Contemplative Practice Starts with Courage: Get to Know the AN Center for Contemplative Practice

We often get questions about the nature of contemplation, and why a center that specializes in contemplation and contemplative practices would be appropriate for a college campus. This is a great question! This new endeavor, the Annandale Center for Contemplative Practice, started with us working on our own definition of contemplation as we engage in it every day here at NOVA in “the direction of the mind’s inquiry to varied sources of information and knowledge.” With this definition in mind, we realize that so many of our college tasks–from teaching, to syllabus design, to working with colleagues in the hallways and on committees–can benefit from a mind toward contemplation and contemplative practice.

It is this perspective of contemplative mind that we bring to the workshops that we offer for all faculty, staff and administrators at the college. For example, for the NOVA Foundation-supported grant, “DEI on the Inside,” we utilize this contemplative lens to inwardly investigate our own personal norms, histories and conditioned responses to our relationship with diversity, equity and inclusion. As this work can be challenging when we encounter the parts of ourselves that we come to realize might not be serving us well, we also offer a series on compassion practices–compassion to others, as well as to ourselves.  

For more information about the various contemplation practices and workshops we offer through the Annandale Center for Contemplative Practice, please click on the links below, which direct to the ACCP Blog.

• Contemplative Practice Starts with Courage! | Annandale Center for Contemplative Practice (nvcc.edu)
• DEI on the Inside: A NOVA Foundation Supported Initiative

Click here for more information and to join the ACCP canvas site.

Submitted by:
Paul Fitzgerald, AN-Bio, PFitzgerald@nvcc.edu