Photo by Sarah Johnson at www.nineteenmonths.com

I recently co-authored an article on A whole-person approach to educating for sustainability. In it, I applied my work on cultivating critical consciousness and authentic relationships to self, other, and community to the urgent question of what may constitute effective education toward sustainable living.

You can access the article here

Photo by Shahriar Erfanian at NineteenMonths.com

In our pervasive ‘age of anxiety’, mindfulness-based clinical approaches to treatment are fast gaining recognition as among the most highly effective in addressing a wide range of emotional and psychological suffering, such as depression, anxiety, some personality disorders, etc.

Recent neuroscience research shows that meditation and contemplative spiritual practices tend to develop and strengthen a particular part of the brain, the medial prefrontal cortex, so that the more active that higher brain area becomes, the less people experience themselves as subject to the strong emotional reactions that we share with all mammals.

Along these same lines, the ancient healing practice of yoga has been recognized as highly effective in helping us learn to quiet our ‘monkey minds’ (as the Buddha referred to ordinary daily mental activity), and to access our inner wisdom. Those of you who have worked with me know the power of deep breathing to release ‘hare-brain’ compulsive thinking and to clear the way to more mindful self-understanding.

Nationally known yoga teachers like Amy Weintraub (www.yogafordepression.com) have developed successful approaches to address depression and anxiety through breath, stretching, and relaxation. Yoga and Eastern martial arts are wonderful antidotes to what appears to be the generic underlying cause for much of our ordinary suffering – a mind addicted to fear-based, overactive, compulsive thinking. As you will see in the research below, which was brought to my attention my Amy Weintraub’s newsletter, mindfulness-based yoga and meditation practices are now being found to increase immunity and stimulate the body’s resilience.

Enhanced Psychosocial Well-Being Following Participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program Is Associated with Increased Natural Killer Cell Activity

Nicholas Carr’s new book, The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our minds, exposes the complexity of the dilemma we face by raising the question of what essential faculties for deeper and more sustained thought we might be in effect loosing as we spend more and more time enjoying the quick rewards of the internet. For those of you who are familiar with my work on critical consciousness and empowered ways of being in the world, you may see many connecting threads with Carr’s brilliant exploration. His book is yet another wake-up call, reminding us that calling into being a new mind, one that can truly encompass, comprehend, and participate intelligently and responsibly in life in the 21st century, requires far more complex thinking skills than can be developed by endless hours of surfing the Internet.

Learning how to use technology mindfully and with moderation is not just desirable, as you will see, but essential to the quality of our lives and relationships. A brain addicted to the constant stimulation of technological gadgets can no longer sustain presence to life as it unfolds around us, one moment at a time. Food for much thought.

Photo by Amy Sahba @nineteenmonths.com

In our “age of anxiety”, one of the most powerful awakenings I have been privileged to witness again and again in my quiet back-yard office, is when a person discovers that their greatest value is in the fact that they are! Learning to be with ourselves, to experience that de-fault quiet core within, that sense of fullness and completeness that comes with quieting the mind and getting in touch with our hearts, with the wisdom and spiritual insight that speak when we listen… those are moments of empowerment worth millions.

It is such a joy to see a person’s face quiet and relax, and then light up with insight; to watch that person, who came all nervous and in pain, walk away lighter and with hope and confidence, that I always feel I am in the presence of a miracle…

Yet, I know it is not a miracle to access that power and sense of worth within. I know it to be the very purpose of life’s journey. I call it developing spiritual literacy – i.e. our understanding that life is primarily a spiritual event, and that all the forces that play out on the material plane, and all our struggles, can best be understood and governed from such a perspective.

As people discover that their mind is a much greater entity than their ever-chattering, ever fearful and demanding brain processing, they discover their deeper understanding, thought and imagination, and their faculty of inner vision. They realize they are not as much at the mercy of arbitrary life events as they used to feel. They realize they can feed and nourish their own souls, and begin to change their lives to make them more soulful. They also realize that there is a spirit within them that guides and seeks to transcend obstacles and discover new horizons.

Dost though think thyself only a puny form when within thee the whole universe is folded…

As people discover the universe hidden within, they see their struggles and problems in a whole different light, and begin to realize new possible solutions. They reframe their experience of life from that of ‘victims’ to that of authentic engagement. They may experience an awakening of the spirit of faith, which may inspire them to re-examine their spiritual or religious commitments, and enter into a new dialogue with the ethical, moral and spiritual teachings of world religions. Such a study of religion can provide well-articulated and comprehensive understanding of the human path to spiritual happiness.

I find it one of the most hopeful developments in social science that we are progressively seeing the emergence of spiritual psychology, i.e. a psychology that understands human well-being as a psycho-spiritual process, rather than simply as understanding and removing old traumas, and developing better coping skills. A cutting edge example of such an emergent spiritual psychological approach to well-being is the field of mindfulness, which draws on neurobiology, psychology and spirituality. Mindfulness studies are increasingly providing breakthrough new knowledge about the capacity of the human mind to chose to re-wire its own brain in the direction of much more functional and integrated inner governance.

Mindfulness-oriented psychotherapy, like the one I practice, helps people develop a whole new sense of the I that chooses what to do with its ego drives, and how to draw on its higher powers in order to meet life’s challenges.

Such contributions from the new (and still unrecognized) field of spiritual psychology moves people (both religious and agnostic) significantly closer to the goal of human happiness and well-being.

What, then, can be the potential distinctive role of religion in this process?

Of course, any meaningful conversation about the potential role of religion in human well-being would have to first acknowledge the fact that religions have far too often been the source of much repression, fear, and distrust of the ‘other’; and have thus not only hindered many people from attaining well-being, but have also been the cause of more divisiveness and hostility among human beings. But is that the true purpose of religion? Or is that rather the outcome of unfortunate but common human misinterpretations and misuses of religion, which continue even today, even among the most progressive religious orientations?

Essentially, every revealed religion in human history has described the most fundamental reality of a human being as a soul. It has pointed people on a path to recognizing their true reality as the soul, and setting out to know themselves as souls. Further, religions have had a lot to say about the enormous potential for human fulfillment as people choose to engage consciously in a mindful interaction between their own individuality and their inner vision.

Religions have consistently recognized the two potential capacities of the human individuality – the capacity for accomplishment, i.e. the latent talents waiting to be realized; and the capacity for inner change, i.e. the dual nature waiting to be drawn upon by a person’s moral and behavioral choices. (Check out that little gem, Henry Weil’s Drops from the ocean). They have encouraged people, through prayer and meditation, as well as through community life and service, to engage their inner vision into actualizing both their capacity for accomplishment and their capacity for inner change towards greater personal and collective wholesomeness.

So as people begin to discover their inner health and sense of non-contingent well-being, they may begin to re-examine religion as a source of a comprehensive philosophical and spiritual understanding of reality, as well as of coherent guidance toward a spiritually fulfilled life.

In my inner conversation between my own experience of life, that of my clients, which I share with them, my psychological understanding of health and the healing process, and my comprehensive search for meaning and coherence, I have found deep nurturance in the Baha’i understanding of the unified purpose of religion as a stronghold that guides, supports, confirms, and encourages the best efforts of our higher nature to transform ourselves, our communities, and our world. But more on that another time…

For now, may the spirit of health and healing infuse your day!

You can download the paper here.

Beyond Competing Identities and Ideologies: Building Resilience to Radicalization in a World in Transition

This article adopts a macrocultural approach to understanding complex current global tensions and the way they may account for recent acts of terrorism. It proposes that the recent conflict between the West and radical militant Islam can be understood as the polarization of 2 partial perspectives on social justice—the secular democratic individualistic Western worldview and the spiritual and collectivist Middle Eastern worldview—that need to inform one another.

You can download the article here

You can download the paper here

You can download it here

This paper proposed a lifespan developmental model of critical moral consciousness and examined its implications for education in childhood, adolescence and adulthood.

You can download the paper here