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Dear Braided Wisdom Community,
As 2021 draws to a close and we wrap up this meaningful year, we want to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation to all of you for being an integral part of the Braided Wisdom community and vision. We sat in circle together to heal, to learn, to grow, and to lead. We thank you for all the beautiful ways you have shown up and engaged in the fullness of life, with all its joys and sorrows. This is only the beginning of our journey together. We look forward to seeing you in the new year and until then, wish you great ease, peace, and love.
with deepest gratitude and appreciation,
The Braided Wisdom Team
Message from our Development & Community Engagement Director, Danielle Duong
Greetings, beautiful community!
My name is Danielle Duong and I’m serving as Braided Wisdom’s new Development & Community Engagement Director. I joined this illustrious team of humans at a very exciting time. As we speak, our committed teaching team is wrapping up our first full year of teaching, training, and holding sacred space. We are feeling the ripple effects of change and healing from our students and community members across the programs. Beyond the organization, we are witnessing a shifting landscape in nonprofit work and philanthropy. Can philanthropy organizations and nonprofits join hands to help build a world where BIPOC leaders can fully access what they need to reach their visions for collective liberation, justice, and wellbeing? We here at Braided Wisdom are profoundly committed to co-creating this world by working internally as well as with our community to heal oppressive economic paradigms and conditions around wealth and money, reclaim cultural integrity, and understand land and resources. Using this restorative lens, I will be working with our team to explore nontraditional development approaches to spearhead our fundraising strategy and build existing and new partnerships in the community. Together, we'll be working to mobilize resources, build enduring assets within the community, and lean into the social and political power of our reciprocity-centered ecosystem. I am eager to connect with many of you to hear your ideas and suggestions for Braided Wisdom! For more information on my background, please click here.
Leadership Trainees Corner
We’re bringing the voices of our leadership trainees to share how they’re bravely and creatively applying class learnings, mindfulness tools, contemplative practices, and approaches to ritual in the world. To learn more about our inspiring trainees, please view their bios here.
Mindfulness in College Athletics
Janet Roos is taking her expertise and talent as an elite athlete and mindfulness instructor to the virtual basketball courts at Bryant University (BU) of Smithefield, Rhode Island. Janet facilitated a month-long introduction to mindfulness program with BU’s women’s basketball team. Seventeen young athletes joined Janet weekly to learn the benefits of mindfulness along with tools and practices that they put to practice immediately. This effort was a collaborative journey - Janet was joined by trainees Noble Sullivan and Danielle Duong to develop the program curriculum. The group brought diverse insights and experiences to prepare a curriculum that was timely, relevant, fluid, and interesting for these young players. The program revealed a stark reality our young people are facing with extraordinary levels of college stress, pressures, and anxiety, without much support to navigate these challenges. Not to mention for athletes, they’re faced with extreme self-judgment and criticism of their own performance and success. Fortunately, by the end of the month, the team was equipped with practical mindfulness techniques that they began using to mitigate stress before games and class exams. Many expressed feeling more peaceful and at ease. Janet witnessed an encouraging shift by the end of the program - these bright young people seemed to have a deeper understanding of how they could help care for themselves using these practices. Looking forward, there may be more exciting opportunities to continue spreading mindfulness to our young collegiate athletes everywhere.
Asian Heart Mind Body Collective Podcast
Adele Ray and Danielle Duong met for the first time during our leadership program at the beginning of 2021. Immediately, the two connected on their shared Vietnamese lineage and a mutual understanding of the intergenerational traumas and patterns experienced in their families. After a few fun and juicy phone conversations about life and family, they discovered a shared dream - to start a podcast! At the time, the upheaval of violence on Asians became broadly visible in American media and given the urgency of the issue and the synergies of their shared stories and need for deeper healing, they decided to give birth to a digital baby: The Asian Heart Mind Body Collective Podcast. Adele is a mediamaker and Danielle is an integral coach. As a curious duo, they explore the personal and collective journey of healing by providing a space for seekers everywhere to engage with hearty spiritual discussions and learn mindfulness practices for self-care and wellbeing. The podcast features guests from various backgrounds who share their intimate life stories and guide listeners through a sacred ritual or meditation. In Episode 4, Carol discusses grief, forgiveness, and reconciliation and offers a powerful meditative visualization, The Four Rivers of Intelligence. This podcast would not have been possible without Braided Wisdom's effort to connect those on the path to other like minded and hearted individuals seeking freedom. Please learn more about the podcast here!
Upcoming Events
Braided Wisdom: NEW PROGRAM
Restorative Economy 4-Part Series: Part 1
Braided Wisdom is committed to enhancing the lives of individuals ready to rise from the current policies that are destroying so much of our world. Our organization is determined to explore sustainable opportunities by reinvigorating old paradigms of restorative analysis in our communities in place of the current market analysis. This approach, which begins with essential self-discovery, can lead to a reclamation of cultural integrity and a deeper understanding of land and natural resources as they impact social welfare and development. This is especially concerning at a time where climate crisis is no longer avoidable and survival is threatened.
First session begins in the Fall, November 21,2021.
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