Mirabai Bush, a meditation and mindfulness teacher who leads Google’s mindfulness training, “Search Inside Yourself,” pointed us to an illustration of contemplative practices, which shows the breadth of meditation and mindfulness within traditions. Although this list isn’t comprehensive, it does open up one’s imagination about how these disciplines take root and manifest themselves in our lives.

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society goes on to explain:

“On the Tree of Contemplative Practices, the roots symbolize the two intentions that are the foundation of all contemplative practices. The roots of the tree encompass and transcend differences in the religious traditions from which many of the practices originated, and allow room for the inclusion of new practices that are being created in secular contexts.

The branches represent different groupings of practices. For example, Stillness Practices focus on quieting the mind and body in order to develop calmness and focus. Generative Practices may come in many different forms but share the common intent of generating thoughts and feelings, such as thoughts of devotion and compassion, rather than calming and quieting the mind. (Please note that such classifications are not definitive, and many practices could be included in more than one category.)

Because this illustration cannot possibly include all contemplative practices, we offer a free download of a blank Tree that you can customize to include your own practices. Activities not included on the tree (including those which may seem mundane, such as gardening or eating) may be understood to be contemplative practices when done with the intent of cultivating awareness and wisdom.”

Seeing these classifications, I’m left wondering what else in our experiences might be part of this tree. Here’s a blank tree for your own practices. Fill it in and, if you’re willing, share it with us and others.

We have 28,000 registered participants from 190 countries. They are linked through 350 self-organizing Hubs across cultures, forming 700-1,000 coaching circles to co-create an inspired web of connections with change makers across society’s sectors and systems. Below is the first account of a bold experiment called MITx U.Lab, designed to transform higher education as we know it.

The current crisis in higher education has three characteristics: it’s overpriced, out of touch (with society’s real needs), and outdated (in its method and purpose). But the solution, a true 21st-century model of higher education, is already emerging: it’s free (or accessible to everyone), it’s empowering (putting the learner into the driver’s seat of profound personal, professional, and societal renewal), and it’s transformational (providing new learning environments that activate the deepest human capacities to create — both individually and collectively).

Today I would like to share some preliminary insights from our ongoing experiment, “U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self” (Watch a 7-minute video about it here), a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed with MITx and delivered through edX.org.

A frequent criticism directed at MOOCs is that the learning that happens in them is not as effective as the learning that happens in a classroom. That’s why, in the U.Lab, we didn’t try to replace the classroom. Instead, we decentralized it, then took the learning out of the classroom altogether.

The U.Lab is a hybrid learning platform that offers the best aspects of MOOCs, which are democratizing access to education globally, while also eliminating many of the major criticisms of MOOCs — that they offer mostly superficial learning experiences.

The first U.Lab session was January 14. After only five weeks, we are beginning to recognize some powerful principles and actions that have the potential to revolutionize higher education. Here are seven of them:

Un milagro que muestra como el amor de una madre puede cambiarlo todo. Mirá el emocionante video y contanos qué te pareció

Kate Ogg y su marido David estaban hace tiempo buscando tener hijos. Finalmente ella quedó embarazada de mellizos, lo que alegró mucho a la pareja.

El parte de Kate fue prematuro y los médicos le dieron una mala noticia a los padres primerizos: uno de los niños no lo había logrado sobrevivir a la intervención y falleció. Inmediatamente, luego de conocer la noticia, Kate pidió que le trajeran a su hijo Jamie, quien había sido dado por muerto, para poder abrazarlo y darle calor de madre.

A partir de ese momento, lo sucedido no sólo conmocionó a la familia, sino también a los médicos que habían participado de la intervención: Jamie, que había sido dado por muerto, comenzó a respirar.

Mirá cómo, esta la emocionante historia, es contada en primera persona por su madre:

Observar la belleza y sentir emociones positivas relacionadas con ella (como el asombro, la alegría o el placer) puede potenciar el sistema inmunitario, según un estudio de la Universidad de California en Berkeley (EE.UU.). Aunque no se sabe qué es primero, si la emoción o el proceso químico, o si es algo bidireccional, los científicos comprobaron que las personas que pasaban un día mejor tenían niveles más bajos de proteínas pro-inflamatorias.

Contemplar maravillas como el Gran Cañón del Colorado y el techo de la Capilla Sixtina, o escuchar el Ave María de Schubert, puede potenciar las defensas del cuerpo, según una nueva investigación de la Universidad de California en Berkeley (EE.UU.).

Los investigadores han relacionado las emociones positivas -especialmente el asombro que sentimos cuando somos tocados por la belleza de la naturaleza, el arte y la espiritualidad- con niveles más bajos de las pro-inflamatorias citocinas, que son proteínas que indican al sistema inmunológico que trabaje más duro.

“Nuestros hallazgos demuestran que las emociones positivas se asocian con los marcadores de buena salud”, afirma en la información de la universidad Jennifer Stellar, investigadora postdoctoral en la Universidad de Toronto (Canadá) y autora principal del estudio, que se llevó a cabo mientras estaba en Berkeley.

I just returned from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. I came away with three observations: mindfulness is approaching a tipping point; human energy hotspots are the real attractor; and collective sleepwalkers remain dominant.

Mindfulness. Mindfulness is close to reaching a tipping point. Only two years ago, mindfulness and mindful leadership were discussed at the WEF for the first time. Since then, almost all of the mindfulness-related events there have been oversubscribed. Mindfulness practices like meditation are now used in technology companies such as Google and Twitter (amongst others), in traditional companies in the car and energy sectors, in state-owned enterprises in China, and in UN organizations, governments, and the World Bank. As Loic Le Meur, a serial tech entrepreneur from Silicon Valley puts it: “It’s funny, everyone I know has started meditating. In the Valley, there’s a real social pressure on you [to do it]. Six months ago I gave in and started my own daily practice.”

What is happening? Here are three drivers of this trend:

+ New tech: our hyperconnectivity and fast-paced lives have caused us to disconnect more and more from ourselves.

+ New challenges: leaders are facing more situations that require them to access their self-awareness and emotional intelligence in order to be successful.

+ New science: the past ten years have brought breakthrough research in cognition science, particularly about the impact of mindfulness on brain plasticity. As cognition scientist Richard Davidson puts it: Even a few hours of meditation can change the epigenetics of our brain.

Mis reflexiones sobre lo que Peter Senge comenta acerca de lo que necesitamos aprender del Aikido.
Fragmentaciones en el ámbito de un modo de vivir cultural.

El Aikido como práxis para un cambio cultural.

Estas reflexiones están basadas en mi experiencia como Sensei de Aikido, Consultor y Coach.

Comencé Aikido junto a mi Maestro Shihan Masafumi Sakanashi 7 Dan, en este año cumplo 25 años de práctica del Aikido con la graduación de 4to Dan.

Fui articulando mi entendimiento de Biología -Cultural, Pensamiento Sistémico, Coaching y Teoría U, en un camino de 17 años, desarrollando lo que llamamos “Aiki Training” como Humberto Maturana llamo, “dinámicas de armonización psico-corpo sensoriales, experienciales y reflexivas”, para incorporar un cambio de paradigma basado en el Aikido.
Esta articulación de abordajes es propia y no tiene semejanzas con otras propuestas.

Aikido también llamado el arte de la armonía, AI (armonía) KI (energía) DO (via) se basa en dos principios fundamentales, No competencia y No se puede practicar solo.

La dinámica de la competencia implica un ganador y un perdedor.