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Contemplative Emergence: How My Contemplative Practices Have Supported Transformative Change in a Higher Education Space

Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education Narratives Toward Wholeness 2024 DOI: 10.4324/9781003416777-28 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Reflective essay Peer reviewed
Topics Meditation
Key points Argues that contemplative practices, when integrated with lived experience, cultivate self-awareness, accountability, and capacity to steward justice, and can inform transformative change in academia.

Abstract

Contemplative emergence is an integrated, embodied, and transformative change process cultivated over time from a deep reflection of lived experiences supported by a series of daily contemplative practices to build self-awareness, accountability, and capacity to steward justice. It includes the wisdom that comes from the integration of these experiences, along with gratitude and resilience. This chapter reflects on how the use of contemplative practices has supported and transformed the ways the author works in academia and shares some details about her contemplative identity and practices. It discusses a particular incident of harm that informed the author&s;s deeper understanding of systemic and collective trauma, emergent strategy, and the impact of contemplative practice in transformative change. The chapter concludes with a practice, inspired by the teachings of that incident.