A spirit of Ubuntu gestures towards both an embrace and a challenge that holds Others to greater moral accountability, and calls on them to be ethical subjects. Ubuntu is fundamental in both ethics and politics, and is relevant to the embodied politics of forgiveness after mass trauma and violence. I will elaborate on this notion …
Continue reading “Session V – Reparative Humanism: Exploring the Meaning of Ubuntu”
The objective of present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a primary prevention program—“Mindfulness Education” (ME)—a classroom-based program designed to foster children’s mindful awareness, psychological well-being, and social-emotional competencies. This study will provide an examination of multiple areas of functioning—cognitive, affective, behavioural, interpersonal and physiological through the collection of data from multiple-informants (self-reports, peer …
In this month’s Fellow Spotlight we are pleased to share the work of Norman Farb, Associate Professor of Psychology and Principal Investigator of the Regulatory and Affective Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Norm studies the social neuroscience of the self and human emotion, with a focus on how biases in self-representation shape emotions to determine …
We hypothesized that 8-week mindfulness meditative training (MMT) would significantly decrease 1) cognitive/emotional biases associated with perception of pain and general dysfunction in fibromyalgia (FM) and 2) the magnitudes of various symptoms in FM patients. Changes were documented in self-reported measures of primary and secondary symptoms, mindfulness, cognitive/emotional biases associated with the experience of pain …
There is a growing interest in the application of mindfulness techniques for modulating one’s relationship to ongoing mental experience. However, there is need for detailed empirical investigations using experimental paradigms to address (a) whether mindfulness training works, (b) how it affects emotional reactivity and regulation, (c) what neural systems are modulated by training in mindfulness …
Mindfulness has been defined as a quality of “enhanced attention to and awareness of current experience or present reality” (p. 822, Brown & Ryan, 2003). Studies of mindfulness-based interventions have shown beneficial effects on well-being–both physical and psychological. However, few studies have addressed the mechanisms underlying these effects—using an experimental approach with conditions that control …
Within a randomized, waitlist-controlled study of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) among rheumatoid arthritis patients, we evaluated treatment effect on immune parameters c-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin(IL)-6, IL-10 and transforming growth factor-beta-1 (TGF), the relation between depressive symptoms and well-being and immune parameters, and relation to meditation practice. 63 patients were randomized to 8-week MBSR or control. …
Evolution has shaped our brains to be ready for the worst. Some parts of the brain, like the amygdala, are similar across species and activate rapid responses in life-threatening situations. Although these responses are essential for escaping an unexpected assault or burning building, these same systems can be activated by stressors whose solutions require a …
My presentation develops an understanding of the art of traditional healing as one pillar of the lived community experience of Botho/Ubuntu cosmology. Such healing holistically addresses afflictions at multiple levels — self, community, 11 nature and spirit. It signifies the co-agencies of God (creator/life-giver), ancestors (guiding/protecting), spirit-mediums (messengers between spirit/ material worlds), chiefs (custodian of …
Day Five brings the Dialogue to its crescendo with a discussion about implementation and evaluation of learning in the classroom. The session begins with a presentation on the biological stress response in brains that produce stress hormones that influence memory and emotion regulation. Studies are cited to demonstrate how perceiving a situation to be threatening …
Continue reading “Evaluation and Implementation: Challenges and Opportunities for Human Flourishing”
