Convene - February 2016

Zen Center in Los Gatos, California,
will speak about integration and bal-
ance at the seven-year-old Wisdom 2.0
conference in San Francisco this month.

“Balance is not what we typically think
of; it’s not more of one thing and less
of something else, not a zero-sum
game,” she said. “I found that medita-
tion brought much more richness and
basically a sense of quality and depth to
everything that I did. I do have less free
time than I did before, but everything is
more nourishing.”
Liu has found that opening up to
audiences about her spiritual con-
nection to mindfulness encourages a
deeper dialogue. “I now bring in more
of what may, in everyday conversations,
seem ‘out there’ into my speaking more,
but certainly I have to lead into it,” she
said. “Sometimes it’s telling a story
or relating someone else’s story, and I
gauge the audience’s reaction, of course,
but I bring in more of what people may
be talking about in spiritual contexts
more regularly than I did two years ago.

I see that conviction on people’s faces, I
see a lot of heads nodding, and people
open up, so it’s clearly working, and I
will continue to do that.”

GAZING INWARD

The meetings and events industry itself is only beginning to embrace mindfulness. Associations: 2020 and Beyond, a one-day conference organized by the association-services company Kellen, brought around 100 senior association leaders to New York City last June. In the closing session, Arianna Huffington spoke about why she has broadened her definition of success to allow for wellbeing, wisdom, wonder, and giving. Huffington also stressed how, at a purely neurological level, we need to be well rested and energized in order to be

‘I found that meditation brought much more richness and basically a sense of quality and depth to everything that I did. I do have less free time than I did before, but everything is more nourishing.’