GatherWell

Shared Passions: Meg

admin — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:30:40 +0000

I met meg on a BART train. We laughed when we realized, as we each took out square name badges, that we were headed to the same technology conference. As we began to talk I learned she was just out of college facing the “world of work” and trying to find her place in it. She shown with a kind of optimism as she told me about her major – Human Development – and her questions about whether to pursue a career in non-profit management or as a teacher. She asked me a lot of questions about my career, how I have gotten to my current work and why. In a flash, I remembered being in that place wondering where to put my energy as I stepped out of college. I still ask myself every day: where is the most exceptional place I can put my energy?

Now I have the benefit of reflecting on the additional choices and experiences I’ve had so far, and her fresh inquiry reminded me just how important it is to ask: What is my place in the world? What is exceptional, uniquely fitting to me that I could contribute today? This brief encounter gelled with years of work helping organizations and individuals to succeed. Over and over again in research and in practice, the impact of connecting to a supportive person – especially one who has walked a path driven by similar values and passions to one’s own – has been shown. Meg and I reached our conference and ended up at a table conversation with about ten others.

I had to leave the session early, but handed her my card as I left. She hasn’t called, and if I put myself in her shoes I can understand why. She may have wondered what premise to call under, how to relate, what would make the connection grow authentically. As I walked away from the table, doubting that I would hear from her, a feeling sank in – a feeling of a missing, and crucial piece. For those who wish to change the world and who know they have a lot to offer but are at the beginning of exploring how to offer it, where do they turn? How do they find and develop deep authentic relationships with those who share their passions, their sense of inquiry and learn from their experience?

Sometimes these connections happen organically in the context of a school, work or volunteer environment. What if there was a more structured approach? One that respected and grew the human tradition of mentorship while taking advantage of technology to connect people who care from anywhere in the world? Matched mentors and mentees by their passions and supported the development of their relationship while making the connection flexible to meet the conditions of modern life?

So today, GatherWell begins a pilot of the Shared Passions Project, with an audaicious goal to connect every person who has a passion for changing the world to someone who can help guide the way and provide support in answering the question: What is my place in creating a better world?

4 Steps to Build Exposure for Social Enterprises & Non-Profits

admin — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:46:56 +0000

Want to get people talking about your work?

I have recently begun microvolunteering at Sparked, a great concept that describes itself as “”Easy, social, online volunteering for busy people.” After I wrote my response to a recent question on the site, I realized these 4 steps could be useful for others in the non-profit and/or social enterprise world looking to build exposure.

The need to build relationship is very present for those you communicate with via social media, if anything in my experience relationships built this way can take even longer to be truly trusting and lead to people collaborating or helping each other. If you keep at it though, it’s a great way to make connections
Using some of the great resource directories out there (eg idealist), and also some great sources like the Foundation Center (for finding funders) I would recommend taking the following steps:

1. Doing a search for those who would have overlapping interests but not be aware of the challenges faced by your particular target population/region. Conversely, (though they are more likely to be aware) there are those foundations and orgs focused on your target population/region that may need to know more about what you are doing. This works for media outlets too – do a search for relevant topics on google news and look for who is covering the overlapping issues

2. Pick the top 5 or 10 (whatever you have time to do) that you think have the most overlap with the least chance of already knowing about your work. Go to their website and do a bit of general background research on their work. Locate if possible the name, title and e-mail address of a specific person who is in a position that you think would be genuinely interested in your work

3. Contact them highlighting the overlapping areas and expressing your interest in getting to know more about their work and sharing more of what you are doing . For media folks I would suggest contacting with a particular story (as one person recommended). Make a specific request to meet (via phone, skype or in person) and talk more.

4. Follow up quickly and with appropriate additional info. when someone responds, and repeat from step 1

Good luck!

Well-being Sites, Blogs and Books

admin — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:59:33 +0000

Recently, a number of people have asked me about what resources have been most useful thus far in developing the vision of community supported well-being. The post below is a simple listing of some of the materials that have helped inspire the vision thus far. Hope they are helpful!

Websites & Blogs

Fourth Sector Over the past few decades, the boundaries between the public (government), private (business), and social (non-profit/ non-governmental) sectors have been blurring, while a Fourth Sector of organization has been emerging

New Economics Foundation’s Well-Being Programme nef’s award-winning Centre for Well-being researches policies, measurement tools and every day actions that help us increase well-being.

Nudge Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness

Positive Psychology Center Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The Positive Psychology Center promotes research, training, education, and the dissemination of Positive Psychology. This field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.

Society for Organizational Learning: Our purpose is to discover (research), integrate (capacity development) and implement (practice) theories and practices of organizational learning for the interdependent development of people and their institutions and communities such that we continue to increase our capacity to collectively realize our highest aspirations and productively resolve our differences. With this intention, organizations are truly worthy of the commitment of their employees and communities.

Books & Papers

Authentic Happiness Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment By Martin Seligman

Collective Impact

Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations.

Wellbeing The Five Essential Elements By Tom Rath; Jim Harter

Gross National Happiness Why Happiness Matters for America–and How We Can Get More of It By Arthur C. Brooks

Nudge Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness By Richard H. Thaler; Cass R. Sunstein

The Little Book of Circle Processes By Kay Pranis; Kay Franis

Hardwired to Connect
The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Martin Seligman

Well-being: A vision for the new economy

admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 01:28:50 +0000

A recent article in YES! Magazine (The Old Economy’s Not Coming Back. So What’s Next?) lays out with great clarity the argument for why there is no better time then now to usher in the new economy, the idea “that the entire economic system must be radically restructured if critical social and environmental goals are to be met”. Of course, there are looming questions, the answers to which have many diverse voices, including: What are those goals? Which are most important? What would a new system that met those goals look like?

In what will hopefully be a vibrant and ongoing dialogue as the new economy emerges, the image of the well and the aim of well-being has the potential to unify. As we think of creating societies and ecosystems with the capacity to endure the image of the well holds a special place at the intersection of natural resources and human needs.

Traditionally a place of nourishment, the well is a community gathering place, the source of satisfying a most fundamental need, connecting with natural resources and cleansing ourselves.

In the traditional Norse tale of Mimir’s Well, the magical well, the God Odin had to sacrifice something very dear to him – one of his eyes – in order to gain the gift of wisdom from the mystical waters. As we seek new forms and structures to meet the crisis of imbalance that is in our midst, what is that each of us will need to sacrifice in order to be a part of creating more balanced conditions?

One candidate is the traditional American idea of “Success” which has largely been measured on personal wealth as quantified by the amount of money in one’s bank accounts, the size of one’s house, and the sheer number of various other material possessions. These material possessions have often been perceived as closely linked with happiness. In choosing the terms to define the new economy well-being, with its connotations of deep satisfaction, has the potential to go beyond the measurement of happiness as we try to gauge progress toward a thriving world. There already exists a sizable body of work on the measurement of well-being, including the already active U.S. Well-Being Index, which puts out a daily assessment of the percentage of Americans that are thriving, struggling and suffering.

The current measures of well-being and the image of the well have the potential to unify the movement for a new economy and crystalize the message – we need a society where people thrive toward deep well-being in ways that support flourishing ecosystems.

GatherWell releases FoodJoy, new tool to increase well-being through your relationship to food

admin — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:56:32 +0000

May 19, 2011

Positive Psychology in Action:

Worldwide over 1.5 billion adults – more then 1 in 5 – and 43 million children are obese. Our relationship to food needs to change for the better. FoodJoy supports this change by helping people to see for themselves what it is that increases their well-being and encouraging them to do more of those things. FoodJoy, the personal experiment in your relationship with food, has just been released by GatherWell, to make it available to as many as possible.

“Food is our source of energy,” said GatherWell Founder Cynthia Rothschild, “and we need to help each other make this most basic relationship a positive one. FoodJoy guides people in validating their own experiences with food and reinforcing what makes them feel truly well.”

FoodJoy is the first in the JoyPages Series. JoyPages are personal experiments in Well-Being that you can try alone, with friends, or in the context of a class or group. JoyPages are inspired & informed by the fields of Positive Psychology and Behavioral Economics, and designed to be fun!

Tweet #foodjoy

About GatherWell

GatherWell’s mission is Community Supported Well-Being. GatherWell helps enable individuals and communities to thrive by offering tools and support to build well-being and explore what it means to be well. Learn more at http://www.gatherwell.com

Is your stress healthy?

admin — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:33:53 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about stress – where it really comes from, what its consequences are, and how we can have less of it. Not only does stress make us feel out of sorts, new research just published in Nature shows that childhood stress can actually affect our DNA, and may lead to increased health problems later in life.

Stress is very real – coming from the latin strictus, or “compressed,” a stressed state is one under which we feel pressure, a kind of shortening. At times that pressure can help us to stretch our limits in healthy and productive ways. So how do we know the difference between stress that is placing creative pressure on us and stress that is destructive pressure?

Healthy Stress Self-Test:

Is the pressure coming from adjustment to a welcome changes that you chose – leaving a bad relationship, taking on a new job – or is the change unwelcome and coming from the outside? Adapting to changed circumstances takes effort – if changes are outside of your control try to find a small aspect of your life where you are in control and celebrate it.
Do you feel elated – a kind of awe at the possibilities of a new opportunity – or deflated, like there is just no way you will meet the standards you or others are setting? If it’s the latter, don’t give up your aspirations – do try to break down achieving your aims into the smallest possible steps and make sure you are being reasonable about how long they will take to achieve
What’s your physical environment like when you feel stressed? We often underestimate the influence of where we are on our bodies and sense of stress. A cluttered space without natural light and with loud music is likely to make whatever you are dealing with much harder to face compared to going for a long and pondering walk. Remember that the “stress response” is ultimately a physical response, and your body responds to better conditions with more relaxation.

What is technology’s impact on our well-being?

admin — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:57:06 +0000

USA Today reported this morning that Stress-busting drinks are a sensation and a growing market. While it may be true that as Peter Bianchi, CEO of Drank maker Innovative Beverage, says, “It’s a positive alternative to reaching for a bottle of pills or a six-pack of beer.” I have to wonder if products like these don’t play into the old line that we can buy ourselves a more relaxed, healthier and satisfied life. What is it that is keeping us from those aims in the first place? Of course, we all need to provide for the basics and in today’s economy that is no small task. But assuming we can’t change our material circumstances right at this moment, what can we change?

Organizations like Healthy Media Choices, Sabbath Manifesto and the Slow Movement all ask us to examine our own and our families connection to technology and media. What kinds of tech tools actually do help to lower the stress or make us truly more satisfied with life? Conversely, to what degree is technology and media contributing to your sense of stress and personal anxiety?

FoodJoy!

admin — Mon, 16 May 2011 08:03:50 +0000

FoodJoy is your personal experiment in creating more well-being through your relationship to food. FoodJoy is part of the JoyPages Series. JoyPages are personal experiments in Well-Being that you can try alone, with friends, or in the context of a class or group. The experiments help you to see for yourself what it is that increases your well-being and encourage you and those you experiment with to do more of those things.

Measuring Happiness

admin — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 07:58:51 +0000

Happiness measures are wonderful. For the first time they are providing our data-driven world with a way to quantify what many of us feel intuitively – that GDP and other economic measures are a far cry from painting the overall picture of how we feel about our lives. So it’s great that the idea and use of happiness measures is spreading – we really need these kinds of measures to help make visible the most important things in life.

At the same time, we also desperately need to focus on how we can improve our happiness on a day to day basis and giving people as many ideas and tools as possible, so we not only measure happiness we also build it. That’s something that I really appreciate Yes magazine’s focus on and something we are also working on at GatherWell.

http://www.odemagazine.com/exchange/#post

The ABCD’s of Picking What Things to Bring Into Your Life

admin — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:41:22 +0000

Much has been written about the environmental impact of all of the “stuff” we consume. This recent manifesto is a great example, offering that we should demand a minimum set of environmental standards and that would drive the ability to “design our way out of environmental trouble”.

In addition to the external waste and impact of stuff, there is an internal aspect. Each new item that we take into our life calls for us to maintain it, to care for it – and that takes our internal energy. It can redirect that energy and time towards material things and away from creating more meaning in our lives through investing in our relationships, health and interests.

The ABCDs below are a guide to help you decide what “stuff” you really need in your life. An added bonus is that these questions will often lead you to solutions that are more environmentally friendly too.

Authenticity: Does it serve an authentic purpose for me in my life right now? Will bringing this item into my life support where I am trying to go? Truly create more health, simplicity or connection in my life?
Beauty: Is it truly beautiful to me? Does it represent design and craftsmanship that supports the feeling I want in my life? Even every day items like vacuum cleaners or pens have an aesthetic quality that subtly influences you when you use them.
Care: What care will it take? Is it something I can use up or will it be around needing maintenance for some time?
Different Options: What other alternatives could work just as well for my purpose and maybe have other benefits (eg borrowing from a friend costs less, taking a tool out of a tool library may give you access to a better tool for the job and connect you to your community, giving your mother a day together at the beach instead of a new scarf creates a meaningful memory)

Resources

The Freecycle Network: grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns.

Tool Libraries: allow library patrons to borrow tools, equipment and “how-to” instructional materials, usually free of charge

Hours Exchanges: Local Currencies allowing for trading time and services

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