Mar 29, 2024  
Catalogue 2018-2019 
    
Catalogue 2018-2019 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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CLCS 284 - Reclaiming the Sacred: Holism, Wisdom, and Wellness

Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)


In this highly experiential 6-week course, we start by surveying key findings of psychology and anthropology to explore understandings and practices related to human well-being. Based on these, students design “personal journeys” of activities they wish to experiment within and outside of the classroom, to nurture senses of joy and purpose in their personal and collective lives. We draw on the work of scholars and artists from a variety of traditions, including Robert Holden, Audre Lorde, Kristin Neff, Sobonfu Somé, Tara Brach, bell hooks, Joanna Macy, Brené Brown, Thich Nhat Hanh, as we explore wellness and wisdom traditions. Key themes are gratitude and presence, self-compassion and vulnerability, and healthy relationships with emotions and adversity, and wellness practices include weekly meditations and gratitude circles.

Much of the work in these fields in the United States has been highly represented by and attentive to practices rooted in Western European and mainstream American, middle- and upper-middle class epistemologies from these regions. We will explore what wisdom and knowledge are in that work for all of us, while also incorporating perspectives from Asia, Africa, and of people of color and lower-income people in the U.S. We consciously invite a critical lens and alternative perspectives.

This course is highly experiential and requires of students a desire to try activities and explore topics that may be outside their comfort zone. Students should come prepared to take risks, try new things, be engaged, and be supportive of each other. Course offered by Candice Lowe Swift, co-facilitated with Jeff Golden.

Second six-week course.

One 3-hour period.



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