, India’s best known performance artist uses personal history to question nationhood and existentialism.

Born in Kolkata and based in Goa, Nikhil Chopra’s art focuses on performance. The body becomes a tool and canvas for art. He is best known for durational performances in which he takes on the persona of different characters, inspired by personal familial history and national, regional and colonial histories.

Nikhil Chopra has performed and exhibited his art before a global audience since the mid 2000s. His art has featured in gallery and institutional shows, art fairs, and other major art events worldwide. In the live performance “Lands, Waters, and Skies” (2019), the artist worked in the galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art for nine consecutive days, adopting various personae and critically engaging with the museum’s collection and its organizational principles.

ESPAÑOL

La participación de Nikhil Chopra en la Cumbre implica un periodo de residencia y una actuación de dos días de duración, durante la cual el artista realizará tanto acciones cotidianas como la creación de un dibujo monumental y una puesta en escena atmosférica.

En el segundo día, la presentación incorporará a los ciudadanos de Bilbao y a los asistentes a la Cumbre en torno a una celebración de la comunidad y el arte.Las pinturas, dibujos y otros objetos creados a lo largo de estas acciones son un componente residual de la actuación. Doblando el género, la forma y la identidad, el artista de performance más conocido de la India utiliza la historia personal para cuestionar la nación y el existencialismo.

Nacido en Calcuta y establecido en Goa, el arte de Nikhil Chopra se centra en la representación. El cuerpo se convierte en una herramienta y un lienzo para el arte. Es conocido por sus actuaciones de larga duración en las que adopta la personalidad de distintos personajes, inspirados en su historia familiar y en la nacional, regional y colonial.

Nikhil Chopra ha actuado y expuesto su arte ante un público mundial desde mediados de la década de 2000. Su arte ha aparecido en galerías y exposiciones institucionales, ferias de arte y otros importantes eventos artísticos en todo el mundo. En la obra en vivo “Lands, Waters, and Skies” (2019), el artista trabajó en las galerías del Museo Metropolitano de Arte durante nueve días consecutivos, adoptando varios personajes y comprometiéndose críticamente con la colección del museo y sus principios organizativos.

SCIENTIA, Grimanesa’s work for the Wellbeing Summit in Bilbao, is a monumental, site-specific light sculpture that will be installed at the Atrium of Azkuna Zentroa, opening for the Summit and remaining in place throughout the summer of 2022.

Location: Azkuna Zentroa – Atrium
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Date: May 31 – August 30
Time: 9am – 9pm

Creating monumental sculptures often makes Amorós consider how our environment affects our state of mind and well-being. Her new site-specific light sculpture SCIENTIA will engage visitors in a dialogue with the surrounding architecture and community, encouraging moments of self-reflection and personal realization while simultaneously creating connection through the medium of light.

The project’s name SCIENTIA is a Latin word meaning knowledge and knowing, experience and expertise, but going beyond a personal understanding. The word implies a socially interactive activity, the seeking and sharing of knowledge. This artwork will explore the human connection using our elemental knowledge of the world: fire, water, earth, and light. Through this primordial immersion, SCIENTIA provides a means of accessing our emotional selves within a manifested mental space that nurtures well-being and promotes community engagement.

Grimanesa Amorós was born in Lima, Peru, and lives and works in New York City. She is an interdisciplinary artist whose diverse interests include social history, scientific research, and critical theory. A direct relationship to technology is one of the distinctive features of Amorós’ practice. Her works incorporate video, lighting, and technological elements to create monumental sculptures involving architecture and engaging communities.

ESPAÑOL ESPAÑOL

SCIENTIA, la obra de Grimanesa para The Wellbeing Summit, es una escultura de luz monumental y específica para el lugar que se instalará en el Azkuna Zentroa, que se inaugurará para la Cumbre y permanecerá en el lugar durante todo el verano de 2022.

La creación de esculturas monumentales hace que Amorós se plantee a menudo cómo nuestro entorno afecta nuestro estado de ánimo y bienestar. Su nueva escultura lumínica SCIENTIA, específica para el lugar, hará que los visitantes entablen un diálogo con la arquitectura y la comunidad circundantes, fomentando momentos de autorreflexión y realización personal y creando al mismo tiempo una conexión a través del medio de la luz.

El nombre del proyecto, SCIENTIA, es una palabra latina que significa conocimiento y saber, experiencia y pericia, pero que va más allá de la comprensión personal. La palabra implica una actividad socialmente interactiva, la búsqueda y el intercambio de conocimientos. Esta obra de arte explorará la conexión humana utilizando nuestro conocimiento elemental del mundo: fuego, agua, tierra y luz. A través de esta inmersión primordial, SCIENTIA proporciona un medio para acceder a nuestro yo emocional dentro de un espacio mental manifiesto que nutre el bienestar y promueve el compromiso de la comunidad.

Grimanesa Amorós nació en Lima, Perú, y vive y trabaja en Nueva York. Es una artista interdisciplinar cuyos diversos intereses incluyen la historia social, la investigación científica y la teoría crítica. La relación directa con la tecnología es uno de los rasgos distintivos de la práctica de Amorós. Sus obras incorporan vídeo, iluminación y elementos tecnológicos para crear esculturas monumentales que implican a la arquitectura y comprometen a las comunidades.

Filmed at the Institute of Fine Arts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and shown at The Wellbeing Summit for Social Change, Daniel’s Fog Dog follows the daily and nightly activities of a group of stray dogs that live in the school.

Location: Guggenheim Bilbao
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Date: June 1 – June 3

Time: 11am – 7pm

The building was designed by pioneering Bangladeshi architect Muzharul Islam (1923-2012) and is characterized by the organic relationship between its interior and the surrounding green urban spaces. The dogs’ daily existence connects with many presences and signs – students and guardians, birdcalls and car horns, broadcasts, and spiritual entities – which coexist more and less harmonically with one another. The film is an exploration of interdependencies and how our attitudes affect everyone else – as such, it is a vivid and compelling commentary on the interconnected nature of collective Wellbeing.

Born in Barcelona, Daniel Steegman lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. From drawing to film, passing through
sculpture, installation and landscape interventions, Daniel Steegmann Mangrane’s work questions our relationship to the environment and invites the viewer to be physically involved in his projections and displacements. His video pieces and installations engage with the imagination of the spectator and often traces the boundary where nature meets artifice.

Daniel’s recent solo shows include Dog Eye, Kunsthalle Münster, Münster, Germany (2020); A Leaf-Shaped Animal Draws The Hand, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2019); Ne voulais prendre ni forme, ni chair, ni matière, Institut d’Art Contemporain de Villeurbanne, Villeurbanne (2019). His work has been also featured at the group shows Liverpool Biennial (2021); Taipei Biennial (2020); Concrete Contemporary, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich (2019).

ESPAÑOL

Filmada en el Instituto de Bellas Artes de Dhaka, Bangladés; Fog Dog de Daniel Steegmann Mangrané sigue las actividades diurnas y nocturnas de un grupo de perros callejeros que viven en la facultad.

El edificio fue diseñado por el pionero arquitecto bangladés Muzharul Islam (1923-2012) y se caracteriza por su orgánica relación entre su interior y los espacios verdes urbanos que lo rodean. La existencia diaria de los perros conecta con muchas presencias y señales (alumnos y guardianes, cantos de pájaros, bocinas de coches, emisiones y entidades espirituales) que coexisten más o menos armónicamente entre sí.

La película es una exploración de las interdependencias y como las actitudes afectan a todos los demás; como tal es un comentario vívido y convincente sobre la naturaleza interconectada del bienestar colectivo.

Nacido en Barcelona, Daniel Steegman vive y trabaja en Río de Janeiro. Desde dibujar, hasta filmar, pasando a través de esculturas e instalación e intervenciones paisajísticas, el trabajo de Daniel Steegmann Mangrane cuestiona nuestra relación con el ambiente e invita al espectador a estar envuelto físicamente en sus proyecciones y desplazamientos. Sus piezas de video e instalaciones conectan con la imaginación del espectador y traza la barrera donde la naturaleza se encuentra con el artificio.

Entre sus obras en solitario más recientes se encuentran: Dog Eye, Kunsthalle Münster, Münster, Alemania (2020); A Leaf-Shaped Animal Draws The Hand, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milán (2019); Ne voulais prendre ni forme, ni chair, ni matière, Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo de Villeurbanne, Villeurbanne (2019). Sus obras también ha sido publicadas en exhibiciones grupales: Liverpool Biennial (2021); Taipei Biennial (2020); Concrete Contemporary, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zúrich (2019).

SELF-CARE: THE OPPOSITE OF SELFISHNESS SELF-CARE: THE OPPOSITE OF SELFISHNESS

For some an oxymoron, a new concept has emerged in our vocabulary recently: that of “digital wellbeing”. Perhaps it is not surprising that academics have been researching the impact of new digital technologies on people’s wellbeing for quite some time already, but the fact that tech-giants like Google are now paying attention to the topic is a sign of its relevance for our modern societies.

As Google acknowledges, technology is transforming the way we spend time, and this is why it’s more important than ever to ensure the tools we use are helpful, and not a distraction. Let’s consider for a brief moment how digital tools have changed the work of changemakers and social innovators. Many of them use digital tools at the core of their ventures, e.g. think about tech-preneurs teaching digital skills to children to equip them with the skills of the 21st century. Others rely on technology to scale their impact, e.g. think about social entrepreneurs who can reach (back-then-unimaginable) large audiences through online platforms and apps.

It is clear that digital tools have opened up new horizons for changemakers (and for all of us), but as we learn to navigate in these waters full of fascinating possibilities, we must also make a well-rounded assessment on the impact of digital technologies on our work and life. In fact, many are pointing to the negative impact of digital technologies on our wellbeing, which contributes to behaviours such as addiction, distraction, anxiety… Whether we want it or not, digital tools will possibly become more and more present in our lives, so we might as well learn to recalibrate our digital diet so that it is diverse, balanced, and nutritious.

To help people – professionals, changemakers, youth, educators – consume healthy digital diets that feed their minds, bodies, hearts, and souls with the nutrients they need to thrive, is what motivated us to contribute to Google’s new course on digital wellbeing. This course shares a new series of digital wellbeing online learning videos, available here. As Google explains, “each video encourages you to think about how you use technology and suggests ways to find the right balance for you.” Have a look at the videos and let us know what changes you are making to maintain a more balanced digital diet.

Read Google’s blogpost on the topic here.
Visit Google’s Digital Workshop new course landing page here.

FEEDING THE MIND, BODY, HEART AND SOUL FEEDING THE MIND, BODY, HEART AND SOUL

By Greta Rossi

How do you feed yourself?

I am a foodie, hands down. I do not eat out of hunger alone; rather, I take enormous pleasure in savouring all the flavours in the meal in front of me. Especially if I cooked it myself, expressing my culinary talent (no, I am not ready for MasterChef, but I do like to expand my repertoire by trying out new recipes). I find it deeply rewarding to get locally sourced seasonal ingredients at the farmers’ market and to dedicate time to artfully create a balanced but tasty culinary experience that provides my body with the nutrients it needs. As I am feeding my body, I am also feeding my soul. Hopeless Italian romanticism? Maybe so, but I can genuinely say my levels of joy increase if this becomes a shared experience where I am cooking for others.
In a similar manner, I love working. Even if I won the lottery and did not have to work to sustain myself financially, I do not think I would stop. In fact, working goes beyond feeding my bank account (which has been on a fairly regimented diet since I started my first social enterprise almost five years ago); it deeply nurtures my soul. I see my work as a lifelong journey that invites me to explore, experiment, and express new ways of being and acting in the world. Like me, many people around the globe find infinite joy in dedicating their lives to enacting a purpose that serves other people and the planet. These are what I call changemakers, people devoted to imagining new recipes for a nutritious, balanced, and flavoursome world.
However, the dominant paradigm is urging us to do everything bigger, faster… even bigger and faster… without taking a moment to breathe between one bite and the other, between one project and the next. As a result, many people find it difficult to maintain healthy and nutritious habits. To keep up with the demands of modern life, some opt for hypercaloric fast foods (think about people who work in fast-paced stressful environments where it is all about maximising profits at the expense of others’ wellbeing); others slip into binge-eating (observe how many friends mindlessly move from one task to the next without absorbing the experience), while yet others forget about eating altogether (how many colleagues compromise their health by stopping to sleep or exercise to work longer and longer hours?).
This growing disconnection with the food, the ingredients, and the land, is nothing but a reflection of a deeper sense of alienation from ourselves. Our kitchen is a complete and utter mess, with dirty pans left everywhere, the smell of burning covering everything else, and a stained apron left hanging on the table… Could we find inspiration from the great chefs to learn to clean our internal kitchen?

Discovering Recipes for Wellbeing

This is the intention behind Recipes for Wellbeing, a newly-established not-for-profit association, co-created and co-led by young changemakers who find joy in cooking and sharing wellbeing experiences with others. Our aim is to shift the culture of changemaking to re-discover the importance of holistic wellbeing to enable anyone to contribute more effectively to creating positive change in the world. We interpret wellbeing both as a catalyst for positive change in the world, and as the positive change in the world itself. In particular, we support changemakers in experiencing wellbeing for themselves and in spreading wellbeing to their teams, societies, and to the whole world.
Recipes for Wellbeing offers a series of services and products to boost the wellbeing of changemakers and their organisations to increase their capacity to tackle more effectively the challenges that are in the way of broader societal and ecological wellbeing.

Wellbeing recipes

In the same way a recipe in a cookbook takes you through the steps to prepare a particular dish, our wellbeing recipes guide you through specific processes to cultivate wellbeing in your everyday work and life.

There are a number of ways you can engage with our recipes: you may wish to focus on a particular category, which guarantees a balance among all recipes; or you may prefer to dig deep into the main courses but across categories; or else you may want to choose a particular level of difficulty, based on your needs and previous experience.

Our recipes are divided into four main categories:

Mind: Recipes that engage your mind and benefit your mental wellbeing.

Body: Recipes that engage your body and benefit your physical wellbeing.

Heart: Recipes that engage your heart and benefit your emotional wellbeing.

Spirit: Recipes that engage your spirit and benefit your connection to your unique and deepest identity, as well as to the universal consciousness that animates the cosmos and everything in it.

As with any cookbook, there are different kinds of recipes: starters, main courses, desserts, etc. but also quick-on-the-go options, or more elaborate alternatives. We also provide various difficulty levels, from easy recipes that do not require any previous knowledge or experience of wellbeing, through medium to hard recipe that require some or extended knowledge or experience of wellbeing.

Wellbeing labs

When you go out for a meal, you look for more than merely satisfying your physiological need for food. You may be curious to taste new combinations of flavours, to savour new ingredients, to find new recipes to try out at home… overall, you are looking for an experience. Our wellbeing labs offer similar experiences for individuals and their organisations to savour wellbeing.

We host anything from short inspiring talks through half-day interactive workshops to emergent personalised wellbeing retreats immersed in Nature lasting from 2.5 to 4 days for groups of individual changemakers or changemaker teams and organisations. Our retreats allow participants to explore the different ingredients of wellbeing through our recipes, which they choose at the beginning of the retreat to meet their needs and fulfill their hopes. Participants also receive valuable insights into how to become “wellbeing cooks” able to create a wellbeing plan to incorporate in their life and work to sustain their wellbeing.

Check out our website to find out more about our work and explore our wellbeing recipes to feed your mind, body, heart, and soul!

An Introduction to Mindfulness: How to Practice Mindful Eating An Introduction to Mindfulness: How to Practice Mindful Eating

By Greta Rossi

On the tip of everyone’s tongue

Google Trends report that worldwide web searches for the term “mindfulness” have increased in popularity from a score of 9 (out of 100) in January 2004 to 100 in February 2018 (the August 2018 popularity is 87/100). This should not come as a surprise: mindfulness seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue – from Forbes to the New York Times, the world seems to have opened up its taste buds to this ancient practice. But what is mindfulness and how does it support the wellbeing of social change leaders?

In a nutshell, mindfulness is about being present in the here and the now, observing all that is happening within and around us with an attitude of curiosity which is neither critical nor judgmental. Against popular belief, mindfulness is not passive and isolating; it is rather active and connecting. Headspace App founder Andy Puddicombe highlights it stems from the “genuine desire to investigate how and why you think and feel the way you do”, opening up new pathways for mindset and behaviour change. It is a sort of gym for the brain.

Mindfulness can help anyone live with a sense of happy contentment, but it is particularly effective to sustain the wellbeing of social change leaders as they carry out their work in the world. There is plenty of scientific research that showcases the benefits of mindfulness on mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing, including “better control of emotions, decreased rumination (dwelling on negative thoughts), improved working memory, better self-awareness, improved awareness of thoughts, reduced depression and anxiety, reduced physical illness, decreased emotional reactivity, more flexible thinking, increased positive emotion, and decreased negative emotion” (Bridget Grenville-Cleave, Introducing Positive Psychology: A Practical Guide).

Discovering mindfulness through food

There are plenty of ways in which you can cultivate mindfulness in your life, but since I am a foodie (as confessed in my very first blog post for Shift media channel), I would like to introduce a simple mindful eating practice to discover mindfulness through your senses. Mindful eating is the application of mindfulness towards your relationship with food and it can tell you a lot about how you relate to the world in general. In his book The Headspace Diet, Andy Puddicombe highlights some of the main benefits of mindful eating on the mind and body, such as:

It increases the density of neurons in your hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with emotional stability, which means healthier eating.
It increases the activity of your lateral prefrontal cortex, which is all about self-regulating and decision-making, which has been associated with making healthier food choices.
It reduces the urge to binge or comfort eat, with reduced activity in the part of the brain associated with compulsion, and increased activity in the area associated with self-control.
It reduces mind wandering, which can often lead to ‘unconscious decision-making’ around food. But if your mind doesn’t wander, then you can be conscious of the decision instead.
It increases feelings of happiness, wellbeing and optimism. It’s hard to overstate the importance of these things in living a healthy life and enjoying a sustainable eating plan.

Ultimately, it gives you the power to choose – not what thoughts and emotions come to your awareness – but how you relate to them and respond consequently. This power of choice is essential for any social change leaders who wish to be effective in their outer work.

Mindful eating practice

The following mindful eating practice is a starter wellbeing recipe which you can find on our website. The guidelines have been taken from the “mindful eating” exercise provided by Bridget Grenville-Cleave in her book Introducing Positive Psychology: A Practical Guide.

Take five minutes out of your normal schedule. Find a couple of small snacks or other edible treats, such as pretzels, small pieces of cereal, chocolate, or raisins. You also need a quiet place to sit. First of all, eat one of your chosen snacks in your normal fashion. Then pick up a second one and go through the following steps. Take your time, don’t rush.

1. Observing: Start by looking carefully at it. Imagine that you have never seen a pretzen or a raisin before. Notice its colour and texture, turn it over carefully and slowly in your hand. Notice how its colour changes as the light catches it. Notice the fine grains or salt on the pretzels, or the crinkles on the surface of the raisin. Sniff it. What odour can you detect? Imagine eating the pretzel or raisin, imagine putting it in your mouth. Notice how your mouth starts to water at the mere thought of eating it. If at any point you start thinking “Why am I doing this?” or “This is a waste of time”, acknowledge these as thoughts. Then return your attention to the object.

2. Tasting: Having observed the snack closely from every angle, put it in your mouth but don’t eat it just yet. What is the first sensation you notice? Is it taste or touch? How does the snack feel as you roll it around your mouth?

3. (Really) tasting: Now start to bit into or chew the snack. How does it feel when you bite into it for the first time? Do you get a satisfying crunch, or a soft chewy sensation? Notice the taste – is it a single flavour or a combination? Is it salty, sweet, or both? Take your time, imagining that you must make it last forever.

4. Swallowing: Finally, swallow, noticing any aftertaste or other sensations in your mouth.

5. Reflecting: Having eaten the snack, how do you feel? How did it feel to eat the snack mindfully?

6. Comparing: Now compare this with your experience of eating the first snack. Often, the first time people eat mindfully, they cannot believe how different it is to their normal experience of eating and how much enjoyment can be squeezed out of one tiny piece of food.

Over the coming months we will deepen our exploration of mindfulness through other practices, but in the meantime, if you liked this mindful eating exercise, why not trying a more thorough raisin meditation practice?

TIPS FOR FACING “TURNING POINTS” IN YOUR LIFE TIPS FOR FACING “TURNING POINTS” IN YOUR LIFE

by Radha Ruparell

On April 5, 2020, I started feeling tired, more tired than I usually feel in the middle of the day. Two days later, I realized that I had been hit with this new virus that everyone was talking about, COVID-19. The virus was like nothing I had ever experienced in my life. I started the year as a healthy, active, young professional. Then I contracted this virus and suddenly found myself bedridden, unable to work, and suffering from a full-body assault on my heart, brain, stomach and other organs. More than a year in, while much has improved, I still have not recovered my full health.

We all face turning points in our lives. One minute we’re doing well, the next, we’re in the middle of a crisis. Turning points can be terrifying. The ultimate question is, how are we going to face them?

Here are three lessons I discovered while battling the biggest turning point in my life:

Get rid of your “invisible mask”: The single biggest thing that helped me through my battle was having a strong support network. In the early days, I barely had strength. So I reached out only to a doctor friend and to my sister for support but no one else. But soon, a work colleague of mine, who I would not have expected to be one of my core pillars of support, started reaching out to me every day. Her encouraging text messages offered me so much comfort and helped me get through the difficult nights. I used to think that reaching out for help implied weakness, that strong people don’t complain, and tough it out. Now, I believe the opposite: that reaching out for help is not weak at all. What I discovered in removing my “invisible mask” was that, on the other side lay connection, a deep human connection with others so beautiful that it completely stirred my soul. What might be possible if you removed your “invisible mask?”

2. Slow down and soak it in: Like many New Yorkers, I lead a busy life. This experience has gotten me to slow down and take life in. Slowing down helped me rediscover things I had taken for granted. When I left my apartment after 27 days in isolation, the first thing I noticed were the beautiful tulips growing in a little patch outside my building. I had lived in this apartment for a year. Why had I never noticed these flowers in springtime before? Oh, and the feeling of a breath of fresh air, a gust of wind, and the first time seeing trees after a month indoors! What would life feel like if we always approached the world with childlike wonder? What if you soaked in the magic of each moment like it was your first and last on earth?

3. Focus on “being” not “doing”: When my life flashed before my eyes, I found myself wondering not about what I had accomplished, but who I had been along the way. Had I been kind to my family and friends? Had I taken full responsibility for my mistakes? We spend so much of our lives focusing on what we are doing, but in the end, all that matters is who we are being. I have found that one way to bring more of a being paradigm to your life is to pick a word or two that defines who you want to be, and then treat this as your highest priority. For me, that word is “generous”. What is it for you?

I’ll leave you with one final thought from my new book, Brave Now: “Being brave is not an innate characteristic reserved for a select few. At any moment, any one of us can choose to be brave.”

BIO

Radha Ruparell has worked with CEOs, Fortune 500 senior executives, social entrepreneurs, and grassroots leaders around the world to unlock their leadership. She currently heads the Global Leadership Accelerator at Teach For All, a global network of organizations in 60 countries committed to developing leadership to ensure all children fulfill their potential. Her new book is BRAVE NOW: Rise Through Struggle and Unlock Your Greatest Self.