Core practices we are particularly interested in are ones which cultivate:
- Presence – practices that support non-judgmental awareness and responsiveness in the present moment, including reflection, meditation, journaling, body awareness, somatics, deep listening, and witnessing.
- Personal Ecology – individual and organizational practices, policies, and programs that support care of the whole self, including rest, healthy food, exercise, bodywork, vacation, family/medical leave, and sabbatical.
- Creativity – practices that support engaging the full self towards healing self and world, including art, music, visual facilitation, intuition, and ritual.
- Purpose – practices that support creative visioning, alignment towards goals, acting with intention and overcoming obstacles, including professional or peer coaching for individuals, and facilitation and strategic consulting for groups.
- Compassion – practices to cultivate an open heart, to be present to suffering in a way that generates responsiveness rather than overwhelm, and to deeply embody and institutionalize the view that the needs and aspirations of others are as important as our own.
- Participatory Engagement – practices that are inclusive and promote dialogue, participatory decision-making, and collective action, including powerful questions and deep listening in formats such as circle conversations, World Café, and Pro-Action Café.
- Power Awareness – practices that help us learn to see clearly the social structures that cause unnecessary suffering and the ways we are unconsciously complicit in them, and to take committed individual and collective action towards equity, inclusion and centered collaboration across race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, and other diverse experiences and perspectives.
- Community Organizing – practices that build people-power and commitment to collective action for social change in ways that prioritize deep listening, relationship-building, awareness of power, participatory decision-making, grassroots and asset-based community development.