Project Participants Gather to Harvest Heart-Mind Experiences

After a flurry of activity over the past four months, the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education re-convened community groups engaged in the Heart-Mind Index (HMI) Pilot Project for a day of rich sharing and learning Since the launch of the pilot, this has been the first opportunity for the HMI Community Champions to re-connect, build skills and harvest the Heart-Mind experiences to date.

 We began our gathering with a workshop from DLC’s Lynn Green who is part of the DLC Heart-Mind Inquiry Team. With grace and depth, Lynn guided the group through an exploration of this powerful community tool. This methodology helps to shift focus away from deficits and problems towards recognizing positive potential. While the process starts with a problem, it quickly switches to a focus on “what we want.” The driver of this switch is a well-crafted, specific inquiry question. The HMI Champions practiced conducting the Inquiry Interview with the question, “Think about a time when you participated in a highly impactful change process.”
This activity generated some excitement about using Heart-Mind Inquiry in community and uncovered some of the key elements that support impactful change process.

After a yummy break we were honoured to spend the afternoon with Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl, dubbed as the Human Google of   Social and Emotional Learning. Kim effortlessly fielded questions about using social and emotional learning research in community. Stories from communities blended with research evidence to help HMI Community Champions anticipate and prepare for common barriers to understanding and embracing the concepts of Heart-Mind well-being.

So what’s on the horizon for the Dalai Lama Center and the Heart-Mind Index Pilot? The HMI Community Champions are successfully uncovering what needs to be done to smoothly pave the way for other communities around the province to use this groundbreaking research in highly impactful change processes. The next flurry of activity will see exciting resources in person, in print and online!