Welcome Home! Posted by Ashima Goyal, Feb 18 2019 [Originally posted in January 2019] “You left the door open and I walked in” So many of us walked into that open door and found ourselves at home in the circle. “There is an immediate sense of trust and respect and everyone feels belonged.” From 3 people sitting in silence on a Wednesday evening in a home in Santa Clara, Awakin circles have organically spread to 100+ cities around the world and every week so many people come together to co-create the circle. One person at our circle recently shared, “It’s small and yet it is so big!”. I don’t think I can find the right words to describe the extraordinariness of the ordinary Awakin circles. Which is why we asked Awakin hosts from around the world to share their reflections of 2018. Below are some highlights from those reflections! The journey of self Reflecting on the 10th year anniversary of Awakin circles in ... Read Full Story

Regenerative Service, And Heading Towards Zero Posted by Jignasha Pandya, Feb 18 2019 [For more than a year, ServiceSpace anchoring working on creating local offline communities have been coming together for a monthly call. We have some readings, share reflection on the feed and then jump on a video call. In our February call, our guest speaker was Nipun. :) We are deeply grateful to him for joining us and for always offering inspiration, stillness and lived wisdom from his 20+ years of making pathways of serving the inside and outside in innumerable ways. Below is a transcript, edited for readibility, offered in gratitude.] Nipun: On this topic of regenerative service, let me first build on Ragu's comment -- how do you choose between broccoli and ice cream? One is stepping up and another is self-care. Well, I don't know if ice cream is actually self-care, but it is for me. :) I'll start with some reflections from my meditation retreat. One recurring ... Read Full Story

The Magic Of Community In Toronto Posted by Thu Nguyen, Feb 18 2019 ​​​​What a joy to see updates from around the world. In Toronto, as cold as it is on the outside, all I've been feeling is warmth, wrapped in a blanket of open hearts, serendipity and generosity. Today we had a beautiful karma kitchen in the park that has left my heart singing and now I can't help but pass it on to y'all. We've been having monthly lunches indoors at Moss Park Apartments since October and although it's different than the outdoor park setting, so much magic happens indoors too. There's three apartments in the complex (that surrounds the park we animate in the summer) and it's become clear that without the foot traffic outdoors from various neighbourhoods, what we've been able to focus on indoors is to facilitate a small shift in the residents from isolation to community. After a few months, it feels like hanging out with extended family on ... Read Full Story

Latest Love News From Spain :) Posted by Joserra G., Feb 17 2019 Lately it has been marvelous to see the plethora and warmth of stories, reflections, experiments in generosity and noble friendships that emerge from local and global communities and ecosystems! We can see the 4 shifts happening (consumption to contribution, transaction to trust, isolation to community, scarcity to abundance) and it’s a beautiful thing! Awakin Circles keep on and on in Burgos every week! And it’s because of volunteers like Arianna and Sylvia that we can make them possible! Now we are offering dinner every week and you can feel the magic of our interconnections growing! Every circle is a chant to collective wisdom and transformation like this one where we listened to few incredible kindness stories! And many of them inspired by what happens in and around awakin circles! It’s amazing to see how initiatives like the circles change the culture of a place without having anyone say: ‘this is the way ... Read Full Story

Inspiring Link Posted by Bradley Stoll, Feb 17 2019 Around 5 Years Ago ... | KindSpring.org A place to practice small acts of kindness. For over a decade the KindSpring community has focused on inner transformation, while collectively changing the world with generosity, gratitude, and trust.

Awakening RAK  - Jan 2019 Posted by Pooja Zaveri, Feb 17 2019 We welcomed th New Year in style and had a great awaking circle sessions all round the year and looking forward to many more such circles in 2019. Our session for Jan 2019 was on Jan 25 2019 and was a very welcoming one. We had our one hour of silence and we were all able to sit in Silence in a very calm manner. We had the passage reading which was My Word of the Year by Nancy Gibbs and it was the word "LISTEN". Often we all come across many situations we were do not listen and start talking without even appreciating when the person wants us to listen. A key aspect of listening is to listen silently and be empathetic towards the person who is speaking ,understand and allow the person to speak. The word LISTEN also has in itself the word SILENT. We had lots of discussions and then the day was called off with a hot home cooked meal by the host. As the weather was lovely, we enjoy having the meal under the stars!!! Till Next time, keep smilin!!