Intercultural Belonging
Honoring Identity and the Wisdom of Our Lived Experience
Cultural Humility
Committing to a Way of Being:
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Human Dignity - Every person deserves an innate sense of profound respect, decency, and kindness, regardless of race, culture, gender, age, sexual orientation, nationality & faith.
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Awareness & Dismantling of Power Dynamics - Cultivating the seeing, naming, and intentional removal of power imbalances within culturally diverse spaces.
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Everyone Has Unique Wisdom - Embracing that every person and culture has unique knowledge from their life path and heritage to offer, that we can all learn from.​​
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Continual Willingness to Grow - Walking a path without end: there is always more we can learn about the identities and cultures of others, regardless of our own experiences.
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Courage to Be with Discomfort - A commitment to allowing difficult emotions to arise during intercultural shares, and to practice staying, being with, and navigating them skillfully. ​
Storytelling Circles
Where All of You is Welcome:
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Intercultural Connection - We all have a deep need to share and feel heard. Storytelling meets this need, while acting as a powerful catalyst for building trust in diverse spaces.​​
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Empathy in Action - Rather than learn information passively, sharing in circle creates active engagement, vibrancy of emotion, and a direct path to experiencing another's reality.
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Courage & Intimacy - Sharing life experiences requires great vulnerability. Each time a story is shared, trust is built, giving permission for others to share bravely in kind.
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Listening Over Debating - Storytelling invites people into a listening role to learn from lived experiences. This dynamic fosters mutual honoring and respect, rather than division.
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Honoring Identity & Lived Wisdom - Intentional sharing of our culture, identity and history directly celebrates who we are. It offers healing for the past pain endured when communities have been forced to hide or diminish identity.​​​​​​​​​​​​
Intercultural Dialog
Sharing a Sacred Journey:
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Deepening Understanding - Expanding our knowledge about the beliefs, history, and perspectives of other cultures, and a space to ask questions to deepen cultural awareness.​​​​​​​
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Honoring Differences - A mindset of being aware of and present to differences between cultural beliefs and perspectives, without needing to fix or change them.
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Discovering Shared Humanity - Learning to identify shared humanistic needs, hopes, fears, joys, and grief that build bridges between different cultural heritages and identities.
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​Empathy - Cultivating the emotional capacity to see with clear eyes, and feel with full hearts, the experiences, feelings, and perspectives of other cultures and identities.
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Intentional Facilitation - Skillful guidance that embodies the level of attunement, presence, and patience needed to build trust in diverse spaces, and to navigate complex emotions.
The Art of Inquiry
The Key to Intercultural Connection:
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Belonging - Inquiry allows people to have their experiences feel heard and seen. To be asked says, "You matter." Having space to share says, "We value your heart, mind, and spirit."
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Deepening Stories & Intimacy ​- Skillful inquiry allows communities to move beyond surface level shares, and to access a deeper intimacy of emotions and wisdom present.
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Reclaiming Voice & Visibility - After centuries of systemic inequity, skillful inquiry is a powerful healing practice that gives voice to communities who have been silenced, bringing visibility to what is bypassed and unseen.
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​​Curiosity - Cultivating a continual and genuine willingness to learn more about the people we are in community with: beliefs, feelings, history, life stories, and perspectives.​​​​​
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A Skill to Nurture - Schools and workplaces rarely frame inquiry as a skill. We believe the ability to ask questions is a critical healing-practice of belonging, deserving of study.​
Listening as
Healing Presence
Hearing in Five Dimensions:
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Listening as Liberation ​- We endure so much in silence, so often unheard. Here, we listen with intention to relieve and unburden someone from their pain, suffering, or hardship.
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Listening as Presence - Giving full, undivided awareness when a person shares, so our listening becomes a felt presence. Setting distractions, phones & multitasking aside.
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Listening as Whole-Person Honoring - Receiving a person's full emotional spectrum (both joys and sorrows), and topics that organically arise, with unconditional acceptance.
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Listening as Curiosity - Awakening our innate curiosity about others as listeners. What felt aligned and joyful? What's left unspoken? What emotional needs are within their words?
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Listening as Humility - Instead of being "the expert" we embrace the gift of learning from and receiving the wisdom of others, and practicing not-knowing as a strength.​​​​​​​​​​​
Mindful Awareness
Awakening Human Wholeness:
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Somatic Awareness ​- Attuning inward to our breathing and physical sensations, feeling how emotions manifest in the body, and resting awareness in the body to find steadiness.
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Heart Awareness - Befriending our emotions by identifying and naming them, leaning into feeling them with courage, learning their qualities, and noticing their volume level.
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Mind Awareness - Learning to notice when narratives are present, when the mind shifts to the past and future, and to have clearer seeing over our biases and assumptions.
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Collective Awareness & Interbeing - Sensing the energy and dynamics within a group, and how the interplay of body language, voice tone, and words impacts the collective.
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Compassion Practice & Social Justice - Standing in solidarity with others, opening our hearts to the pain of injustices endured, mobilizing empathy into compassionate action.
Social Justice
Vision & Action
A Community of Changemakers:​
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Social Justice Visioning ​- A chance to explore and refine your unique commitment and calling to express social justice in your life, your community, and the greater world.
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Co-Creating in Community - An opportunity to collaborate and receive collective wisdom for brainstorming, inspiration, and support from a community with shared values.
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Inclusive Leadership Coaching - Receive 1:1 coaching from professionals who specialize in social justice change: inviting in possibilities, fine-tuning ideas, action steps to manifest.
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Embodying Social Justice - A commitment to creating, and embodying, a personally resonant Way of Being and healing presence that you wish to be as a changemaker.
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Social Justice Action - A commitment to breathing your vision to life through: pragmatic timelines, courageous first steps, and creating a support team that has your back.
