Omega in Action
Omega in Action highlights inspiring people and organizations making meaningful change. From protecting the environment to empowering women, healing veterans, and serving nonprofits, you'll find fresh perspectives, trending news, and the latest information on noteworthy events here at Omega and around the world.
Omega Service Week Welcomes Participants of the 3rd Annual Women Serving Women Summit
Omega Welcomes Hudson Valley Nonprofits to Service Week
The Omega Center for Sustainable Living Featured in Sustainable Building Advisor Program
Reaching Out to Heal Addiction
Rob Schware, cofounder of the Give Back Yoga Foundation, talks with Roxanne "Nikki" Myers, cofounder of Yoga of 12-Step Recovery (Y12SR), about helping people heal from addiction in body, mind, and spirit. After two relapses, Nikki Myers combined 12-step program and yoga practices to support her recovery. Her unique program is now shared in more than 50 donation-based Y12SR meetings across the country. She will be teaching about addiction recovery at the Yoga Service Conference presented by Omega and the Yoga Service Council.
Omega Cofounder Elizabeth Lesser To Appear On Own: Oprah Winfrey Network’s ‘Super Soul Sunday’
27 Nonprofits Receive Retreat Grants From Omega To Strategize On How To Survive And Keep Thriving
Biomimicry Solves Human Problems by Copying Nature
Bullet-proof skin inspired by spider-silk? Pharmaceuticals discovered by chimps? Self-cleaning surfaces and solar cells based on leaves? This may sound like science fiction, but it’s innovation inspired by nature, also known as the science of biomimicry. Janine Benyus, president of the Biomimicry Institute and part of Omega’s annual sustainability conference, Where We Go From Here, defines this developing field as a “science that studies nature’s models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems.” A recent article in Business Pundit describes 10 amazing scientific advances due to the discovery of “new and interesting ways to steal Nature’s intellectual property” through biomimicry.
Elizabeth Lesser to Speak in Newtown, Connecticut
Omega cofounder Elizabeth Lesser and Episcopalian priest Reverent Ed Bacon will present a talk, Finding Your Invincible Summer, on May 9 at Newtown Middle School. The talk will help support the healing of a community torn apart by the deadly shooting of December 14, 2012. Drawing from a quote from Albert Camus, “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer,” Lesser and Bacon will offer hope that the community can move on in a way that honors the victims, the grieving process, and the promise of the future. The event is organized by the now-nationwide group Sandy Hook Promise, founded by Newtown friends and neighbors to heal and be part of the conversation about violence in America. The talk begins at 7:00 p.m., and is free and open to the public.
Keeping Your Balance When Serving Others
As part of the Yoga Service Interview Series, Beryl Bender Birch talks with Rob Schware about finding the balance between giving out and holding back when doing the work of yoga service. “Kind of like a star—finding balance between two opposing forces,” she says. “Thermonuclear fusion at the core of a star creates immense heat and radiates outward. Gravity tends to collapse the star. These two energies are in constant play with one another—they go back and forth between inward-pulling gravity and outward-pushing radiative heat. That's why stars twinkle. We are stars. Every element in our bodies was created in a star. We are destined to twinkle.”
Beryl Bender Birch and Rob Schware are part of the Yoga Service Conference, June 7–9
Veterans Find Peaceful Cure for Post-Traumatic Stress
For more than 20 years, Omega has been engaged with veterans and family members dealing with the after-effects of war known as post-traumatic stress. We recently hosted The Costs of War, Violence & Denial: A Retreat for Veterans Living With Post-Traumatic Stress on our Rhinebeck, New York campus. The annual retreat is led by Vietnam veteran, author, and Zen Buddhist monk, Claude AnShin Thomas and welcomes veterans, their family and friends to attend on scholarship. Columbia University’s Uptown Radio host, Alexandra Hall, attended the retreat and interviewed Thomas and some of the retreat participants about their experience dealing with the physical and spiritual wounds of war.
