Emily Newberry
Emily Newberry is an author, speaker and thought partner. She invites people into a conversation about staying connected to their highest aspirations and deepest values as they work to for change. Ms. Newberry began working with conflict in the civil rights and other movements in the 1960’s. These experiences taught her the value and the limitations of advocacy for causes. Since the early 1990’s she has devoted herself to inviting people from all walks of life into this conversation.
In addition to her lates book, Turning Inside Out, she has a full book of poetry, Butterfly A Rose also published by One Spirit press. She was invited to write the poetry for an artists’ book published in 2014 by Water by Shu-Ju Wang. In 2014 her poem Signs was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and in 2017 she was named one of the Queer Heroes by GLAPN. Ms. Newberry has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Dickinson College, and a graduate certificate in conflict resolution from John F. Kennedy University. She is a graduate of Authentic Happiness Coaching.
Resources I Draw From
Being transparent about what underlies my views as expressed on the Spirit and Change podcast.
I believe that it is important for listeners to have at least a larger sense of some of the resources I’ve accessed that underly my approach to talking about staying connected to your deepest values and highest aspirations as you work for change. I have read widely over the decades, and this is not an exhaustive list.
Since the conversation I invite you into is about social, economic and political change and involves each of us as individuals and members of a larger society, I have limited the list itself to two sections. Works of social science, social psychology and organizational change that are most important and memorable for me, and spiritual resources that have been important in my life. I am not saying you must read or take an interest in these specific things. I trust you will find your own resources that help you do your work. It is rather so you can have a sense of where I am coming from and what has led me to the way I look at this work.
In my life I’ve also read a wide variety of history books, and writers of social and political critique from a wide variety of voices, and most recently have listened to some podcasts. It would be neither possible nor helpful I think to include an exhaustive list of them. Just know that this has been, and continues to be, important to me. I hope you do that kind of reading and listening for yourself.
Works of social science, social psychology and organizational change that are most important and memorable for me.
Argyris, Chris, On Organizational Learning, 2nd edition 1999
“The premise of this book is that organizational learning is a competence that all organizations should develop. The reasoning underlying this premise is that the better organizations are at learning the more likely it is that they will be able to detect and correct errors, and to see when they are unable to detect and correct errors. Also, the more effective organizations are at learning the more likely they will be at being innovative or knowing the limits of their innovation.”
Senge, Peter M., The Fifth Discipline, The Art and Practice of Organizational Learning
“The five disciplines represent approaches (theories and methods) for developing three core learning capabilities: fostering aspiration, developing reflective conversation and understanding complexity.”
Scharmer, Otto C., Theory U, Leading from the Future as It Emerges,
“This book is intended to do more than just illuminate a blind spot of leadership. Rather it seeks to uncover a hidden dimension in the social process that each of us encounters in our everyday life, moment to moment.” “While it has been common practice for social scientists and management scholars to borrow their methods and paradigms from natural sciences such as physics, I think it is now time for social scientists to step out of the shadow and to establish an advanced social sciences methodology that integrates science (third person view), social transformation (second-person view), and the evolution of self (first-person view) into a coherent framework of consciousness-based action research.”
Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski and Flowers, Presence, Human Purpose and the Field of the Future
“It’s common to say that trees come from seeds. But how could a tiny seed create a huge tree? Seeds do not contain the resources needed to grow a tree. These must come from the medium or environment within which the tree grows. But the seed does provide something that is crucial: a place where the whole of the tree starts to form. As resources such as water and nutrients are drawn in, the seed organizes the process that generates growth. In a sense, the seed is a gateway through which the future possibility of the living tree emerges.”
Spiritual resources that have been important in my life.
Kornfield, Jack A Path with Heart
“In undertaking a spiritual life, we must make certain that our path is connected with our heart.
Through generous storytelling and unmitigated warmth, Jack offers this guidebook on living with attentiveness, meditation, and full-tilt compassion.”
Kornfield, Jack, After the Ecstasy, The Laundry
“Enlightenment does exist,” internationally renowned author and meditation master Jack Kornfield assures us. “Unbounded freedom and joy, oneness with the divine . . . these experiences are more common than you know, and not far away.”
But even after achieving such realization—after the ecstasy—we are faced with the day—to-day task of translating that freedom into our imperfect lives. We are faced with the laundry.
Drawing on the experiences and insights of leaders and practitioners within the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Sufi traditions, this book offers a uniquely intimate and honest understanding of how the modern spiritual journey unfolds—and how we can prepare our hearts for awakening.”
Rosenberg Ph.D., Marshall, Living Nonviolent Communication, Practical Tools to Connect and Communicate Skillfully in Every Situation
“Nonviolent Communication, or NVC, is a powerful model of communication, but it goes far beyond that. It is a way of being, thinking and living in the world.”
Holotropic Breathworkâ http://www.holotropic.com/holotropic-breathwork/about-holotropic-breathwork/
“Holotropic Breathwork® is a powerful approach to self-exploration and personal empowerment that relies on our innate inner wisdom and its capacity to move us toward positive transformation and wholeness. Acknowledging, accessing and supporting the inner healing intelligence and impulse in each individual is the essential cornerstone of this approach.
The theoretical framework integrates insights from modern consciousness research, anthropology, various depth psychologies, transpersonal psychology, Eastern spiritual practices, and mystical traditions of the world.
Holotropic Breathwork® adheres to the Principles of HB as written by Christina Grof and Stanislav Grof and the Ethical Agreements for HB. Only practitioners certified through GTT are allowed to practice.”
I participated in 40 of these workshops over a period of 5 years. My two most important take-aways are:
For the first time in my life, I could access a deep inner pain that lay repressed for decades and just cry without the use of alcohol.
Twice I had a profound experience of being held by an infinite, loving, and knowing beingness. I knew in that experience that I both was that love and was loved. It was the first step in coming out as a transgender woman.
“Live your values aloud, not alone. Our open-minded, openhearted spiritual communities help people lead lives of justice, love, learning and hope.”
My parents took us to a local Unitarian Church in Schenectady, New York in the 1950s and 1960s because, as my dad said, “It was considered shameful to be seen to be home on Sunday morning.” My dad was an agnostic, a scientist who loved math and physics and made many contributions to science and to the wider community around him. If his religious views had been known, he would not have been allowed to do some of the work he did as a Boy Scout commissioner or member of the school board in those days. His spirituality came from his commitment to family and the larger community of which he was a part. I benefitted from the youth group at church. We were taught about different religions and taken to hear ministers, priests and rabbis talk about their religions and were expected to make our own choices as adults. When I came out, First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon was a major source of support at a critical time in my transition.