by Thandie Balfour I’d like to ask you a question that a good friend raised and that is ‘how we are stepping into 2021?’. We are already one month into the new year, how are you standing? Are you feeling balanced or are you standing wobbly? Have you even crossed over or are you still where 2020 left you? You see, how you are standing, one month in, is a reflection of how you stepped in. So how did you step into 2021? Imagine 2021 was a solid platform and you needed to take a

by Thandie Balfour As a country, we have just gone through 16 days of Activism to end Violence against Women and Children. This is an international campaign which started in 1991 and is currently supported by over 187 countries. It is intended to increase consciousness on what is unacceptable behaviour in this regard. What happens is that there are a number of events all over the country by different interest groups, from talks to marches, to heighten awareness. I must admit

We are living in a time of great change and upheaval. Between COVID, lockdowns, economic crisis, gender and race conflicts, natural disaster

by Creina Schneier Ease in the Thinking Environment refers to an internal state, an internal freedom from rush, urgency and anxiety. Ease has a very strong physiological component – people are drawn to those who are at ease. Can you think of someone who you are drawn to for their easefulness, their sense of calm? To put others at ease, it is important that we ourselves are at ease. So, what would it take for you to have ease like this? Try this S T O P exercise when you feel

by Thandie Balfour Advances in Neuroscience have identified that fear based on physical stimuli (such as a snake) lights up the same spot in the brain as that based on social stimuli (like rejection). This means that the brain does not distinguish between physical stimuli and social stimuli when experiencing fear. Furthermore whether it is a snake or rejection, the same stress hormones are released. We also know that the brain constantly scans for potential stimuli both fear

Dealing with Fear Series How do people cope with challenging circumstances and come out the other side stronger and wiser? Neuroscience shows us how to increase our ability to strengthen our resilience by building new habits. Dr Dan Siegel, author of The Developing Mind, The Mindful Brain, Mindsight, and many other books has identified 9 ways in which our brain, specifically our pre-frontal cortex (PFC), helps us to do this. In this blog I share my understanding of a few of t

This is a story of othering (no I didn’t make up that word, it a real thing). It's a tale of tolerance - with real life lessons in diversity

This is the final of this series, and I will show you how, by applying the simple Deep Democracy 4 Step process, how leaders of society can

Making good decisions is hard, especially in these times where we are faced with so much uncertainty and distress.

All views will hold some wisdom, if you take the time to examine them closely enough. In the Lewis Deep Democracy decision making process,

Making decisions that are well informed is more critical in this time of the pandemic than it has ever been before. As this pandemic unfolds

Blog 1 of 5 on excellence in decision making. In this unprecedented time there are many opinions and no clear obvious way to proceed. This is a real example of what complexity means. There is no simple and obvious answer to what should we do in response to this pandemic, and every choice has both foreseen and unforeseen consequences. Conflict is a natural result with charged views on both sides of the argument. The untenable debate which is raging right now all in South Afr

The journey has opened vistas I did not think possible in terms of how relationships, particularly in conflict riddled environments, work.

We respond and make decisions based on how we feel about events and situations in our lives – at work, at home and in our relationships.