How to Teach Students to Embrace Wonder
Heidi Lawrence’s path to awe started more than a decade ago when she began working on ideas for her Ph.D. in English literature. Exploring Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and other adolescent novels, she began noticing patterns of connection between the characters’ inner worlds and their relationships with nature—specifically, the ways characters’ emotional worlds […]
Peace Psychology in a Time of War
Last week, as I was scrolling through my phone, I came across disturbing images of violence and unrest in Kashmir, including recent news reports of tourists tragically dying. The news deeply affected me because I had been there as a child as well as a tourist. It had been years since I visited the valley, […]
When Healing Feels Lonely: What I Now Know About Peace
“Avoiding your triggers isn’t healing. Healing happens when you’re triggered and you’re able to move through the pain, the pattern, and the story, and walk your way to a different ending.” ~Vienna Pharaon I thought I had figured it out. For a year, I had been doing the “inner work”—meditating daily, practicing breathwork, journaling, doing […]
How Moments in Nature Help Kids Thrive
Awe doesn’t often make the headlines. But on April 9, 2024, the front page of the New York Times read, “A Divided America Agrees on One Thing: The Eclipse Was Awesome.” All photos by Deborah Farmer Kris of her children in nature Though our town was about three hours south of the path of totality, […]
Dancing with Darkness: How to Reclaim Your Whole Self
“Shadow work is the way to illumination. When we become aware of all that is buried within us, that which is lurking beneath the surface no longer has power over us.” ~Aletheia Luna For years, I believed healing was about transcending pain. I took the courses, read the books, learned every energy-healing technique I could […]
Trusting the Pause: When Patience Is Better Than Pushing
“The most powerful thing you can do right now is be patient while things are unfolding for you.” ~Idil Ahmed⠀ I still remember my last year of college vividly. I was frustrated and disheartened after my application to study abroad was rejected. I had been obsessed with exploring the world through academia, convinced that further study […]
How Bringing an Indigenous Creation Story to Life Can…
He instructed Ani to pisi to wrap the world, with the people in it, in his web and let them down to the lower world. Ani to pisi did as he was told and let them down from the upper world through a hole. After the people were lowered from the upper world (spoomootsi) to […]
Mindfully Connecting With Nature | Psychology Today
Written By Lizabeth Roemer, Ph.D., and Josh Bartok, M.S. “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination” ― Mary Oliver As spring comes to the Northern Hemisphere of our blue-green marble, I feel like the budding flowers and leaves are nature waking up my heart and mind and demanding […]
The Mean Instinct: Why We Exclude Others and How to Stop
“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” ~Unknown “Girls are mean!” I nodded knowingly as my boss struggled to explain the difference between raising boys and girls. I couldn’t speak to raising boys, but I remembered all too well what it was like when my daughters were growing up. Girls traveled in […]
Why Is Social Connection So Hard for Young Adults?
Social connectedness is vital to well-being, but members of Gen Z are hesitant about interacting with one another in today’s online and polarized world, says Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki. That disconnection comes at a cost: Young adults increasingly report lower levels of happiness than middle-aged and older adults. Here, Zaki talks about why that is […]