This September 24 Nova Campfire explored frontiers in consciousness through neuroscience, psychiatry, physics, philosophy, and personal experiences.
The June 4 Nova Campfire, “What the World Needs Now: Love, Kindness, and Listening in an Era of Polarization,” explored practical, evidence-based strategies for rebuilding trust and reducing partisan animosity.
On April 2, the Nova Campfire, “Beyond Blame and Retribution: Rethinking Justice through Science and Social Evolution,” explored how to integrate modern scientific understanding into legal frameworks and reimagine carceral systems.
The 2024 Nova Annual Conference, “New Horizons: Toward an Era of Global Flourishing,” explored innovative approaches to advance an era of well-being for both people and the planet. Recordings available.
On Sept. 25, the Nova Campfire, “Nurturing Societies: Cultivating Cooperation for Sustainable Well-Being,” explored how to move toward a culture of cooperation that prioritizes the health and well-being of all life. Recordings now available.
On May 7, the Nova Campfire, “Overcoming the Great Divide,” explored strategies to overcome political polarization and cultural fragmentation that threaten personal and planetary health.
The Nova Institute has held numerous community events to highlight demonstration projects and our research around our focus areas. Check out a sampling of some of great past events, held at our Broom Corn building headquarters:
The meeting convened diverse networks aiming to work in a more integrated systems framework as we seek to improve personal, environmental, economic, and societal health alike.
Originating at Georgetown University School of Medicine, this experiential program provides faculty at health professional schools with the training, tools, and strategic thinking necessary to implement the course in Mind-Body Medicine Skills at their institutions.
During Nova Institute’s Healthy Happy Hour, participants learned how food and lifestyle can optimize your genetic potential.
Healing is facilitated through safety, persistence, and trust.
Resources support us as we heal. They include reframing, responsibility, and positivity. “Making connections enabled participants to acquire and refine resources and skills that were essential in their healing journey. People also brought their own personal strengths to the journey.”
“Connection to others was an essential part of all the healing journeys.” Humans are social creatures, and even the most introverted of us need close relationships. Friends and family add meaning and value to life and help support us, in good times and bad.
When we experience relational trauma, relationships can feel scary, but reestablishing safety and trust in relationships is where the healing happens. (To be clear, we do not mean reestablishing safety and trust with abusers, but rather finding other healing relationships.)
“When safety and trust had been established, people were able to connect with helpers. The nature of the behaviours of helpers that fostered healing ranged from small acts of kindness to unconditional love.”
Healing probably means different things to different people, but one definition that emerged from the study is: “The re-establishment of a sense of integrity and wholeness.”
Healing was an emergent property that resulted from each individuals’ complex healing journey, a result of bridged connections between resources and relationships. “…they gradually found relief from suffering and began to exhibit emergent characteristics: a sense of hope, self-acceptance, and a desire to help others—the immediate precursors to healing.”
In varying degrees, “they were able to transcend their suffering and in some sense to flourish.”
Suffering is the ongoing pain from wounding.
There is some debate about whether people always experience suffering on the path to healing.
Wounding happens when we experience physical or emotional harm. It can stem from chronic illness or by physical or psychological trauma for which we do not have the tools to cope, or a combination of those factors.
“The degree and quality of suffering experienced by each individual is framed by contextual factors that include personal characteristics, timing of their initial or ongoing wounding in the developmental life cycle and prior and current relationships.”
Characteristics: How predisposed someone may be to wounding/how many tools and resources someone may have to deal with trauma/illness.
Lifestages: Developmental timing plays an important role in the impact of trauma — young children often do not have the same resources as older adults.
Relationships: Relationships can provide solace and support for those suffering, while lack of healthy relationships can prolong suffering.
