Meditation as Stress Reduction

Work goals, work conflicts, rapid change, authoritarian or incompetent supervisors are work issues that can create stress through psychological and physical tension. The exercise introduces participants to meditation, which can be an excellent form of stress reduction. Mediation helps a person self-regulate his or her mind by focusing on the present moment and not engaging random thoughts. Meditation helps individuals develop clarity of mind, patience, compassion, and sustained attention, all attributes of ethical leadership.

With practice, mediation can be successfully conducted within 12 minutes. Managers can meditate on their own or lead members of their work unit in a meditation session held in a conference room.

Assignment is linked here. If interested in additional information, please contact Professor Denis Collins, School of Business, Edgewood College, Madison, WI; dcollins@edgewood.edu

Silent Meditation

As we prepare students to be teachers, we are acutely aware that these are very stressful times in many schools – and also that our own students are juggling quite a bit themselves between classes, work responsibilities and all the ‘normal’ burdens of coming into one’s own.

In my ED 330 class, we start each session with 5 minutes or so of silent meditation, with accompanying music chosen each session by one of the students or me. Every few class sessions, we also discuss an example of some of the mindfulness practices being put to use in K-12 environments.

Providing one small moment of peace and calm to my ED 330 students does two things, I think: it models what they can so easily do for their own students in practicums and beyond, and it also gives them a moment to just be.

If interested in additional information, please contact Donna Vukelich-Selva, School of Education, 608-663-3235, dvukelich-selva@edgewood.edu

Calming and Centering Students before Final Exams

Students often struggle to calm themselves and center their thoughts before final exams. A simple yet successful technique to reduce nervous energy in the room and calm the students is a breathing technique.

I begin by explaining to students what we are going to do, and that mindfulness techniques have been shown to improve attention (Bibliography available upon request.) and reduce anxiety in nursing and pre-medical students.

On the front cover of the final exam is a seasonal picture of nature that is aesthetically pleasing. Students have the option of focusing on the picture or closing their eyes, whichever is their preference. Then I guide students through breaths of deep inhalation and exhalation through speaking “breathe in” and “breathe out”. After 5 shared breaths, I tell students that they can begin the exam when they are ready.

The nervous energy in the room dissipates, and students begin their exam calm and centered.

If interested in additional information, please contact Brenda del Moral, School of Arts and Sciences, 608-663-4283, BdelMoral@edgewood.edu

Aristotle Happiness Survey

Aristotle maintained that happiness is a function of four factors: health, wealth, intellectual virtue and moral virtue. Students reflect upon their happiness, and happiness within their organization, using an Aristotle Happiness Survey. Students highlight strengths, weaknesses, and a continuous improvement recommendation that addresses a weakness.

Assignment is linked here. If interested in additional information, please contact Professor Denis Collins, School of Business, Edgewood College, Madison, WI; dcollins@edgewood.edu

Contemplating Emotions – 2 Practices from ED 311: Wellness in Education

Identify and discuss feelings – Students often keep themselves so busy ‘doing’ that they don’t stop to explore how they are feeling, and how these mind states frame their experiences. Using a poster with graphic representations of feelings, students identify the feeling(s) best representing their current state of mind; the emotional state of the class can then be acknowledged and honored. In addition, a selection of emotional states can be sequentially selected to guide discussions with partners about times this emotion was dominant.

Elaborative thinking activity – Another activity looks at how we add layers of emotion and thought to our mind states, thus building a story that intensifies our pain and stress. From a list of stressors, students identify those dominant in their lives. Next they choose one stressor to explore in greater detail, writing a list of thoughts related to that stressor. From that list, the most highly charged thoughts are identified. Students pick one as a focus for journaling or meditation. Through this activity students learn to be more aware not only of emotional states but of the complex layers that we build around these states.

If interested in additional information, please contact Julie Luecke, School of Education, 608-663-2372, jluecke@edgewood.edu

Dealing with Distractions and Negative Messages – 3 Practices from ED 311: Wellness in Education

Invitation to be present - In this writing activity, students are asked, “If you were going to be distracted by something or a feeling today, what might it be? Write things you want to set aside - temporarily let go of. What can you set aside to help you to stay in the present/this moment?” Students jot these thoughts on scraps of paper, and place them in a box, bag, or other receptacle, symbolically letting go of them in order to be more present in class.

Catch and release negative self-talk – Students are asked to list messages they tell themselves about how they “should” be. They are given a variety of strategies to release the message through meditation, journaling, and/or replacing it with affirming messages.

Structured silence can be used in many ways, and is especially useful for those who are uncomfortable with unstructured silence. Students can be provided with guiding questions, journaling activities, or art activities such as mandala pages to color, enabling them to be mindful within the structure of a prepared topic or activity.

If interested in additional information, please contact Julie Luecke, School of Education, 608-663-2372, jluecke@edgewood.edu

Two Practices: Someone on Your Mind; “Be the Soul of that Place”

During the semester, I ask students to think of somebody who is on their mind – parent, friend, neighbor, teacher, etc. I ask them to write a brief note or letter to that person. I carry envelopes with me, and ask them to mail it to that individual.

Before we break for the Thanksgiving holiday, I distribute and read a line from Rumi: “Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.” I ask students to reflect on that line, and think about how they like to be the soul of the place where they are going for Thanksgiving – kind, joyous, supportive, full of laughter, etc.

If interested in additional information, please contact Fazel Hayati, School of Business, 608-663-3430, fhayati@edgewood.edu

Reflecting on Poems: “Just for Today’ and “Fire”

Early in the semester I distribute and read the poem “Just for Today”. I ask the students to reflect on the poem and what it means to them. I ask for volunteers to share. Then I get everyone to focus on the line “Just for today, I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn, and not get found out.” I ask everyone to do an anonymous act of kindness for somebody, and share at our next class. (Poem probably written by Frank Crane)

I distribute the poem “Fire” by Judy Brown. I read it and ask for students to reflect on the poem. Then I ask them to write in a sentence or two what the poem means to them. I have collected and read the responses; they are very simple while being honest and heartfelt.

If interested in additional information, please contact Fazel Hayati, School of Business, 608-663-3430, fhayati@edgewood.edu

Mindfulness and Emotions: RAIN Technique

The RAIN technique offers support for working with intense and difficult emotions. An acronym for its four steps, RAIN directs our attention in a clear, systematic way that cuts through confusion and stress. The steps give us somewhere to turn in a painful moment, and as we call on them more regularly, they strengthen our capacity to come home to our deepest truth.

• Recognize what is
• Allow life to be just as it is
• Investigate inner experience with kindness
• Non-Identification

RAIN directly de-conditions the habitual ways in which we resist our moment-to-moment experience. It doesn’t matter whether we resist “what is” by lashing out in anger, or getting immersed in obsessive thinking. RAIN begins to undo these unconscious patterns.

Adapted from True Refuge: Finding Peace & Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart by Tara Brach.

If interested in additional information, please contact Mary Elizabeth Bathum, School of Nursing, (608) 663-2290, mbathum@edgewood.edu

Mindful Breathing

Used for the first 7 minutes of every class, this is an exercise of the higher consciousness = “being aware” or “being present to the Presence in the present moment.”

1. Assume an attentive-yet-resting posture with your feet flat on the floor and arms resting comfortably.
2. Become aware that you are sitting right here, right now—supported by this chair, surrounded by this air.
3. Breathe normally. (Facilitator counts 3 breaths)
4. Watch yourself breathe.(7 breaths)
5. Gently sharpen the focus of your attention to your nostrils and be aware of the sensation of air as it enters your nostrils with each breath. (7 breaths)
6. Gently shift the focus to your throat. (7 breaths)
7. Gently shift your attention to your diaphragm and the sensation of stretching and relaxing, be aware of the sensation of your shirt on your chest and belly. (7 breaths)
8. Gently shift your attention to the momentary pause after each exhalation before you inhale again; and let yourself rest more completely with each breath. (7 breaths)
9. Gently broaden your focus and watch as each breath involves all four points: nostrils, throat, diaphragm, rest. (7 breaths)
10. Return the focus of your attention to your sitting right here, right now, supported by this chair and sustained by this air. (7 breaths)
11. Gently let us turn our attention to the work of the day.

After we have rehearsed this at the beginning of several classes, the directions are replaced by the sounding of a small chime and a single word, e.g., “breath” or “nostrils” to hone our attention.

If interested in additional information, please contact John K. Leonard, Religious Studies, 608-663-2823, jleonard@edgewood.edu

Dying Simulation

A contemplative practice we use in our Lifetime Legacies (COR 2) class is a dying simulation.

Students lie on the floor in a dark room for about 30 minutes while Neal walks them through the end of their lives, with questions about choices they have made, regrets or pride they feel, who they want by their side (if anyone), and what they are feeling about this moment that we all know is coming someday, but spend very little energy thinking about.

If interested in additional information, please contact Judy Adrian, COR Program/Graduate Studies, adrian@edgewood.edu or Neal Ewers, COR/Human Issues Programs, newers@edgewood.edu

Contemplative Dialogue

Contemplation is often defined as “taking a long, compassionate look at the real”. It is also associated with suspended judgment as one looks at the real with compassionate, open-minded acceptance. When stakes are high in a conversation, it becomes especially difficult to suspend our own assumption that our own solution is the best one.

When contemplative dialogue is in full flower, groups and individuals often become transformed by new understanding that emerges from the sum of the group perspectives becoming larger than each part. In some cases, solutions can emerge to problems or conflicts that had seemed intractable.

Based largely on the writings and my experiences with the work of Parker Palmer and his associates, I have engaged in many experiments with contemplative dialogue in classroom discussions, small group settings and online discussion forums. I would love to share these experiments and my learning with colleagues.

If interested in additional information, please contact Rebecca Zambrano, Online Faculty Development, (608) 514-1984, rzambrano@edgewood.edu

Body Scan with Questions

Prior to students experiencing a body scan meditation in class, I provide as a reading a three-page document describing the body scan from the book “Coming to Our Senses” by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

In the class, I play a CD that mindfulness teacher Holly Nelson Johnson made; however, there are several YouTube videos online that could be used.

“Discuss the body scan experience just now. Pay particular attention to using “I” language. Note what you actually experienced, not your thoughts or interpretation of the experience, just simple, bare experience of what came up for you.”

“Use whatever questions speak to you:

• What was your direct experience in the body? What did you notice in your body?
• How did you work with your wandering mind?
• If you encountered obstacles, like sleepiness, boredom or pain, how did you work or not work with them?
• What did you learn about yourself from the body scan meditation, if anything?”

If interested in additional information, please contact Mary Elizabeth Bathum, School of Nursing, (608) 663-2290, mbathum@edgewood.edu

Mindful Sensing

This exercise begins in the same way as Mindful Breathing but instead invites participants to focus their attention on each of the bodily senses as it is “sensing.”

While the mind tends to move quickly to label or identify the “object” that is being sensed by the senses, this exercise practices being aware that “my ears are hearing,” and “my nose is smelling” etc. It can then include that just as the senses do what they do, the “thinking mind” thinks thoughts or labels things, or analyzes, or judges. It is possible for the “higher consciousness” to “watch” the brain thinking without focusing on the thoughts - simply observing the “thinking mind” think

Practicing “awareness” is an exercise of the higher consciousness. When the higher consciousness is freed to “take a long, loving look at reality,” one gains perspective, sees things as if from the vantage point of “God” or of “heaven,” and is then able to discern the most appropriate course of action.

If interested in additional information, please contact John K. Leonard, School of Education, 608-663-2823, jleonard@edgewood.edu

Negative Self-Talk: Catch and Release

Negative self-talk are those messages we tell ourselves how we “should” be.

Most frequent negative self-talk messages:

I’m not _____ enough.

I’m not as good as _____.

I don’t have enough _____.

We internalize what we’ve heard, and these messages can shape us. At one point these may have been adaptive and beneficial, they eventually become automatic programming and we get in a rut.

• Make a list of the key messages for yourself.
• “Catch” the message – hear it, or see it written
• Options for “release”:
• • “Fish with a straight hook.” Don’t hang on. Let it go.
  • Put the message in a balloon. Picture it popping.
  • Visualize a stream flowing. The message floats in the stream. It momentarily gets snagged on some roots. Recognize it, and watch it break loose and float down the stream.
  • Rip up a written message.

You can also:

• Talk back to the message through journaling.
• Deconstruct the message. Where did it come from? How was I programmed to believe this? What triggers it? What are the implications if I continue to believe this?

Replace the negative self-talk message with an affirming message that is true to the beautiful, good person you are.

• Use a simple message such as “I accept myself;”
• Create a more specific affirmation for yourself.

If interested in additional information, please contact Mary Elizabeth Bathum, School of Nursing, (608) 663-2290, mbathum@edgewood.edu

Appreciative Inquiry and Mandala Class Exercise

It’s difficult to talk about health care policy and system without bringing in our own values, beliefs and strong ideas of what should happen. We hope our discussions will be founded on the principles of appreciative inquiry and civil discourse, and our questions to each other will begin with finding what is right with each other’s ideas and beliefs.

Read the excerpts explaining appreciative inquiry, and the statement about diversity, tension and democracy.

Draw a mandala. Mandala is Sanskrit for Circle, Polygon, Connection, and Community. Its symbolic nature is thought to facilitate access to deeper levels of the unconscious.

Divide your circle into 4 areas.

• In one part, draw a picture that represents who you are: work, family, education, culture.
• In another part, draw a representation of a health care issue of your interest.
• In another part, draw what strengths, talents, abilities you bring that could impact this policy.
• In another part, draw your vision what could be a positive outcome of the policy.

Use your Mandala to introduce yourself to your colleagues.

If interested in additional information, please contact Mary Elizabeth Bathum, School of Nursing, (608) 663-2290, mbathum@edgewood.edu

Contemplative Personal Brand Journal Exercise

Students in E. J. Keeley’s Strategic Marketing MBA course complete an exercise where personal introspection and contemplation leads to the realization and creation of a personal brand for themselves that differentiates them and tells their unique story.

Students relax quietly and reflect on their past—looking back through their life experiences both positive and negative, spending time on each experience to feel the sensations again and relive the experience. Students are asked to reflect on everything about themselves—their upbringing, their family, their personality, their work experience, what they love to do, their education, their passions, their professional persona they have been creating or want to create.

Students are asked to identify their brand, their story (past, present, future), and how they will differentiate themselves in the workplace to bring their unique value. Students re-work their résumé to employ their personal brand, story, and wonderful uniqueness (in design and words) to positively differentiate themselves.

If interested in additional information, please contact Dr. E. J. Keeley, School of Business, (608) 663-2223, ekeeley@edgewood.edu

Reflection on Adult Learning Philosophy

Students in Annette Mondry’s Adult Learning in Organizational Development MS in Organization Development course compose a 12-15 page “Adult Learning Philosophy” essay articulating their own philosophy and approach to creating effective adult learning environments at the workplace. As part of the assignment, students reflect on their own adult learning experiences and describe the impact that those experiences had on their philosophy of adult learning.

If interested in additional information, please contact Annette Mondry, School of Business, 608-663-3373, amondry@edgewood.edu

My Life in 5 Stories

Based on the idea “My Life in Seven Stories” found in Janet Allen’s book Becoming a Literacy Leader: Supporting Learning and Change, my colleagues and I created a reflective writing assignment: PictoAutobiography: My Life in 5 Stories for students entering the education program. This begins their understanding of “Who Am I Now?” which is revisited throughout the program.

These are the instructions for students: You will write five “snapshots” or stories that are memorable to you and reflect you as a person. Snapshot writing, according to Barry Lane (1995), is a short piece of writing that captures a moment in time. So, rather than a long narrative, a snapshot focuses on a single event - “The Birthday Everyone Almost Forgot”, or a small moment - “Sitting by My Grandfather’s Green Plastic Chair.” Each snapshot is itself a mini-story that has a beginning, middle, and end and a theme (something the reader should learn from the story).

If interested in additional information, please contact Suzanne Porath, School of Education, 608-663-3216, sporath@edgewood.edu

Assignment: Mindful Goal Setting

Students each design their Ownwork plan to meet their personal and/or professional needs relative to professional and/or community placements. Students may choose to engage in a practice of personal relevance or meaning such as meditation, yoga, or other form of contemplation. Students develop a plan for regular, intentional practice of mindful self-care.

This may include reading a mindfulness or self-care text; setting aside quiet time each day to mediate or journal; setting aside time in nature; developing a plan for making their professional lives better aligned with personal values; or redesigning professional practices to acknowledge the need for self care.

(Assignment) Describe your ownwork and why this practice drew you at this time? How are you bringing mindfulness and attention to your exploratory area? How will you measure if you are bringing loving self-discipline to the practice? How will you measure whether you have accomplished what you want to?

If interested in additional information, please contact Mary Elizabeth Bathum, School of Nursing, (608) 663-2290, mbathum@edgewood.edu

Assignment: Personal journey and Medicine Card reflections

Spend 5 minutes in quiet reflection thinking about the journey that brought you to this class and to starting this nursing education. Reflect on your life situations, your former work life, your inklings and impetus to begin something new. When you feel ready, in silence, pick a Medicine Card.

The concept of medicine in indigenous cultures refers to anything that improves’ one connection to the Great Mystery and to all life. This would include the healing of mind, body and spirit. This medicine is also anything that brings personal power, strength, and understanding. Please read the Medicine Card description and reflect on the information given to you.

If interested in additional information, please contact Mary Elizabeth Bathum, School of Nursing, (608) 663-2290, mbathum@edgewood.edu

Belief Awareness

Students in Denis Collins' "Business Ethics" RAAD and MBA courses compose weekly journal entries to deepen awareness of beliefs they have regarding events that currently take place in their lives. Students make dated journal entries in a computer file once a week in response to work-related ethical issues (as an employee or customer) they just experienced or observed, and their reactions to them.

These entail situations where the following ethical values were either supported or violated:

• honesty • promise keeping • respect for people • respect for property

Students describe a behavior experienced or observed at work that was either praiseworthy or blameworthy, explore why this behavior excited them in a positive or negative manner, and what could be changed to foster more repetition of praiseworthy behaviors or less repetition of blameworthy behaviors. Assignment is linked here.

If interested in additional information, please contact Professor Denis Collins, School of Business, 663-2878, dcollins@edgewood.edu

Purpose of Life Essays

Students in Denis Collins' "Business Ethics" RAAD and MBA courses compose a six-page "Purpose of Life" essay articulating their purpose of life based on their life experiences prior to taking the class and as a result of experiences had during class.

Questions explore personal characteristics, response to an injustice, and happy or meaningful experiences at various points in life, and other issues. Assignment is linked here.

If interested in additional information, please contact Professor Denis Collins, School of Business, 663-2878, dcollins@edgewood.edu

Course: Caring for Ourselves, Caring for the World

This COR2 seminar has been designed as an opportunity to explore the connections between our life work as helping professionals, development as leaders in these careers, and building resilience through self-care and mindfulness. Several types of mindful meditations and contemplative activities will be explored.

Learning Objectives (2 of 8)

• Students will develop a personal practice of growth that integrates inquiry, reflection, mindfulness, contemplation, self-care and service to others;
• Students will acquire and integrate knowledge through reading, writing, reflection, practice of self-care methods (e.g., mindfulness) and service;

Course Requirement (1 of 4)

• “Ownwork” Students will each design their own plan of what they would like to explore during the semester… Students may choose to engage in a practice of personal relevance or meaning such as meditation, yoga, or other form of contemplation.

Required text: Salzberg, Sharon (2010) Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

If interested in additional information, please contact Mary Elizabeth Bathum, School of Nursing, (608) 663-2290, mbathum@edgewood.edu

Contemplative Assignments for Reflection and Dialogue - #1 of 4

Introduction Contemplative thinking is essential to the capacity for people to understand their place in the multiple contexts of purpose and meaning in which they live and work. Goals/outcomes of the four assignments following are:

1. Students gain understanding of how their own unique talents and passions connect to the work they are preparing to do.
2. Students begin to see themselves as valuable participants in the dialogues in our courses, as well as the perennial dialogues in our content areas.
3. Students begin to see the importance of their own inner wisdom and life experience.

Assignment 1 “The art of open, honest questions in contemplative listening”

Students explore guidelines for asking open, honest questions (based on the work of Parker Palmer as outlined in his book A Hidden Wholeness). Returning adult graduate students practice asking open, honest questions as they help one another discern a way forward through a life dilemma or values-connected question that relates to their professional work context.

If interested in additional information, please contact Rebecca Zambrano, Online Faculty Development, (608) 514-1984, rzambrano@edgewood.edu

Contemplative Assignments for Reflection and Dialogue - #2 of 4

Assignment 2 Contemplating how you thrive as a learner or team member

Students share a story that responds to the questions below in a private correspondence journal. The instructor responds to the student’s story with open questions. The student then responds in their journal to one or two questions. This back and forth reflection and questioning continues over several weeks.

Instructions to students

A. Describe a memory or tell a story about a time that you felt you were fully alive and meant to ______ (teach, be a mother, work with children, dance, etc.).

B. After writing the story, allow yourself to read it slowly without any goal in mind. -What do you notice about the environment that supported or limited you? -Keep these questions in mind over the next few days: What kind of environment helps you to thrive as a learner or member of any working group? What aspects of an environment limit your strengths, make your gifts invisible, or make you afraid to speak your truth?

If interested in additional information, please contact Rebecca Zambrano, Online Faculty Development, (608) 514-1984, rzambrano@edgewood.edu

Contemplative Assignments for Reflection and Dialogue - #3 of 4

Assignment 3 Using metaphor to uncover questions about life or vocational path

This assignment is most helpful for people thinking about a new career path in teaching or contemplating next steps in their vocational discernment. Edgewood students have expressed appreciation for having this embedded in the course.

Instructions to students

A. Read the poem "Seven of Pentacles" several times silently and then aloud. Read very slowly, and re-read lines that stand out to you without trying to analyze what they mean. Take a good deal of time to let the poem sink in.

B. What seeds of new self are waiting within you, or beneath the ground of your being at this time? What are the seeds waiting for? What do they need in order to sprout? What other message does this poem have regarding your needs?

C. I respond with open questions. Choose one or two of my questions to respond to. This process will continue over the next ___ weeks.

If interested in additional information, please contact Rebecca Zambrano, Online Faculty Development, (608) 514-1984, rzambrano@edgewood.edu

Contemplative Assignments for Reflection and Dialogue - #3 of 4

Assignment 4 Using the Wheel of Health as a wellness contemplation tool

This assignment is best placed early on so you can learn more about what motivates your students, and then intentionally tie the next learning experiences to their own expressed wholeness.

Instructions to students

A. Spend some time in silence thinking about the Wheel of Health attached here. First look thoughtfully with no goal in mind.

B. As you gaze at it, create some sort of visual collage, or diagram, or narrative that assesses how well you are doing now in each area on the wheel. What do you need to add or take away to increase your wellness in one or more areas? Create your own wheel of health that can improve your well-being over time.

Note: The goal is to help you contemplate what feeds your own well-being and passion while engaged in your life's work. Use your “wheel” to help move toward what sustains you and away from what drains you.

If interested in additional information, please contact Rebecca Zambrano, Online Faculty Development, (608) 514-1984, rzambrano@edgewood.edu

What Do You Need and What Are You Missing?

As part of the Capstone course in Art Therapy, students make art focused on a specific topic. The week that provides the most feedback is called:
“What do you need and what are you missing?”

Students arrive to see these nine words on the board. We then sit in silence for up to 10 minutes to answer this question. They then make art to best represent their discoveries. Many times I hear, “I don’t know what I need or what is missing, but something is.”

Art Therapy students know if they can’t find words for any question, once they engage in making art, answers come to them. Thus, this process works even for persons who don’t necessarily have a meditation practice. (Art making is meditative in and of itself.)

Feedback is always positive. Students really like being asked this question because it permits them time to turn inward to explore—followed by time to engage in the creative process to represent their exploration.

If interested in additional information, please contact Kellie Murphy, School of Arts and Sciences, 608-663-4225, kmurphy@edgewood.edu

In and Out or Before and After

My Art Therapy students and I were asked to facilitate the processing of challenging content in a COR 2 class - Convict Chronicles taught by Judy Adrian and Doug Bradley. The COR students established pen pal relationships with convicts.

Here is what the Art Therapy students came up with:
Supplies: Blank, empty boxes; magazines; scissors; modge podge.
Directive: “In and Out or Before and After”
Process: COR students focus on how each has come to understand the differences between self and pen pal (in and out); and their understanding of their pen pal’s life in context to the prison sentence (before and after).

In the initial stages of searching for images and words in magazines, the students actively meditate on these among others:

• The developing relationship with their pen pal;
• Perceptions and/or biases made more aware to them regarding incarcerated persons;
• Similarities and differences in their own lives in context with the in/out and before/after themes;
• The process of identifying feelings that emerge as a result of this exploration.

If interested in additional information, please contact Kellie Murphy, School of Arts and Sciences, 608-663-4225, kmurphy@edgewood.edu

Work-Life Balance

The developmental psychologist Erik Erikson complemented Aristotle’s conception of happiness by noting that happiness is achieved through the appropriate balancing among work, love (family), and play. Students share answers to four questions assessing these three factors, share them in small groups, and discuss how they could integrate more love (family) and play into their busy work schedules.

Assignment is linked here. If interested in additional information, please contact Professor Denis Collins, School of Business, Edgewood College, Madison, WI; dcollins@edgewood.edu

Meaningful Work

Work should be meaningful. This exercise helps participants formulate how their work is, or is not, meaningful based on a model and workshop from Marjolein Lips-Wiersma and Lani Morris, 2011, The Map of Meaning: A Guide to Sustaining Our Humanity in the World of Work.

Participants conceptualize “meaningful work” using four factors: (1) Service to Others, (2) Unity with Others, (3) Developing the Inner Self, and (4) Expressing Full Potential. They reflect upon their most recent work experiences for each of the four factors, share them in small groups, express their inspirations and frustrations, and develop plans to transform frustrations into inspirations.

Assignment is linked here. If interested in additional information, please contact Professor Denis Collins, School of Business, Edgewood College, Madison, WI; dcollins@edgewood.edu