Talent is not what you think it is
This blog was originally published here. Finding the voice is like meeting with the true core of one’s identity. Finding the voice as an opera singer is a true parallel to finding the voice in career, relationships, self-development and even spirituality. I did not know what path I was on when I took my first […]
We all need tools to help us return to peace instead of remaining in fear and anxiety.
Tools to Help Us Return to Peace for Thanksgiving By: Henry Grayson, Ph.D. We have so much that we are dealing with in this world today. There is so much stress, fear, and concern. Yes, all the stress weakens our immune system. We all need tools to help us return to peace instead of remaining […]
The Power of Forgiveness and Gratitude
Could Forgiveness be a gift and a passage to Grace? When asked to write an article about forgiveness, I felt hesitant. With so much contention in the world how can anyone willingly surrender their strong position and forgive? I consider forgiveness to be a superpower, right up there with gratitude. It’s recognizing there is a state […]
Mind, heart, and the power of breathing – why would you consider breathwork?
This blog was originally published here. Mind, heart, and the power of breathing – a new perspective on breathwork as a way of life. “It takes a very long time to become young”. — Picasso You may wonder why I, an opera singer, would quote the painter Picasso. A child will grow and his knowledge […]
The Healing Power of Stones
Since I first began Fifth Element Beads, my aesthetic goal has been to design jewelry made from my hand made clay beads and accented with simple beautiful stones. At first I selected stones based on their visual appeal. But, soon I found out that customers were more interested in metaphysical properties of stones. One friend, […]
WOT Colleagues Publish First Volume of Creative Writing Series on Amazon.com
What does it mean to “Live the Writer’s Life”? To find out, ten strangers formed a writing cohort, came up with an audacious plan to write and publish and book together, and created “Where the Words Await…Walking the Writer’s Path”. In this first-ever collection of writings by colleagues from TGI’s Writing and Oral Traditions Program, […]
Respecting The Comma
While this author’s colleagues discussed the intricacies of the editing process during a weekend session of the Writing and the Oral Traditions cohort, he attended his youngest daughter’s high school graduation. Of course, any parent worth the title would make himself available for this momentous event. But this student would like to examine the event […]
The Invention of Grandparents: Exploring the Origins of Multi-Generational Storytelling
Igniting the Imagination It began with fire. Our distant human-like ancestors mastered the primal technology of fire-making more than a million years ago. Even when we were a nomadic people on the African plains, fire gave us a gathering place against the dark of night. Fire gave us a sense of comfort and safety. The […]
Family Memories: WOOLRICH, PA
My mother used to visit my husband and me in Connecticut for a few weeks in the summer. She was in her early eighties then and, except for some hearing loss and eyesight issues, in remarkably good health. One July I asked my friend Sue to drive out with me to Ohio to pick her […]
Reaping the Whirlwind, Unmasking the Writer
Sentence by Sentence When Our Editing and Writing Instructor Jane Lincoln Taylor handed out a single sheet of white-lined paper and a colored pencil on Saturday morning, I wasn’t prepared for the whirlwind that occurred. I was immediately reminded of the story Dovie Thomason shared at the Connecticut Storytelling Festival 2018. After the weekend with […]
Is Depression All in Your Head?
Is depression all in your head? The new holistic theory of neuroplasticity and neuroinflammation and mood disorders. By Dr. Artemis MorrisIn the 1950s the monoamine (amine) hypothesis of depression and the subsequent dawn of antidepressant medications that work by affecting neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, changed the way depression was being treated. The […]
Whom Do You Love? Navigating the Rough Seas of “Correct” Language
Enjoying Grammar Earlier in the Writing and Oral Traditions Program, we participated in a weekend session involving the importance of play in the classroom. This latest weekend’s editing session got me thinking: Can grammar be enjoyable? Even that very question is enough to make an average teacher recoil. Lucky for you, however, I am not […]
The Dance of Discovering Deep Self
Though everyone has a personality, its source is seldom a point that receives focused individual research. From what ground does personality arise, and how does it evolve? One school of thought proposes that the root of our personality lies in our genetic code, while another argues for personality is an evolutionary product of our ongoing […]
How Systems Thinking is Killing Your Creativity: An Organization is not a System!
(This article first appeared in Medium.com) The new open participatory organization (OPO) paradigm entails a move from thinking in terms of systems that can be “known” or “designed” or “intervened upon” by a person or persons who occupy a privileged position outside that system, to thinking in terms of complex responsive processes of human interaction. […]
What Needs to Emerge: How to Speak Across Paradigms
Daniel Thorson, founder of the EMERGE podcast (www.emerge.is), interviews Bonnitta Roy, MA, Program Coordinator of the Consciousness Studies and Transpersonal Psychology program. In this wide ranging interview, Bonnitta provides her view of the Sam Harris and Ezra Klein debate-podcast on VOX, which was the culmination of a year-long public feud. Ezra Klein and Sam Harris […]
Writing is Hell
I wandered around the unfamiliar community center searching for a group that looked like they would fit the description of a children's writing group. As I walked into a room on the second floor, a woman slammed down a notebook in exasperation and exclaimed that she must be nuts to want to be a writer […]
The Dangers of Glyphosate
Soil, Plant and Human Effects on Glyphosate Dr. Stephanie Seneff, Professor at M.IT. Institute of Sustainable Nutrition March 24th Granby Community Television By Debbie Lavigne, Current Student, Integrative Health & Healing M.A. Program, at The Graduate Institute Dr. Stephanie Seneff, Senior Research Scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), presented at the Institute of […]
A Road Warrior Asks: Is Spoken Word the New Publishing Medium?
Listen to this: Since I live in Pennsylvania and teach at TGI’s campus in Connecticut, I am, by definition, a Road Warrior. Crazy as it may sound, I have been commuting to this gig for more than 17 years. Let the record show that I have made the 300-mile round-trip journey approximately 250 times. That’s […]
A Dolphin Tale
The Little Dolphin That Could Our recent cohort session on humor in storytelling reminded me of this moment in time: It was the year of 1995, and all was not well. Andy and I had been married for approximately eight months, and we were still finding our way through life. We got together, both in […]
Positive Psychology, Emotional Wellbeing and Happiness
Much of human psychology focuses on how to improve the lives of those with mental disorders. But the relatively new field of Positive Psychology studies the psychological characteristics and practices that allow peoples’ lives to flourish. Finding its roots in Maslow’s work on self-actualization, the field itself has flourished as research into life satisfaction, wellness […]
Story Creation begins with asking the Right Questions
Last weekend’s session with the Writing and Oral Traditions cohort was like being at a retreat. The Annual Connecticut Storytelling Festival and Conference at Connecticut College in New London was filled with music, laughter and most of all, good stories. My favorite presenter was nationally-known storyteller Donald Davis. He was mesmerizing and funny from his […]
A New Creation Story
Following the Institute-Wide Weekend and the immersion into the Universe’s story as well as the ways, beliefs and stories of indigenous people, I researched creation stories. Since my mentorship involves weaving, I researched several creation weaving stories from the Greek to the Hopi and Navajo. I then spun my own tale: In the time […]
A Healthy Life and a Healthy Body
Studies reveal that women diagnosed with the same cancers as men live longer and that married men live longer than single men with the same cancers; smoke as much and have fewer cases of lung cancer than single men. It is not female hormones, or sleeping with them, that is protecting these men and women. […]
The Secret for Living Disease and Stress Free
In today’s society, it is normal for older citizens to shows signs of multiple chronic diseases and a lower standard of living due to health problems as their life progresses. In America, statistics say that most of us will develop hypertension, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, cancer, depression, anxiety and chronic pain by mid-life age. […]
Heroine
decorated with shards of past narratives smashed, i assume a stance of recognition. nested within heartwood rings that bring a clarity of union, i stand braced in a space between then and the possible. where piano wire dizzying, sine wave resounding tear-stained, paint-streaked scars are epaulettes of the rising. releasing my hands, from the helve […]
If Heaven is a Place Where ABC
“God who knows all things, I have no prayer book and I do not know any prayers by heart. But you know all the prayers. You are God. So this is what I am going to do. I am going to say the alphabet, and I will let you put the words together.” -Neil Gaiman […]
Finding the Courage to Grow
“Wholeness for humans depends on their ability to own their own shadow.” ~ Carl Jung I have always been serious minded and practical. People who know me might say I’m conservative, conventional or downright square. Growing up in Catholic school, studying science in college, and working a corporate job prepared me for a stable course, […]
A Good Story Always Encodes an Archetype
The Heroine's Journey A few years back I attended a workshop by Maureen Murdock on the Heroine’s Journey. (She has a book with the same name.) This is her take: Shift from Feminine to Masculine The Road of Trials The Illusion of Success The Descent Meeting with The Goddess Reconciliation with The Feminine Reincorporation of […]
What is Sound Healing?
DR. ZACCIAH BLACKBURN, Ph.D., director of The Center of Light Institute of Sound Healing and Shamanic Studies, located in Ascutney, VT, and faculty member at The Graduate Institute Cultures the world over use sound to attune to, invoke and transform consciousness. It is a powerful tool as it is naturally vibrational and we are vibrational […]
Calming Our Children & Teachers In CT
BY: Dr. James Trifone, Academic Director for The Graduate Institute’s Master of Arts in Learning and Thinking Degree Program Educators and parents alike are taking notice of the stress that surrounds our children on a daily basis. The stressors and demands of modern American society leaves students at a disadvantage that can only be remedied by […]
We Need a New Story [about the starting point for education]
Reading my friend and colleague Jim Trifone's wonderful post yesterday, I was reminded of a video I did in 2013 for one of my classes with the same general title as his article but examining a different aspect of the ways in which our collective Story needs to evolve. I hope you enjoy it even […]
What the World Needs Now Is A New Story Based On An Integral Ecology James D. Trifone Ph.D.
I recently attended week-long conference at the Ghost Ranch in Albquiú, New Mexico. The conference was entitled "Earth Honoring Faith: Journey of the Universe” and featured a cadre of eminent religious and scientific scholars. Two of the presenters Mary Evelyn Tucker and her husband John Grim are visiting faculty with The Graduate Institute. Tucker is […]
Reflections on a Silent Meditation Retreat
I just returned from a seven-day silent meditation retreat, led by Rabbi David and Shoshana Cooper. The retreat, while conducted in a Jewish context, draws substantially Buddhist approaches to awakening and meditative practices. The retreat was bittersweet since this was to be the Coopers’ last, due to an illness that would no longer allow David […]
A New Culture of Learning & Thinking for Success in the 21st Century
The curricular needs of today's millennial generation are no longer anything remotely resembling that of their parents, let alone grandparents. Rather, the schools of today and tomorrow need to embrace a new "culture of learning and thinking" whereby classrooms become mindscapes for engaging and drawing upon the inherent creative and intellectual capacities of all learners. […]
