Naropa authentic leadership program

This is where experiential learning meets academic rigor. Where you challenge your intellect and uncover your potential. This exciting partnership was born out of the recognition that the ever-growing dynamic natural products industry is just as much in need of cultivating authentic leaders and authentic organizations as any other industry. In a climate of high consumer expectations and greater transparency, blind spots in authenticity can have a catastrophic impact on business.

However, organizations that prioritize authenticity can unlock tremendous amounts of creativity, innovation and genuine passion in their teams. I see it as a way for us to help equip leaders in the industry to have a more positive impact within their own organizations so that those organizations can have a more powerful impact on society and the broader world.

For two days the experiential workshop will provide practical methods for cultivating mindfulness, deep listening skills, examining fear as a catalyst for real change, strengthening relational skills, and fostering connections to oneself and others in the natural products industry.

Who should attend? I wanted to attend Naropa because of its unique approach to higher education, and I wanted this to inform the things I write and how I write them. I've always felt that through my writing I could engage the world in new discussions, new ways of thinking and being. At Naropa, I learned that to achieve this, I would have to turn my eyes and pen inward first, investigate my internal landscape honestly, before I could even begin to write about the outside world.

Like all encounters with "love," what I found out about myself was not entirely idyllic. But this is where the "real" relationship with myself began. From here, I learned that the changes I would encounter would inform far more than simply my writing. I became a father, husband, son, man walking with some intention, a lightness, a fluidity. Too, Naropa provided me a community of like-minded people, thinkers, and artists, and this is where I found perhaps two of the deepest friendships I've ever had in my entire life of friendships.

Jed and I met in London in We met at the first MFA meeting, before classes had started. He had on pink nail polish and was very quiet and gentle.

I assumed he was gay, like most men in theatre. He later told me he thought I was real tough. Over time not only did I discover he dated women, but I found him to be an amazing theatrical collaborator and also an all-around fascinating person. I would seek him out at parties just to hear all the crazy stories he had to tell. Eventually we started dating, we moved in together in the second year, we traveled around Europe on breaks, and upon graduation we took shows to Cairo, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.

We created a theatre company and last August got married in New Mexico. Our love grows simultaneously as life and artistic partners. Without Naropa I would not know my best friend and true North. My husband and I met in the alley way directly before a Tibetan medicine class, that is what I recall. He remembers meeting me on the library steps.

Regardless, we met at Naropa. We have been together for 13 years, married for eight. We have two incredible boys, a black dog and a cat that was born in Boulder. If someone were to accurately describe to me how difficult it would be to stay with someone for so long or how challenging it is to raise children, I would never have signed up.

But if someone were to tell me how amazing my children would be or how profound the connection between my partner and I could be. And how much these relationships would teach me and force me to grow Trungpa talked about how life resembles the process of getting worn down, like a polished stone. The process of polishing is painful but the stone is beautiful and unique. I would like to remember this always, embed it in my bones and have it regenerate every seventh year.

It was the summer of I was a dancer, a baker, a teacher, a wild woman in search of essence filled experiences that would change the world when I heard of Naropa. I was teaching dance in Boulder and over time began to observe that my students didn't come to learn the technique of dance in my classes but to somehow engage the wisdom of their moving bodies for healing.

Watching the experience of movement engaging a deeper sense of well being in my students I became curious about the possibility of explicitly using movement as a healing modality. I had heard of Dance Movement Therapy but not Naropa, not yet. I was accepted into the program and then began to question moving to Southern California. While I was rehearsing a dance and questioning one afternoon in early August, someone said to me, "What about Naropa?

It is right here in Boulder. That day I walked the few blocks between the studio and Naropa, picked up an application for the graduate program in Dance Movement Therapy, applied, was accepted, and began the journey of a lifetime. An educational journey that was profound, extraordinary, life-changing, revolutionary, exciting, challenging, rigorous, individualized and grounded in experience! I was ecstatic! This was the education that I had been searching for my whole life—an education that was grounded in the body and committed to letting experience be the teacher!

Each of them led with curiosity and an invitation to let each moment be a whole body experience. Each of them, truly and deeply, believed in experience being the teacher and so created abundant opportunities for me to experience the theoretical framework of dance movement therapy in action. It was exciting! It was everything in each moment. It was creativity with every breath and it was all grounded in practice which served to begin the process of harnessing the amazing amount of energy that raced through my system and bring it into a form that was of service to living a life infused with health, vitality and creativity—in me and in others.

My education at Naropa laid down the template for what I would continue to be passionate about my whole life and which has become my work in every way—embodied, experiential education as the pathway to personal and global transformation.

The crazy wisdom at the heart of Naropa's inception infused my education in extraordinary ways. It has become the foundation of all the work I do and cultivated an unswerving, passionate dedication to embodied, experiential education that continues to infuse all my work as a teacher, artist, parent and cultivator of whole human beings!

I was living in New York, working in a psychiatric hospital, dancing with a company, baking in the early mornings and developing my private practice when two events collided that catapulted me into the next stage of my life. I became pregnant and received a job offer from Naropa. I said yes to both and in August of I packed my little blue Honda Civic with all my possessions, climbed in through the car window and began driving to Colorado—pregnant, alone and excited!

Arriving in Boulder I began teaching in the Dance Movement Therapy program, was deeply involved in supporting the administration of the program and nested into becoming a single mother within a remarkable environment of support and loving hands. I didn't have much time for romance nor much of a desire for it though there would be times when my eye would be caught by a beautiful and energetic man running up and down the stairs outside of my office or bounding about campus with a surplus of energy.

Sam Bull, International Student Advisor. We met maybe once or twice and I appreciated his intelligence and positive energy but I was too busy and too pregnant to flirt.

I noticed him just out of the corner of my eyes as I prepared classes to teach and my home to receive my newborn and me. March 16, Maia Grace Beard was born and she and I took some time to revel in each other and learn the language of this new life. With the birth of Maia came a burst of support for me from the universe in the form of my mom, my best friends and family visits from far away. During one of these visits my aunts asked if I would take them on a tour of Naropa. I bundled up Maia and, with my two aunts, walked the few blocks to Naropa.

As we were standing in the parking lot Sam Bull bounded up to my side and asked, "How is it? I couldn't even remember his name to introduce him to my aunts but as he left one of my aunts, Mary Alice, turned to me and asked, "Who was that? June arrived along with my responsibilities as program coordinator for the Summer Somatic Intensives. Phil called and requested my presence at the opening ceremony.

I tried to gracefully decline, pleading exhaustion, milk brain, new baby etc. I don't remember much of the festivities as Maia screamed for most of it but I do remember a moment that felt lifted out of a fairy tale. I was standing in the middle of the Performing Arts Center with people milling about me. My eyes were closed and I was rocking Maia when I felt this presence near me, rocking with me, keeping me company. I opened my eyes and there was Sam Bull simply keeping me company, casting a pool of light peace around me as I rocked Maia.

I fell in love in the space of a heartbeat. When next I opened my eyes he was gone. As I left the festivities to go home I saw him in a massage line laughing and joking with those around him and I mentally kicked myself for letting my heart fall so quickly for someone I didn't even know.

Home again. I put Maia to bed and was just crawling into bed myself when the phone rang. Sam Bull asking if it was too late him to be calling a new mom… and could he come for a visit?

I remember looking down at myself in my underwear and saying. And so began a lifelong conversation that continues to this day. Sam and I were married on August 14, with the sun rising on the continental divide, surrounded by a circle of witnesses that continue to hold us through the many layers and challenges of living together, parenting together, working together, growing together, dreaming together, creating together…and the love abides with astonishing richness and passion, creativity and discovery.

The gratitude I feel is boundless and only deepens with time. Full-year and semester-long learning adventures bringing together international travel, academic credit and mentored exploration of the whole human being for students between the ages of 17 and Our campus sits on ten acres in Northern California, 2 hours north of San Francisco.

Naropa ignited quite a fire in both of us and we continue to fan the embers, furthering our vision of embodied, experiential education.

Reb Zalman always wore a hat, and fiddled with little pouches containing his hearing aid, and who knows what else. At times it appeared he was dozing off. But if a student stopped talking, he'd quickly look up, gaze out with the eyes of a hawk, and ask, "So, is that all you have?

More, please. Off the page. Just tell us what you've learned in your research. He looked at me a long time, then said, "Nice hat. All of the universe advanced through his eyes which twinkled and softened in a full body smile. I had the strangest urge to say, "I love you, Reb," But I kept quiet.

In that silence, Reb Zalman taught me everything he knew about living a spiritual life. Much like the Zen master Dogen, who taught: Empty yourself of self, and all dharmas will advance. Love and best wishes to Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. The education I received at Naropa University was beyond any expectation of excellence in every way. Because of Naropa's unique approach, I feel my training all those years ago continues to be a source of learning and inspiration.

I love Naropa for waking me up to the joy of each moment and to who I am with honesty, gentleness and humor. The contemplative practices I have learned and experienced at Naropa have encouraged deep inner work that has brought about a self-transformation that allows me to discover ways of better understanding myself and how I relate to others.

As an educator, these practices help me to understand my students better so I can help them understand who they are and discover what they can be, to unfold their full individual potential. Naropa has inspired me to find ways to practice compassionate teaching. One of such ways is through a daily mindfulness practice I have been doing in my high school foreign language classroom for the past 7 years. At the beginning of each class I stand with a gong Tibetan singing bowl in my hands, facing the class and gathering my presence while I wait for students to notice that it is our quiet time.

When everyone is ready I sound the gong. Students are encouraged to notice their breathing as they enjoy the sound. It is an opportunity to center ourselves and quiet our minds. It is a transformative practice which fosters deep listening, encourages honest communication and creates an atmosphere of trust, respect and joy in the classroom.

Naropa's contemplative approach has increased my awareness and capacity to slow down and be present with whatever situation I encounter. It has helped me to see life's challenges as opportunities for learning and growth.

I have learned to listen more deeply and openly, to make friends with myself, and to respect who and where I am. I am grateful for the opportunities Naropa has given me to look at my fears and pain, and to get in touch with my confidence and joy.

I appreciate how Naropa combines academic rigor with compassionate teaching, providing the unique opportunity to transform knowledge into wisdom through service oriented action. I met my wife at Naropa University. We did not know it at the time, but we both knew something was "right" about each other.

I had gone back to school at 32 years old to explore something I was very passionate about, and Naropa was the only place that fit exactly what I was looking for. I was finishing a master's degree in Ecopsychology when, coincidentally, Naropa was hiring for a position that I had a lot of experience with; I applied, interviewed, got the job, and moved!

Angela had also decided she needed a life change—she was living in Eugene, Oregon, she was working at a theater company and wanted to expand her horizons into a new career and to a new geographic location. Angela landed in Colorado just a couple months before I did, and we both started working at Naropa in the same week.

It was several months before we truly turned our heads and noticed each other. We started dating and learned that we were only two months apart in age and had both done a lot of personal work in our lives before making the decision to change everything and move to CO. In a sense, we had both been preparing to meet the one person who could truly understand us, the one person who would love us unconditionally. Over time, we understood that we wanted the same things out of life—we wanted a family, we wanted to build our own house, work with our hands, and above all have fun!

Here is an excerpt from our wedding vows. This is what we both told one another right before we put the rings on each other's hand:. Where you challenge your intellect and unlock your potential. Follow on Instagram. Close Search Naropa University. Alumni Love Stories. Andrea Bogue, BA ' Kris Larsen, MA ' Chrissy Coates, MFA ' Daniel Wolpert, MA ' Jeff Price, MA ' We married in Whitney Harrell, BA ' Brian Jacobs, MFA ' Adam Perry, BA ' Rebecca Foglietti, MA ' Travis Macdonald, MFA ' Seth Braun, BA ' We've been together ever since.

Arron Mansika, MA ' Donna J. Karaba, MA ' For these two reasons, I will always owe Naropa University a deep debt of gratitude. Turns out, he does play on my team. Tim Hernandez, BA ' Jipala Reicher-Kagan, BA ' Lifetimes of Loving 'My Man' I was living in New York, working in a psychiatric hospital, dancing with a company, baking in the early mornings and developing my private practice when two events collided that catapulted me into the next stage of my life.

Charlene Kane, MDiv ' This is where experiential learning meets academic rigor. Where you challenge your intellect and uncover your potential. Naropa University's innovative degree programs blend academics, the arts, mindfulness, and community engagement into an educational experience that will open you up to a world of possibilities. Invent your own genre. Analyze Shakespeare, avant-garde cinema, and modern poetry. Write your first novel. Obtain a fully accredited professional licensure, bringing the benefit of mindful and compassionate teaching into the lives of the next generation.

The Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies is a hour non-degree, low residency training program featuring a hybrid delivery of online and retreat-based learning. Three unique components of the program—sharpening intellect, deepening intuition, and nourishing compassion—will build your confidence and prepare you for future career success. Most religious studies programs focus on the intellectual exploration of text, ritual, and culture. At Naropa, we go deeper.

Become a balanced human being with a conscious art practice, business savvy, and a powerful identity to engage the world. Follow on Instagram.

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