Women, Water and Wisdom: Mapping Ripple Effects of Conscious Social Change in Rural Rwanda
Dear Global Grassroots’ Friends,
We are delighted to invite you to attend an interactive session on our first Wisdom Lab report entitled, Women, Water & Wisdom: Mapping Ripple Effects of Conscious Social Change in Rural Rwanda.
TUESDAY, MARCH 14 | 8am-9:15am PT | 5pm-6:15pm CAT | On Zoom
At this event, we will share insights from our 2022 inquiry into the community-level impacts of four Global Grassroots’ teams who have been working since 2015 to transform their villages through mindful leadership and sustainable water + social purpose ventures.
Using Ripple Effects Mapping, a participatory and qualitative method, we collaborated with team leaders, community partners, and community members to unearth the most significant changes taking place in community health, gender equality, education, prosperity, mindsets, and more, as a result of teams’ efforts.
JOIN US for a stimulating conversation about the findings and bring your insights into the challenges and opportunities of adequately valuing the intersectional impacts of community-driven development, and the role of inner work in achieving the deep, equitable and sustainable “outer” changes needed to address climate change and ensure wellbeing for all.
I used to spend all my time on water, but now I am concentrating on long-term growth. ~Olive
Each month, we highlight one of the five Principles of Conscious Social Change and welcome your stories of how you are using inner work to deepen social change.
Conscious Social Change in Action - Principle #2: Ensuring Balance
As much work as we do with ourselves to transform, there are times in the present that we need to take a step back for rest.
One of the most important things in conscious social change work is self-care. This includes not only the personal transformation and self-awareness work involved in Principle One (Cultivating Presence) and Two (Becoming Whole), but it means understanding your own needs, your limitations, and taking time to restore and care for yourself.
Principle Three is Ensuring Balance. By committing to ongoing personal transformation practices, we can more easily attend to our own need for balance so that we avoid burnout and can stay whole, grounded, and completely available to do our work in the world.
Practices to Help Ensure Balance
Setting intentions - In a goals-driven culture, it’s easy to fall into a cycle of do, do, do. When you notice that your mind and body are on over-drive in an attempt to always achieve more, try shifting gears and setting an intention instead of a goal. Rather than describing what we are going to do or achieve in the future, an intention focuses on how we are going to be or feel. Some examples are: I will be fully present on Zoom calls. I will pause before I react. I will pay attention to my body’s cues today.
Practice RAIN - When strong emotions or sensations come up, we can sometimes catch ourselves falling out of balance. Other times, we don’t realize what has happened until our mind and body have resettled or we’ve had a moment to reflect. Either way, in these times, a simple practice like RAIN which Tara Brach shares in her book, Radical Compassion, can be so helpful. RAIN stands for:
Recognize - what is happening?
Allow - the full range of emotions, sensations, thoughts to just be there
Investigate - gently ask, what is showing up in my mind or body? what’s needed?
Nurture - softly place a hand on the back of your neck, slow your breath, and perhaps whisper to yourself, “You’ve got this…I am here for you.”
Practices of self-compassion and intention-setting can help us return to the immediacy of the present moment with care and curiosity, rather than striving and stress, as we go back out into the world to carry forward our social change efforts.
Next Up: CSC Principle #4 - Engaging Mindfully
Don’t forget to REGISTER HERE for our March 14th Wisdom Lab Event!
Read the REPORT and bring your questions, insights, and own experiences for a rich dialogue about community-driven development and inner work for social change.
This event is free and a recording will be made available afterwards for those who register. Contact wisdomlab@globalgrassroots.org if you have questions!
Global Grassroots is a US (501) C3 founded in 2005. Our mission is to catalyze women in East Africa as leaders of Conscious Social Change in their own communities.