Monday Inspiration

It has been rainy and dreary all along the East Coast going on over a week now.  And, after all of the excitement over the bike race, the “slower pace” of these rainy days seems to be affecting Richmond citywide.  This article provides some much needed Monday Inspiration.  It is easy to keep a closed mind about yourself and the world around you and that’s what this article highlights as the biggest disability of all.  Believe in yourself and what we can accomplish as a community through inclusion of everyone.  

Here are some of the solutions the article offers:

UNCONVENTIONAL SOLUTION TO BIGGEST DISABILITY ON THE 

PLANET

- Use digital technology to offer free mindfulness training - and practice support - to every person on the planet who can access the Internet.

- Prioritize delivery of training to all the caregivers of people with recognized disabilities - like mental illness or chronic conditions or developmental impairment. (There is already some research supporting the approach.) The idea is that once caregivers embody better balance, awareness and self-integration they will not only give better care to those with disabilities, they will also be able 

to help those they care for to practice mindfulness themselves.

- Harness compassion to offer support. Recruit volunteers who already practice mindfulness. They can use the internet to offer support to those who are learning.

- Use a lean startup model for agile development. The first year would be a pilot to try it with a 

relative small number of people and find out what works and what doesn't. Once we have a 

working model, we can scale. Over 10-20 years, perhaps. But always with the ultimate goal of

 serving all those who want to learn. Once we feel caregivers are really benefiting, we start to 

develop specialized training designed to serve those folks whose disabilities require a more 

customized approach.

- Those people with recognized disabilities that chiefly serve as their own caregivers will be given 

priority in the very first offering of this online training.

- The system that delivers mindfulness training to caregivers via the Internet can also connect

 people with disabilities to services, including health care.

For the full article by Steven Candrell,  which is truly inspiring for all, click here.