Author Archives: Alessandra Pigni
From Mindfulness for NGOs to Mindfulnext
Change and Growth! East Jerusalem, 25 February 2013 ‘The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas.’ ― Albert Einstein Today is the day to thank all those who have followed Mindfulness for NGOs over the last 2 years of its start-up … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged aid workers' wellbeing, reflection and action
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Quitting is leading too
Quitting is leading too, as Nelson Mandela said. Why the pope’s decision to step down should bean inspiring lesson for leaders, change-makers, and for all those with a ‘meaningful career’. Continue reading
Burnout: beyond the myth of work-life balance
Are you Wallander or Blomkvist? Reading psychological thrillers is one of my ways to chill out. So it should come as no surprise that Scandinavian sagas such as the Millennium Trilogy and Wallander have provided inspiration for some of the … Continue reading
Posted in Burnout
Tagged aid workers' burnout
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Refl-action: Reflection and action
Learning to live the paradox of action as reflection, and reflection as action* “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” — Dalai Lama XIV Supposedly carved into the temple of Apollo in … Continue reading
Posted in Burnout
Tagged aid workers' wellbeing, reflection and action
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Learning to listen
Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! Once upon a time I was an aid worker, full of good intentions, and ‘fooled’ by good intentions. My Palestinian friends and colleagues have taught me that people need freedom, not aid. … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged aid workers' wellbeing, reflection and action
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Mosquitoes and following your bliss
Easter and Passover are upon us and I happen to be in Jerusalem, so when I was invited at an interfaith Seder for Passover near Jericho in Palestine, I took the opportunity to join in. The event itself had something special as it drew … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged aid workers' wellbeing, reflection and action
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Looking after myself and others in Gaza
Guest post by Emilia Sorrentino humanitarian aid worker in the Gaza Strip I arrived in Gaza a few weeks after Vittorio Arrigoni’s murder*, where I joined a group of Italian aid workers based in Gaza City who were working for different … Continue reading
Burnout, guilt and shame
‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’. (Leonard Cohen) The title of this post was inspired by Brené Brown’s book on shame resilience: I thought it was just me (but it isn’t). Telling the Truth About Perfectionism, … Continue reading
Switch off the internet noise to see clearly
or the ‘Monkey Mind’ at work Going through the tweet feed my attention was caught by this headline ‘Switch off the internet noise to see clearly’. I clicked on the link and off I was on the Irish Times reading an article on … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged aid workers' wellbeing, reflection and action
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I want to be an aid worker
3 things that separate the good aid workers from the burn-outs A guest-post by Elie Losleben, aid worker based in West Africa I grew up in the aid business, with my mother, a public health practitioner, talking about under-five mortality … Continue reading