Posts by Donna Harrington
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Posted April 26th, 2024 by Donna Harrington & filed under Top News, Featured.
President Ann Filemyr participated in The Heart of Nature Summit on April 19, 2024. This video is her interview and covers the values of Southwestern College, the purpose of the PhD in Visionary Practice & Regenerative Leadership, as well as reflections on the balance needed to heal ourselves and heal the Earth.
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Posted January 16th, 2016 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
Graduate Student, Amy Gordon, discusses the content of an important cultural event in Santa Fe, New Mexico. …
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Posted January 11th, 2016 by Donna Harrington & filed under Professional Training Certificates & NEI, SWC Blog.
Graduate student, Amy Gordon, describes her love of a course in Applied Interpersonal Neurobiology at Southwestern College's New Earth Institute.. …
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Posted November 23rd, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
Graduate student, Amy Gordon, shares some of her favorite Southwestern College looks.…
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Posted November 3rd, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Student & Alumni Stories.
Graduate Student, Amy Gordon, shares a powerful experience of her first Dias de los Muertos event.…
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Posted October 19th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Student & Alumni Stories.
It has officially been two months since I made Santa Fe my home, and the beauty I have been discovering over these past 60 days has been absolutely unreal. Moving here from Colorado, I was a little worried coming to a place that at first thought invokes mental images of cacti and dusty desert plains.…
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Posted October 12th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness.
It was during my second week at Southwestern College, the second meeting of Tuesday’s Psychology of Altruism class, that Ann Filemyr presented us with this lesson: “reduce shame, enhance love.” We talked about feelings of shame and the aching, overwhelming presence it can have in our daily lives. Shame that can continually haunt us whether…
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Posted October 11th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Professional Training Certificates & NEI, Consciousness & Mindfulness, SWC Blog.
Graduate student, Amy Gordon, describes a fascinating first experience with Holotropic Breathwork. …
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Posted September 18th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
I value generosity on several levels:
On the physical or material level, generosity could take the form of giving money, food, shelter, etc.
On the emotional or heart level, generosity is about giving others my attention, love and compassion.
At the level of intellect, am I willing to share my ideas and perspectives? And…
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Posted September 11th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
Several times in the past, I've gotten excited about the latest spiritual practice I'm doing, and I've lost my sense of discernment about it. I start thinking "It's the best thing ever—everyone should be doing it!" I become a true believer, thinking it's the right thing for everyone; the world would just be a better…
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Posted September 4th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Consciousness & Mindfulness, SWC Blog.
Let’s talk about how receiving feedback is related to states of mind—both your state of mind and the state of mind of the person delivering the feedback.
When You Get Triggered
Receiving feedback tends to quickly reveal what I’m attached to. To the extent that I'm attached to whatever the other person is delivering feedback…
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Posted August 28th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Consciousness & Mindfulness, SWC Blog.
When I started learning to empathize with others, at first, I found myself awkwardly guessing their feelings and needs (often, incorrectly). Gradually, I built my feelings and needs vocabulary, and eventually, I was able to guess feelings and needs more easily and more accurately. However, my empathic reflections still felt somewhat awkward and contrived. I'd…
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Posted August 21st, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Consciousness & Mindfulness, SWC Blog.
In these turbulent times, there are many people promoting their personal vision for the future, and asking for our support in making their vision a reality. This article is about who I look to for leadership, and why, and how I choose to lead my own life.
What is Scapegoating?
I'm remembering a talk by…
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Posted August 14th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Consciousness & Mindfulness, SWC Blog.
(This piece is based on a journal entry of mine from January, 2009.)
The last couple weeks have been very challenging for me. I've been feeling anxious, off-center, low on energy, and afraid. Lots of things have changed in my life all at once.
Watching Everything Fall Apart
The nonprofit that I've been leading for…
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Posted August 7th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
When we stop trying to control ourselves and others, what happens? Perhaps that depends on the extent to which we're resting in love. When we're resting in love, the distinction between ourselves and others evaporates. We start getting attentive to all needs that arise—both for ourselves and others.
When we stop trying to control, we…
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Posted July 31st, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Consciousness & Mindfulness, SWC Blog.
There's a paradox: from one point of view, I am that. From another, you are not me. I believe it's important to remember both of these viewpoints.
Remembering "I am that" reminds me of the unity of all things. It reminds me that the entire universe is my body—so of course, I aspire to love…
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Posted July 24th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
For me, the first step in having a great day is having a great sleep—and the first step in having a great sleep is preparing for sleep. I know I'm going to be asleep for about eight hours—and I know that the last hour or so before I go to sleep is a crucial time…
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Posted July 17th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
I'm really liking a practice I've been doing: noticing what's about to be born. This works both alone and in conversation.
Alone, this practice goes with reminding myself that I don't know what I'm going to do next. Not knowing makes me curious about it. What actually am I going to do next? I start…
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Posted July 10th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
I find that naming expectations helps me avoid and resolve conflict. An unnamed expectation is an unconscious, unspoken, implicit "should" or "should not" hanging between myself and someone else. I'm not saying expectations are a problem—shared expectations are the essence of culture, and culture is what allows us to relate with one another easily and…
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Posted July 3rd, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
I'm finding I can make difficult experiences more meaningful by using them to cultivate compassion.
For instance, let's say I'm feeling lonely—needing more love and companionship in my life. Feeling lonely can be uncomfortable, and loneliness can seem bleak and meaningless. However, I can make my experience of loneliness more meaningful by using it toward…
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Posted June 26th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Consciousness & Mindfulness, SWC Blog.
When I'm angry (that is, "triggered"), I'm often tempted to gain relief from my triggered state by protecting myself in some way—usually, by setting a boundary. The problem with this is that setting a boundary tends to be a unilateral decision that's unlikely to meet the other person's needs for care, consideration, connection, and inclusion—especially…
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Posted June 21st, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under Consciousness & Mindfulness, SWC Blog.
I had a life-changing moment in my early 30s. I'd just moved to a new city, I was lonely, and I was looking for people to hang out with. One Sunday morning, I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of a church I'd recently started attending, an hour after the church service…
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Posted June 15th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
Consider the idea that we co-create the dynamics of our relationships. This implies that when a problem is showing up in a relationship, each person in the relationship has helped create that problem and each person has a role to play in responding to the problem. I find this premise leads to an empowering way…
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Posted June 8th, 2015 by Donna Harrington & filed under SWC Blog.
I make war with what comes in contact with a person's health or happiness, believing that God made everything good..."
~Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
Grad school is a unique, generally rigorous, and ideally outstanding life experience which will push you to your intellectual, emotional, and physical limits. At the end of year one…
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