Follow-up to the Applied MIndfulness Conference

The third Applied Mindfulness Conference drew a small, but diverse group of professionals committed to infusing their work with mindfulness. Robert Birkenes, a senior US diplomat with USAID who served in
Baghdad, spoke about the increasing number of people he finds across the
federal government who are interested in using and promoting mindfulness to
look freshly at the way conflict situations are described. (Articles are
available on request). Trudy Sable, a senior Canadian researcher, reflected on
the challenges of her work with the cultural mindsets of government agencies,
universities, and the Innu aboriginal people of Northern Labrador. Applying
mindfulness led to insights revealing her own projections and expectations
about how best to work with youth at risk caught in a gridlock of mental
models. Click on the image in the upper right on the home page of
www.kamestastin.com for an artful 6
minute video introducing the project. Susan Skjei, a familiar leader in ALIA
programs, applied the power of mindful communication to case clinics and
coaching sessions, giving people a way make the program most relevant to their
own organizational needs. Mindfulness and awareness are playing an important
role in changing many environments and are no longer regarded as a purely
introspective practice (see www.tailofthetiger.org for more details).