Year in Review: 2022

At the ASU Center for Mindfulness, Compassion and Resilience, we have always strived to provide timely, proactive programming and resources to our constituents. 2022 was no exception and brought with it beautiful opportunities for growth, change and new ways to enrich our communities.

As we approach the end of one year and the beginning of another, our thoughts turn to accomplishments, successes, and new goals for the coming year. It’s also a good time to take a brief pause to contemplate where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going. Along the way, we’d like to share just a few of the many highlights this year has brought and why they are so meaningful to us.

Some of our most meaningful work this year has been with communities very much in need of healing from the loss, disruption, and uncertainty of the past years. As our world slowly returns to a sense of normalcy after two-plus years of pandemic disruption, it’s been clear that we as a society are still recovering.

To that end, through the spring and summer, we workshopped around burnout and compassion fatigue with student groups; shared strategies for resilience-building and social-emotional learning with fellow educators; and discussed self-compassion with life coaches, teachers, and care providers. 

Along the way, we connected with wonderful folks dedicated to the care and support of others with the Florence Unified School District, the International Coaching Federation, and many other organizations and teams. While there remains so much work to be done in healing our world, we come out of this year reaffirmed and encouraged to be part of such a network of caring practitioners and providers.

This year also found us partnering with new colleagues and teams and expanding our own network of resources and connections.

Over the summer and fall, we collaborated with ASU’s Academic Enterprise Enrollment team and the Pat Tillman Veterans Center to bring mindfulness training to student military veterans at ASU. Led by Academic Enterprise Enrollments’ James Bogner and guided by the research of Dr. Christopher Hammer and with the enthusiastic support of PTVC’s Shawn Banzhaf and Michelle Loposki, Center affiliates Drs. Dawn Augusta, Lisa Jaurigue, and Barbara Crisp lead students through a four-week Koru mindfulness series. 

Although a small-scale pilot, the success of this program has Center and our partners excited to explore further collaborations as we continue seeking the best ways to embed Center’s values in our student communities and conducting meaningful research into the effectiveness of mindfulness training in improving learning outcomes for ASU’s student populations.

Finally, this winter found us reunited with valued partners past and present, members of the mindfulness community, constituents, and benefactors for a day-long Imagination Retreat. 

With the publication of our first Five-Year Report and launch of our newly revamped website , the retreat brought an array of voices to the table to help shape a vision for Center’s future. Led by our friends Carey Lopez, Phil Weaver-Stoesz and Joshua Wrublik of ASU’s University Design Institute, we collectively challenged ourselves to brainstorm the greatest obstacles and issues facing our communities, what relief or solutions Center might be uniquely placed to offer, and how to best leverage our resources in service to these solutions.

With participants from an array of communities, industries and systems, the day was a fruitful one, providing a multitude of deeply impactful, meaningful opportunities.

The challenges we have and continue to face – individually and collectively – are many and complex. The solutions, similarly, are not simple. But even as this year has highlighted the obstacles we navigate in finding our way back to ‘normal’, it’s also shown us the resilience and the strength of our communities. 

As we move forward into the new year, we do so with enthusiasm and passion for the ongoing work, with love and compassion for those in need, and most of all with hope that this coming year finds additional healing, growth and solace for all in need. 

From our Center family to you and yours, we wish a restful year-end, a holiday season of joy and reflection, and a new year filled with hope and possibility.