How I’m Transforming My Social Change Approach With Wellbeing How I’m Transforming My Social Change Approach With Wellbeing

Stories from the Hearth

Guest post by:

Amos Leuka

Director, Living Culture and Climate Alliance (LCCA)
🌍 Loita Maasai community, Loita, Narok County, Kenya

Amos Leuka, director of the Living Culture and Climate Alliance (LCCA), from the Loita Maasai community in Loita, Narok County, Kenya, attended The Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès in November 2023. Listen to his journey of learning, inner reflection, and motivation as he shares his reflections on the gathering.

The LCCA promotess culture and climate adaptations in Africa and in particular, Kenya. It enables indigenous communities to promote their bio-cultural rights and supports them to be economically and culturally resilient, capable of managing their land systems and biodiversity. By building this solid base, providing leadership, technical and facilitative support, and using Participatory Video, LCCA creates a space to connect all indigenous communities and enable them to gain influence on climate issues affecting them, maintain their languages and use indigenous knowledge systems to manage their lands, social change and shape their future.

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POETRY READINGSPOETRY READINGS

By Parker J. Palmer

Experience the transformative power of poetry with renowned speaker and author, Parker J. Palmer. Immerse yourself in his soulful recitations as he breathes life into captivating verses that explore the depths of human emotions, nature’s beauty, love’s nuances, and the quest for self-discovery.

Let Parker J. Palmer’s enchanting voice guide you on a poetic journey of reflection and inspiration. Explore our collection now and awaken the senses to the timeless truths found within each carefully selected poem.

“When Death Comes” – Mary Oliver

“The Thing Is” – Ellen Bass

“My Dead Friends” – Marie Howe

``How can we have a deep inner realisation about collective power?`` ``How can we have a deep inner realisation about collective power?``

Join us for a transformative episode of “Voices of Wellbeing” as renowned artist Deepa Narayan shares her inner realizations about the collective power within oppressed groups. Discover how embracing joy, letting go of self-judgment, and opening the heart can unleash a transformative force beyond individual capabilities. In “Connecting with Each Other,” Deepa emphasizes the significance of taking time to nurture joys, explore emotions, and foster genuine connections with others. Understanding and sharing gender stories become essential components for both personal wellbeing and fostering social justice. Prepare to be inspired as Deepa Narayan ignites a spark within you, urging you to tap into the power of collective action and embrace a mindset free from stress. Let’s come together, celebrate joy, and create a world where wellbeing and social justice thrive. Don’t miss this captivating episode of “Voices of Wellbeing” and join the movement of collective power. Remember to subscribe to our channel for more insightful content, and share this empowering video with others to spread the message of unity and transformative change.

Voices of Wellbeing | Rajni BakshiVoices of Wellbeing | Rajni Bakshi

“Nonviolence is love in action”

Rajni Bakshi is a Mumbai-based author, speaker and founder of ‘Ahimsa Conversations’, an online platform for exploring the possibilities of nonviolence.

As speaker at The Wellbeing Summit of Social Change, she joins us to share the importance of nonviolent action for social change.

In this interview, she shares her belief that by making space for open dialogue and taking time to understand movements, we can collectively sustain more conscious and humane models of development.

Bishop Chantel Wright & Songs of Solomon at TWBS22 Plenary Sessions Bishop Chantel Wright & Songs of Solomon at TWBS22 Plenary Sessions

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Closing Plenary Session | Justin Michael Williams – “I Am Enough”Closing Plenary Session | Justin Michael Williams – “I Am Enough”

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.

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.