Sustainability Studio

Hi everyone, my original intent when I signed up for this course was to use it to help develop a project I have been working on in D.C. to start a local account of wellbeing. I have interviewed many people over the last year, and built a team with several members coming and going over that time. I still believe that project has a real need, but we are still struggling to find the leverage point in the system to get started! So I just want to briefly describe that project and hear your thoughts on it, but I may actually have a different proposal for what I want to use this course to work on (see the final paragraph).

The biggest challenge of getting a true grassroots account of wellbeing going in our mind is that it needs to be geographically defined, not limited to the constituency of a single organization. Getting access to and buy-in from an entire community to scientifically survey within a geographical area is going to be a real feat that, we have realized, needs support from local government. We are working on connections with the local Area Neighborhood Committees (ANCs), but progress is slow.

The aim of all of this is very simple: we would like development and policy proposals, and the impact of local businesses's on the local community, to be able to be reported against a local map of wellbeing in each neighborhood of D.C. Just like is done by the Bhutanese Gross National Happiness, a development proposal should be able to submit a "Wellbeing Impact Statement" saying how they anticipate that their development will impact known stresses on and assets for wellbeing in the community. This seems so obvious to us; at a local hearing on a 10-story hotel going into a historic neighborhood, where there are currently no structure over three stories, all that was discussed was impact on tax revenue. What about fabric of the community?? There was no basis for this discussion to even happen, much less play a role in the final outcome by the city council.

Recently, we have turned our thinking to smaller demonstrations we could use to get started, such as a mobile-phone based survey we could promote through local partners to ping users with random questions to create a living pulse of wellbeing in the community, or a series of workshops to discuss assets and barriers to wellbeing in our neighborhoods, or conducting a survey within a smaller community like a school, or collecting non-scientific "convenient samples" by just walking around one day!

More on that project: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TrAKsJ-pzrgTkrjd1MOUAQ31ZIKNHqRWhtCk...

It remains to be seen whether or not I will be able to use this course to make significant progress on this project, and I welcome your ideas or input! Either way, I would like to propose a smaller, more concrete project for this course, and invite participation from any of you:

I would like to develop a rubric for a badge (or a few badges?) to reward commitments to and demonstrations of love in the world... love of your neighbor, love of yourself, love of the planet? This could include interviews and literature reviews on compassion and love from different religions, from positive psychology, and from other sources, and collaboratively editing a rubric with you all for evaluating many types of possible evidence anyone could submit to earn this badge. What do you all think? Anyone want to help?

Love,
Alan

Hello everyone!

I was at the graduate seminar in California last week with Joy. Due to a medical emergency with my husband I had to leave a few hours early and stayed at the hospital with my husband for the six days that he was there; I have been unable to participate in this project much as of yet. Things are improving so I should be available now :)

Like Joy I am excited about the Being Mindful project. The world could be a much better place if we would be more mindful of our actions and be present in each moment. I have always had a deep connection to my spirituality - never felt overly comfortable within any one given religion, but yet I know the spiritual connection is there and runs deep.

I taught dance for over twenty years. I earned my undergrad degree in psychology. And, now I am completing my grad work in Transpersonal Psych at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in CA. My husband and I have started a new company, Inward Oasis, which focuses on bridging the gap between one's spirituality and day-to-day living and therefore being able to recognize and nurture the spirit of a couple (when in a relationship, of course). To do these things we must be mindful. Mindfulness can help connect you, lift you up, keep you grounded, and bring joy into your life. I have found that it also brings the Divine into your life - whatever or however you perceive that.

Sharing with others the benefits of Being Mindful and ways to do just that is very important to me. As Joy often says, it brings about a "call to action" for us.

Love to All,
Janelle

Greetings!

I'm the Chris Geith groupie in the shadows listening with the goal of contributing when I can be useful.

My blessing is insatiable curiosity. I will never be able to know enough things about enough things, to understand enough things about enough things, or to share enough things about enough things.

I am a curator; a collector of knowledge; a connector of people.

I believe we(humans) have the ability to save the world or to destroy it. I believe there will always be people trying to do both and saviors must prevail.

For me sustainability has many meanings: environmental, social, political, economic, and on and on. I want to learn more from you about your ideas for sustainability and to interject when I can to challenge or support you.

Nice to meet you in the cloud. (I'll try to get a photo up next...)
Paul