Individual Transformation

Explore our archive of articles on Individual Transformation.

Composting Grief | Co-healing with the Earth

Journal Article

The concept of “composting grief’’ resonates as a way of transforming energy into a renewed sense of purpose and growth. I think of this as transmutation or snake medicine: sound, meditation, selfless service, praying, nature, movement. I propose that we explore the concept of a symbiotic relationship between human grief and its impact on the underground microbial life—the microbiome

Nature’s Guide to Ending Our Diet Wars

Journal Article

Can we agree to re-integrating plants and animals as they were evolved to live together? We can do this by promoting integrated organic farms, as well as by regreening desertified land. The clear energy efficiency of doing so will actually mitigate climate change much better than simply going vegan—and going vegan will still be just as available an option, side by side with other diets.

Vessels

Journal Article

We can practice 'unlearning' grasping and clinging by using the beauty of 'Colors In Motion' to entrain our minds and our nervous systems to accept flow. Flow is a healthy approach to the rapid changes humans are experiencing, and can expand our capacity to be present in every precious moment.

Purposeful Memoir as a Path to Alignment

Journal Article

Most people think of memoir as a recounting of what we already know about our lives. But, in fact, what we already know is only the beginning of the journey of what I call purposeful memoir.

The Habits of Schooling

Journal Article

...One part of me was urging the other part of me to get up, go to the professor, and seek clarity. The more fearful side of myself was anxious about being judged a fraud for being accepted to grad school at all; apprehensive of being yelled at or belittled.

Confessions of a Recovering Catholic

Journal Article

Mother’s Day 1972: It was my First Communion and, like all good Catholic girls, I was decked out in my white dress and veil, hands folded in prayer, and head bowed as a sign of my unworthiness. I stepped forward to receive my first taste of the consecrated host, and I was forever changed.

Wealth and Abundance

Journal Article

...I imagine a world in which relationships are seen as wealth; in which education, parenting, art making, bio-conscious farming, and reverence toward the world around us, toward all species, people, and the natural world are most prized in our economic and value systems.

Resilience

Journal Article

...The car is now standing still. I smell the disaster before I see it. A smell of fuel and burnt steel. Where are the kids? Not in the car. I look for them on the highway. I find their bodies. I take care of them until ambulances arrive. While running from one child to another, I discover strength in me.

The Connection

Journal Article

She follows my footsteps in the luxurious boutique.  I turn and face her unexpectedly.  Her porcelain pink skin blushes, shows she’s uncomfortable with people of color. Her fingers interlace tightly in front of her silk white blouse under a black cardigan, her weight shifts from leg to leg in a chic A-line black skirt.  She fumbles the words, “Let me know, if you need any help.”

Forgive: The new practice and mantra for Black Men

Journal Article

At the fragile age of 12, Ulysses Slaughter listened as his mother Clarice was shot to death by his father Ulysses Grant Slaughter Sr. Emerging from his bedroom, he watched as life flowed out of his mother. Stepping over her body that day was the first act in his amazing odyssey toward forgiveness.