New Dimensions

What are the practices that allow for wisdom to arise? Alan Briskin believes wisdom can emerge when individuals come together for a common purpose, even - or especially - when those individuals bring divergent viewpoints to the table. His powerful message offers a blueprint for how we can create working relationships that optimize our ability to act wisely and effectively. His books include The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace (Berrett-Koehler 1998), The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly (co-authors, Sheryl Erickson, Tom Callanan, and John Ott)(Berrett-Koehler 2009), Daily Miracles: Stories and Practices of Humanity and Excellence in Health Care (co-author Jan Boller) (Sigma Theta Tau International; 1st edition 2006)Tags: Alan Briskin, soul, work, right livelihood, job, corporation, organizations, prisons, shadow, Hercules, punishment, conformity, collective, individual, business communities, Business, Personal Transformation, Self Help, Social Change/Politics, Spirituality

Moving away from busy behavior takes more than trying to just make a quick change. Tally explains why quick fixes aren’t sustainable. In order to truly reclaim our days from the hectic pace of busyness we need to find the value behind what we want to change. She shares some concrete processes to help us reclaim our overscheduled lives. Yvonne Tally leads meditation and de-stressing programs for corporations, individuals, and private groups in Silicon Valley. She is an NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) master practitioner. She also co-founded Poised Inc., a Pilates and wellness training studio and is the founder of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarves, a charity that provides headscarves to cancer patients. She is the author of Breaking Up with Busy: Real-Life Solutions for Overscheduled Women (New World Library 2018)Tags: Yvonne Tally, multitasking, busyness, anxiety, stress, cortisol, time, overscheduled, decluttering, clutter, values, friendship, pausing, NLP, Neuro-linguistic programming, mindfulness,

Jonathan Robinson helps us discover how we may be become more effective communicators to create more empathy, intimacy, and understanding in all our relationships. One of the keys to fostering deep trust and intimacy is asking questions while being vulnerable enough to openly share details of what we are thinking and feeling. The techniques and stories Robinson shares here are like sacred medicine. Robinson is the author of many books including Life’s Big Questions: 200 Ways to Explore Your Spiritual Life (Conari 2011), Communication Miracles for Couples (Conari 2012), Shortcuts to Success: The Absolute Best Ways to Master Your Money, Time, Health, and Relationships (Red Wheel/Weiser 2000), Shortcuts to Bliss: The 50 Best Ways to Improve Relationships, Connect with Spirit, and Make Your Dreams Come True (Conari 2011), Find Happiness Now: 50 Shortcuts to Bring More Joy, Balance and Love into Your Life (Conari 2014), The Technology of Joy: The 101 Best Apps, Gadgets, Tools and Supplements for Feeling More

Fox, Wilson, and Listug share the vision of a co-creative “Order of the Sacred Earth (OSE)” as an antidote to the many negative forces that surround us. Many people are forming “pods” and joining this order by creating rituals, taking the vow “I promise to be the best lover and defender of Earth I can be,” and connecting with one another through a hub website. Fr. Mathew Fox is a wisdom elder, a theologian, an Episcopal priest, and author of 35 books on spiritualty and culture, including Original Blessing and Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times. Skylar Wilson is a Rites of Passage guide who has worked as a mentor for both teenagers and adults. As a relatively younger person in his 30s, he’s been training leaders in gatherings of intergenerational mentoring and is the founder of Wild Awakenings, which leads wilderness immersion programs. Jennifer Berit Listug is in her late 20s and is a Rites of Passage guide who recently became a mother. She is the co-director of Wild Awakenings and also works in

Attorney Stewart Levine loved the legal profession because of the ideals it represented. But when he realized the practice of law rarely allowed him to consider human values along with property values, he took down his shingle and became an expert in resolving conflicts in a way that preserves relationships as well as legal rights.  He is the author of Getting to Resolution: Turning Conflict into Collaboration (2nd edition, revised & expanded, Berrett-Koehler 2009). Tags: Stewart Levine, Family, Community, Conflict resolution, Listening, Telling Your Story, Agreement, Disagreement, Responsibility, Legal System, Lawyer, Lawyers, attorneys, justice, judicial system, collaboration, Social Change/Politics, Self Help, Relationship/Partnership/Sexuality, Personal Transformation, Peace/Non-Violence, Family / Community

Gary Gach is a lifelong meditator. He’s been an actor, bookshop clerk, dishwasher, hospital administrator, office temp, stevedore, teacher, and typographer. He points us toward increasing our mindfulness by drawing on our formal meditation throughout the day. He brings to light that being fully present in our daily life will help us keep our appointment with life, which leads us to live a more purposeful, meaningful life. Tags: Gary Gach, Thich Nhat Hanh, mindfulness, smile, breathe, unconscious decisions, beliefs, Ajahn Chah, gaining mind, heart mind, heartfulness, sky meditation, mouth yoga, resilience, community, engaged spirituality, Personal Transformation, Spiritually, Self Help, Death and Dying, Meditation

We all have an innate brilliance. Here Ardagh shows a path in which we can make the expression of our innate brilliance more predictable, less of a random accident and more of a probability. He demonstrates how we are capable of greatness and must snap out of our trance of self-indulgence to serve the greater good in these threshold times. Arjuna Ardagh is a writer, public speaker and founder of the Awakening Coaching Training in Nevada City, California. His books include The Translucent Revolution (New World Library 2005), Leap Before You Look: 72 Shortcuts for Getting Out of Your Mind and into the Moment (Sounds True 2008), Last Laugh (Hay House 2013), Better Than Sex: The Ecstatic Art of Awakening Coaching (Awakening Coaching 2013), Radical Brilliance: The Anatomy of How and Why People Have Original Life-Changing Ideas (SelfXPress 2018)Tags: Arjuna Ardagh, Kute Blackson, Brilliance Cycle, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, revelation, Four quadrants of Brilliance Cycle, addiction, pollical activism, isolation, f

Anodea Judith substitutes the word “charge” for energy. “Charge” as it relates to our life-force energy can be blocked or be freely flowing. It also relates to our chakra system, which comprises the organizational centers in the body. Here she takes us through the seven chakra centers and how we can work more effectively with them.Tags: Anodea Judith, chakras, habits, beliefs, trauma, awareness, consciousness, brain, positive charge, negative charge, seven centers of the chakra system, third chakra power center, defiance, bullies, active listening, group speak, the Crusades, Hitler, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., hate crimes, positive vision, Philosophy, Psychology, Relationship, Personal Transformation, Health & Healing

Guy Finley is the founder and Director of the Life of Learning Foundation. He explores deescalating painful disagreements and fights in our relationships and gives us tools to transform anger and blame into healthy and fulfilling communication. He shows us a way to stop old, negative patterns in their tracks and leads us into a landscape in which we can deepen the loving bond between ourselves and our partners. He is the author of many books including  The Secret of Letting Go (Llewellyn Publications 2008), The Secret of Your Immortal Self: Key Lessons for Realizing the Divinity Within (Llewellyn Publications 2015), The Essential Laws of Fearless Living (Red Wheel/Weiser 2008), Forever Free CD set (Llewellyn Publications 2009), Life is Real Only When You Are (Audible Audio Edition 2014) and Relationship Magic: Waking Up Together (Llewellyn Publications 2018)Tags: Guy Finley, life-long learner, life-long learning, lifelong learning, Aesop’s Fable, fear, McKeever the dog, patience, blame, anger, coercion,

Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D. is an internationally acclaimed evolution biologist and futurist. She is optimistic about the future and points to biology saying, “Life gets creative in a time of crisis.” She explains how the survival of bacteria, which have been on the planet for over four billion years, has given us a model of how we may evolve into a mature species.  She’s co-author, with the late Willis Harman, of Biology Revisioned. Her books include: Earth Dance: Living Systems in Evolution (iUniverse 2000), A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us (coauthors Brian Swimme & Sidney Liebes)(John Wiley & Sons 1998) and Biology Revisioned (coauthor Willis Harman) (North Atlantic Books 1998)Tags:Elisabet Sahtouris, climate, economy, energy, evolution, evolutionary, evolution biologist, biology, science, archebacterial, bacteria, ecosystems, debt money, materialist, scientists, new consciousness, competition, cooperation, Hokkaid Foundation of Science Symposium, entanglement theory, photosynthesis, evo

When pain takes up residence in our lives there is no one-size-fits-all solution, no quick fix. Shockley has lived with pain over a long period of time and she can attest to the fact that when we create a new relationship with our bodies, our emotions, our minds, and our spirits, our healing can truly unfold. She is the author of The Pain Companion: Everyday Wisdom for Living with and Moving Beyond Chronic Pain (New World Library 2018)Tags: Sarah Anne Shockley, TOS, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, chronic pain, bubble of pain, journaling,  Health & Healing, writing, psychology 

Thanks to cell phones, photography is now the great democratic medium, one of the most important means of communication of the 21st century. This is a new order, in which images are made, seen, and shared immediately and globally without curation or censoring by editors or governments. We can participate in shaping the reality of this order.  David Ulrich is a college level professor and co-director of the Pacific New Media Foundation in Honolulu, Hawaii. His photographs have been exhibited internationally in more than 75 one-person and group exhibitions. He is the author of: The Widening Stream: The Seven Stages of Creativity (Beyond Words 2001) and Zen Camera: Creative Awakening With a Daily Practice in Photography (Watson-Guptill 2018)Tags: David Ulrich, empathy, Paul Strand, movie Harold and Maude, universal love, cell phone camera, visual pollution, Annie Leibovitz, photographing Barack Obama, Zen, Walt Whitman, imagination, Arts & Creativity, Spirituality, Philosophy, Meditation

Anne Scott, the founder of Dream Weather Foundation, gives guidance as to how to tap into the wisdom that speaks to us through our dreams, how to interpret them, and how to start a dream circle of your own. She is the author of Serving Fire: Food for Thought, Body, and Soul (Celestial Arts 1994), The Laughing Baby (Celestial Arts 2001) and Women, Wisdom, and Dreams: The Light of the Feminine Soul (Nicasio Press 2008)Tags: Anne Scott, dream, dreams, longing, circles, feminine principle, depression

Moss says that there are two basic mistakes we make in this stage of the evolution of consciousness: We identify with our thoughts and we flee from our feelings. He gives specific instructions on how to examine our thoughts to identify stories we tell ourselves, and he makes a distinction between feelings and emotions.Tags: Richard Moss, presence, ego, story, awareness, contraction, dark feelings, shadow, continuum of feeling, practice focused spacious awareness, Personal Growth

Rachel Kaplan describes the Urban Homesteading Movement as a food movement, but also a movement of people, who are about conservation of  energy, water, and waste. It is a movement of learning to live with less impact on the earth, and with a greater sense of what it means to be part of the place where we live, and to be thinking ecologically.Tags:  Rachel Kaplan, compost, composting, gardening, garden, earth worms, dirt, water, composting toilets, chickens, natural building, bamboo, community, environment, nature, co­housing, interdependence, farms, farming, farmers, Animals, Community, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Family / Community, Social Change/Politics

Susan Piver knows the joy of loving, the devastating groundlessness of betrayal, and the deep crushing loss when love goes away. But she also knows how to turn that trauma into something sacred, to learn the truth of who and what is most valuable in your life. She shows us how to gain authority over our pain and release its hold.Tags: Susan Piver, Intimacy, Heartbreak, Loss, Practice of Tranquility, Practice of Loving Kindness, Betrayal, Love, Personal Transformation, Meditation, Relationship/Partnership/Sexuality, Self Help, Spirituality

Wesselman shares the spiritual knowledge he gathered from working with the late Hale Makua, a revered Hawaiian Kahuna wisdom keeper. Included are insights such as: the 3 directives of a spiritual warrior, the 7 life roles and how they are expressed in both positive and negative forms, the difference between a shaman and a medicine person, and the ancestral grand plan.Tags: Hank Wesselman, shamanism, Hale Makua, shaman, kahuna, transpersonal, medicine people, Pele, Aloha, Kapus, Ancestral Grand Plan, Metatron, Glastonbury, Spirituality, Community, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Global Culture, Indigenous Wisdom, Mythology, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Shamanism, Science, Soul/Spirit Guides/Angels/Spirit

Life is not a destination; it is a fluid movement. It takes practice to overcome the daily stresses that make us dense, concretized, and armored. Baraz gives us many steps that we can take to help life move through us as a blessing, and shares several simple but effective meditations to help each of us be more present and more joyful in our life.Tags: James Baraz, Mindfulness, Happiness, Joy,  "The Kumbaya Factor", Breathe, Intention, Compassion, Storytelling, Caring, Gladness, Gratefulness, Spirituality, Arts & Creativity, Buddhism, Education, Global Culture, Health & Healing, Meditation, Personal Transformation

In the midst of our present polarization and alienation from one another, Patten exhorts us to understand that “we are in this lifeboat together and the fiercest thing we can do is to say, I’m living in a new republic of the heart. I’m a revolutionary. You are not going to separate yourself from me. I refuse to be in separation from you.”Tags: Terry Patten, York Center Community Co-op, Church of the Brethren, Adi Da Samraj, Integral Institute, despair, climate change, overshoot, activism, neurocardiology, Candace Pert, human intelligence systems, evolutionary emergence, empathy, fear, anger, tipping point, new tribalism, interdependence, David Bohm, Bohmian dialogue, shared inquiry, imaginal cells, epistemic humility, Psychology, Peace/Nonviolence,Social Change/Politics 

This deep dialogue explores the importance of community and how we can cultivate connectedness with others. Nepo speaks of two tribes: one that fears the differences in people and one that welcomes what can be learned by those differences. He gives advice as to how to keep our hearts open beyond our own opinions and how to tap into our innate nature of kindness.Tags: Mark Nepo, Irvin Laszlo, heart cells, Chinese philosopher Mencius, kinship, Emile Durkheim, technology, Howard Zinn, Paris Commune 1871, Wright Brothers, anarchy, Elder Shafir, psychology of poverty, flicker of dignity, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, kindness, Elie Wiesel, Psychology