The Power of Compassionate Conversation

Imagine you are working at your dream job. You love your internship because you have the opportunity to give back to your community, but you have a boss who talks over you or says that he disagrees with all the ideas you pose. It feels hurtful because you feel that doesn’t validate your opinions. At the same time, you try to achieve a deeper understanding as to why your boss in talking to you in this manner. Perhaps he doesn’t have prior leadership experience or maybe something bad is going on at home. Instead of getting frustrated at him, you try to achieve a deeper understanding of his communication with you. By trying to gain sympathy towards your boss, you are able to approach the situation with more compassion. That is what we call the power of compassionate conversation.

(The Federalist)

“I” Statements:

(pi.tedcdn.com)

Compassion means a “feeling of deep sympathy.” Incorporating the idea of sympathy towards another in communication allows your communication to blossom into productive conversation. Instead of complaining to all your coworkers, your friends, and your mom about how your boss has been communicating with you, you can confront him through a private meeting. By using skills such as “I” Statements about how his communication with you has been hurtful, providing him with an action plan on how to better conversation, and giving him space to speak, you have the potential to produce a better work environment.

Mindfulness Meditation:

(www.yogajournal.com)

According to David Desteno’s (2015) article, “The Kindness Cure,” mindfulness meditation is a great way to achieve compassion. People can do meditation for as little as five minutes or even an hour and spend time healing their brains and souls. Sometimes if we immediately confront someone when we are upset, we might communicate with anger instead of productive thoughts. With that said, it is vital we take time to process our thoughts and try to understand our peers.

Take a Risk:

(ipravda.sk)

Marriage and Family Therapist, Marty Babits (Psychology Today), suggests that there are five steps of healthy vulnerability that lead to compassionate conversation. By taking time to understand your peer’s underlying feelings and perhaps ask your peer, “what else is on your mind that can be bothering you,” can make your conversation better.

Compassionate conversation is also vital to use when we are talking with our peers and educators about hot topics: politics, religion, and other topics that are new and exciting in the media. Learning to look at a discussion with someone in a productive positive lens can heal friendships instead of break them.

Whether we are talking with our boss, coworkers, friends, family or significant other, it is vital that we take a moment to step back and look at the situation with a bird’s eye view.

Self-Care and Nature

Self-care is recognizing when you need to pay attention to the needs of your mind, body and soul. The ability to pause for a moment and tell yourself that you need to take a break, is one of the best steps you can take towards better health. As a full-time student at the University of California in Santa Cruz and balancing three jobs, I learned how valuable it is to take breaks. Life can be stressful! When I get overwhelmed, I spend a lot of time exploring where I can venture in nature. After four years of living in Santa Cruz, I have compiled a list of great FREE suggestions I dare you to take towards yourself.

Hike!

Santa Cruz has some of the most amazing hiking trails. As the geographic region of Santa Cruz consists of beautiful redwood forests and beaches, there is no reason why you shouldn’t take advantage of taking a step outside. Here are a few hikes I would suggest to you:

Hike Pogonip!

By: Santacruz.org (Pogonip)

The trail is a total of 11.5 miles, but there are shorter trails you can take throughout it on bike or foot. Every time I hike this trail, I feel like I am going on a safari adventure as I make my way through the forest to the Garden of Eden. Heads up, I would highly suggest not bringing your dogs or alcohol  to the Garden of Eden because park rangers will make you leave,

http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/government/city-departments/parks-recreation/parks-beaches-open-spaces/open-spaces/pogonip

Walk to Wilder Ranch State Park.

By: Jennifer Fineman (Wilder Ranch)

At some point, the park was a dairy ranch overlooking the ocean. Many of the ranch buildings have been restored for use as a museum. The park charges for parking, but you can always park alongside Highway 1 and walk up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilder_Ranch_State_Park

Go to Lighthouse Point Park.

By: MobileRanger (Lighthouse Point)

Lighthouse point park is located on Westcliff. It is located near dog beach so it would be a perfect time to bring your fluffy friends out for a stroll.

Natural Bridges State Beach is beautiful!

By: Jennifer Fineman (Natural Bridges)

The park is known for featuring natural bridges, as the rocks have been eroded in to form bridges you can walk under. But be safe when the tide is high.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Bridges_State_Beach

Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

By: StaticFlickr (Henry Cowell Redwoods)

Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is alongside the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County, which includes many redwoods alongside it. To access the park, it is in between the cities of Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley off Highway 17.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cowell_Redwoods_State_Park

Yoga:

Static-Pexels (Yoga)

Santa Cruz also offers a ton of free yoga opportunities. I have compiled a list as follows:

Laughter Yoga Santa Cruz: 

The first session is free at The Tannery.

DiviniTree 

DiviniTree sometimes offers free yoga week so keep an eye out for their flyers.

Time to volunteer.

Volunteer work in nature is also stress relieving and rewarding because you are giving back to the local community.

You can get involved with the Homeless Garden Project.

By: Huffington Post (Santa Cruz Homeless Garden Project)

Every quarter, I try to make my way down to the Homeless Garden, located off of Natural Bridges. If you just show up, the homeless garden staffers would be more than happy to help you get started.

You can also help out with the gardens on campus.

By: http://www.alan-chadwick.org/ (Alan Chadwick Garden)

Did you know that each of the 10 colleges have a garden on campus? You can contact your college and find out when gardening days are.

Furthermore, make time for yourself and take a step in nature. I can promise you, it will be worth it.

Winona LaDuke, an American environmental activist, economist, executive director of Honor the Earth and writer, known for her writing about tribal land claims and preservation, gave a thought provoking speech about Grassroots Strategies to Mitigate Global Climate Change and how we should proceed at the University of California Santa Cruz in Kresge College Town Hall on January 25th, 2018. We were fortunate to have Dr Rebecca Rosser, Director of the American Indian Resource Center at UC Santa Cruz, introduce the event. Dr. Rosser’s current work focuses on raising awareness about the experiences of Native American students in the university setting, with particular attention to the stereotypical expectations surrounding Native identity. 

Winona LaDuke began by addressing the Dakota Access Pipeline and how it negatively affects native lands. LaDuke lives on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, which is located on the Gaawaawiye Gamaag, The Round Lake.  She spoke about being a water protector. To introduce the topic of how we can protect the environment, she pulled up an acrylic art piece and described how “we are all on the same boat.” When it comes to protecting our waters,“it is quite possible that the solutions to the problems that were created are not part of the same paradigm that created them.” The community must come together if we want to rid of the Dakota Access Pipeline and save our waters from being contaminated from harmful toxins.

“Regenerative Economies [are a means] in which we will make America great again,” said LaDuke to an audience of over 250. 

Unique varieties of corn (such as purple, yellow and red varieties) and rice are a way in which native communities have been able to flourish within their community.  Besides the fact that native women get to play an intricate role in contributing to crop development (farming crops and cooking), Native American populations are tied to the lands they reside on.

LaDuke spoke about the importance of having biodiversity of cattle, crops and humans because biodiversity is what makes our earth unique. If we strip land from the plants and animals to flourish and implement pipelines for selfish human desires, we will destroy our environment.

“I’ve spent five years fighting pipelines,” said LaDuke.  

She protested to stop the Sandpiper Pipeline and won against Enbridge Pipeline Inc. on August 2nd, 2016. Although the cancellation of this pipeline was a victory, Enbridge immediately announced how they purchased 38% of the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Winona LaDuke is well known for her political advocacy work with Standing Rock when she fought against the Dakota Access Pipeline. She spoke about how the militarized police force under the Obama Administration attended the Standing Rock protests and carried mine resistant armored personnel carriers (MRAP), which are capable of driving through buildings.

“Fracking is the bottom of the barrel.”

“You might as well bust up the bottom of the barrel when you have nothing else better to do,” said LaDuke. She described that instead of justifying oil companies, we should worry about women being sex trafficked and the Neo-Nazis purchasing land in North Dakota.

LaDuke explained  how important it is for people to become part of the divestment movement; people throughout the University of California should be part of the divestment movement or the Fossil Free UC Movement.

Furthermore, LaDuke’s speech encouraged members of the Santa Cruz community to seek activist opportunities and create a discussion on how they can implement change in the community they call home.

All day on January 26th, 2018, Common Ground hosted the Next Economy World Cafe to reflect on Winona LaDuke’s speech. Students discussed concepts such as how the Current model of economy is based on exploitation and extraction.

Common Ground regularly hosts guest speakers. If you are interested in learning more about the guest speakers Common Ground will host, follow us on Facebook.

Helena Norberg-Hodge and the Economics of Happiness at UC Santa Cruz

The Right Livelihood Award (RLA), also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” is used to award the tremendous work of people striving to better the world. Since UC Santa Cruz Kresge College is a Right Livelihood College (RLC), a direct link between academics and the work of laureates, UC Santa Cruz was fortunate enough to have scholar Helena Norberg-Hodge come speak.
Helena Norberg-Hodge, an activist, director, writer and a honorable Laureate of the Right Livelihood Award, gave a thought provoking speech on ecological well-being and the limitations in our economic system at the University of California Santa Cruz on the evening of Monday, November 6th, 2017.

“The dominant system of economic globalization is limited,” spoke Helena to a crowd of 65 students, faculty and members of the local community at the Kresge Seminar Room.
During Helena's lecture, "The Economics of Happiness," she explained how the system pushes citizens to reach standards of societal success through economic values rather than their own standards of individualized success. The standards overstrain individuals rather than challenge them.

Helena encouraged her audience to consider the corrupt system of economic globalization in comparison to Gaian Economics. Gaian Economics emphasizes how inorganic and organic organisms coexist on earth. In the diverse world we live in, we need to recognize that individuals need to set their own standards for success. If a national system sets standards for success outcomes, the individual person or community may have a hard time expressing its uniqueness.

“I see [in the people of Ladakh]  an incredible joy and equanimity that comes from deep community relationships and intergenerational communities,” Helena explained.

We can promote ecological well-being in our system by connecting nature and a sense of pride for our community relations.

Helena noticed how the people of Ladakh did not worry about the advancement of other communities world-wide in technology or other westernized concepts. As Helena is an expert on economic localization, the idea of shifting economic values away from an over-dependence on the global economy, she notes how important it for smaller nations, such as the Ladakh people, to focus on the wellbeing of their own community, rather than worry about supporting other nations in the world economy.

Helena expressed how important it is for cultures to co-exist. If we all create for ourselves opportunities to be open-minded with people of different backgrounds and travel to meet people in unfamiliar places, we can gain a better understanding of the human experience.

The following week Common Ground Center hosted a World Cafe conversation to provide an opportunity for participants to engage in dialogue about the topics Helena brought up, titled the

“Economics of Happiness Cafe.” Attendees responded by saying that this was “the best talk I’ve ever been to” and that “the culture of Santa Cruz is great for Right Livelihood College to thrive.”

Many attendees brainstormed Helena’s ideas together at the World Cafe, through interactive tablecloths, on how we can better appreciate the community we live in.

Overall, Helena’s speech encouraged members of the community to come together and create a discussion on how they can implement change in the community they call home.

Common Ground regularly hosts guest speakers, including Winona LaDuke on January 25th at 7:10PM at Kresge Town Hall.

Finally, from May 15-20th, UC Santa Cruz will be hosting the Right Livelihood Conference for North America so if you want to meet Helena and other inspirational laureates, stay tuned for this upcoming event. Stay tuned!