552. How It's Built: A 400+ Person Mindfulness Community for 200 Feeding America Network Food Banks - Megan Whitney
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Overview
Meet Megan. She’s a nonprofit pro, certified coach, and meditation teacher. In this How It’s Built episode, she’s sharing how she started a thriving mindfulness community of over 400 people at Feeding America, the largest nonprofit in the U.S. Discover the power of mindfulness in addressing workplace stress, improving organizational culture, and enhancing personal well-being. Tune in for a practical playbook for bringing mindfulness to your org🧘♀️
💡 Learn
The Impact of Mindfulness at Feeding America
How It’s Built: Creating a Mindfulness Community
Pro Tips + Lessons Learned
Today’s Guest
Megan Whitney, Sr. Manager of Network Fundraising, Feeding America
“It’s not as important exactly what words you say. It’s really your tenacity and willingness to put yourself out there.”
Episode Transcript
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Episode Highlights
A Minute to Arrive (1:45)
Megan’s story and journey to where she is today (6:45)
The impact of bringing mindfulness to Feeding America (14:40)
How It’s Built: Start a mindfulness community (20:50)
How to start mindfulness in your day (30:05)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Megan’s life (36:50)
Megan’s One Good Thing: Breathing in, I do my best. Breathing out, I let go of the rest. (41:30)
How to connect with Megan (44:05)
Impactful Quotes
"How we do the work is just as important as what the work is." - Deepa Iyer
"How can I be the me the world needs, not the me I'm comfortable with?" -Reggie Hubbard
"Breathing in, I do my best. Breathing out, I let go of the rest."
"We want calm minds, energized hearts in this work, and we need you deeply." - Becky
"It's not as important exactly what words you say. It's really your tenacity and willingness to put yourself out there." - Megan
"We can't just start speaking our truth responsibly or deeply listening or experiencing discomfort and saying the thing anyway, if we don't have the muscle of mindfulness to like pause and recognize that something needs to be said or that we've caused a moment of harm." -Megan
"I just believe deeply in the fact that we have to rewire, re-engineer, everything about the way that we approach our work." -Becky
“We can practice mindfulness right now.” -Megan
Playbook for starting a mindfulness community ⬇️
Start small and experiment
Make it inclusive and understand what people want
Share the idea with people and see what they want to get from a mindfulness group
Set a regular time and format
Use a simple agenda
Feeding America’s agenda includes a welcome and introductions, sharing intentions in chat or verbally, guided "Minute to Arrive" practice, Llnger guided meditation (often using apps like Insight Timer or Calm) and optional social meditation for sharing experiences
Establish group norms and incorporate diverse perspectives
Use meditations from various teachers of different backgrounds
Allow for organic growth
Feeding American’s community has grown to over 400 people
Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy
Connect with Megan
Connect with Jon
Connect with Becky
CONNECT WITH WE ARE FOR GOOD
Join the We Are For Good Community
You can think of it as the after-party to each podcast episode 🥳
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