I just finished a most amazing book at a most opportune time. Recently, the issue of identity, race, ethnicity, belonging, ignorance, involvement have come up for me full force. (…)

There is a whole bunch of research out there that suggests that our decision making is not as rational as we'd like to believe (I cannot believe it. Humanity is not a rational breed?? :). While that may be a blow to everyone who still believes that we are capable of perfect rationality, I actually find these insights refreshing...and painful at the same time, given a recent experience I had. (…)

I just returned from a rather brief stint in Germany. Typically more on the modest side when it comes to consuming and buying, I got a bit on a shopping spree. 6:00am has probably been the earliest I ever put my credit card to use for shoes and pullovers (admittedly, I was at an airport!). (…)

Let me start by saying that Albert Einstein is just amazing! As he once famously said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking that we used when we created them." While he may have referred to a political or systemic issue - or at least that is the context in which this quote is often used -, what he actually is relating to is to the way of how every single one of us is relating to our lives and to our challenges. From the point of view that identifies with our ego and the ideas, concepts, and roles it has piled onto the self. (…)

My colleague Martin and I gave a presentation at the ACR-GNY conference a couple weeks ago. We spoke about our mindful/meditative approach to conflict resolution and mediation to an audience of around 50 New York mediators and lawyers. It was pretty great, to be on the giving, talking, presenting end for once, rather than on the taking in, receiving, input side. (…)

I recently re-discovered psychotherapist Franz Ruppert, who focuses on researching and treating traumatic experiences that probably all of us carry to a certain degree but that are typically not acknowledged as trauma. Yet, as Ruppert claims, those are exactly the traumas that shape our society, our systems, and therefore need resolving on an individual and on a social level. (…)