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The Well-Being For All Series | The Discipline of Spaciousness

How might we differentiate between unconscious habits and intentional practices that could sustain our well-being for the long haul? In this thoughtful and inspiring session in our Well-Being for All series with the esteemed Zen Master, Norma Wong, we reconnected with our bodies, particularly through the power of conscious breathing. By becoming aware of our breath, we can better manage stress and anxiety, and enhance our leadership presence. In conversation with Norma, we explored how we cultivate the self-discipline required to maintain spaciousness, fostering resilience and creativity in the face of global challenges.


Norma shared insights on aligning internal work with external change, supporting us in reflecting on self-sabotaging habits and cultivating practices that honor our needs and support effective systemic change leadership.


We were honored to partner and be in conversation with Norma for this community session. Together with Well-Being for All series co-hosts Marta Ceroni (Academy for Systems Change) and Heather Equinoss (CoCreative), Norma shared guided breath work, stories, and wisdom offering deeper insight and relation to the importance of spaciousness in support of connection to self and collaboration for collective well-being.

Speaker: Norma Wong

Co-Hosts: Marta Ceroni, Heather Equinoss, Maricela Wexler



Download the slide deck we used in this session.We also invite you to explore these links to learn more:


 

Norma Wong, Zen Master, Abbot and Author


Norma Wong (Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong Roshi) is a Native Hawaiian and Hakka life-long resident of Hawai’i. She is the abbot of Anko-in, an independent branch temple of Daihonzan Chozen-ji and serves practice communities in Hawai‘i, across the continental U.S., and in Toronto, Canada. She is an 86th generation Zen Master, having trained at Chozen-ji for over 40 years. When No Thing Works – a Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, Shared Purpose, and Leadership in the Timeplace of Collapse, her book on the necessity and ways to leap beyond this fraught societal moment, will be published in the fall of 2024 by North Atlantic Books/Penguin Random House.


In earlier years, Norma served as a Hawai‘i state legislator, on the policy and strategy team for Governor John Waihee with federal  and Native Hawaiian portfolios. She led teams to negotiate agreements on the munitions cleanup of Kaho`olawe Island, ceded land revenue for Native Hawaiians, and the return of lands and settlement of land issues for Hawaiian Home Lands. She was active in electoral politics for over thirty years.  


In recent years, Norma has been called back into service to facilitate breaking the impasse and transforming policy and governance on issues of seeming contradiction.  In the conflict between native culture/science and western discovery science posing as a dispute over the construction of a telescope on Mauna Kea, Norma was a team member narrating and facilitating a path forward through mutual stewardship. She is currently an advisor to Speaker of the Hawai‘i House of Representatives Scott Saiki, serving in policy development and facilitation roles on issues such as the protection of the aquifer from fuel contamination at Red Hill, and the long-term response to the Lahaina wildfires. 


Norma is part of the Collective Acceleration community of practice. 

 

The Well-Being for All Webinar Series: A Shared Inquiry into Well-Being in Systems and Ourselves. Co-hosted by the Academy for Systems Change and CoCreative

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