Last spring, Siva Sabaretnam, VP of User Experience at SAP, invited me to conceive a full-day event for the 100+ member UX team at SAP America, Inc. Palo Alto. I proposed that we focus on the role of emotional intelligence and mindfulness in user experience, and Siva adamantly agreed. With the pervasiveness of technology in [Keep Reading…]
What the Mind Alone Can Never Know
An excerpt from my dialogue with Paul McAleer on our podcast Designing Yourself, Episode #12: High on Life (originally aired April 7, 2014), with minimal editing for readability. “Your body language shapes who you are.” Amy Cuddy is a researcher, and she speaks with the science rhetoric. What her study found and the way she [Keep Reading…]
And I’m brought back
An excerpt from my dialogue with Paul McAleer on our podcast Designing Yourself, Episode #11: Good Intentions (originally aired March 3, 2014), with minimal editing for readability. At the beginning of a yoga class, when all of us are sitting on our mats, taking our initial deep breaths, getting centered and trying to be in [Keep Reading…]
Recap: Designing Yourself – Season 2
For many of us, deeper understanding comes only in conversation with another. That is often the case with my friend Paul McAleer and me. After meeting at the 2013 IA Summit, we immediately realized that many of the same topics were on our minds and questions in our hearts. We started having some pretty spectacular [Keep Reading…]
12 Months of The Pastry Box
In 2014, I had the privilege of sharing 12 months of my innermost thoughts on The Pastry Box Project. It’s a place where 30 people a year, leaders from a variety of fields, are brought together through collaborative sharing and interweaving of stories to reveal undeniable truths about the human condition. Below is a roundup [Keep Reading…]
If Not Now
In my July contribution to The Pastry Box Project, If Not Now, published on the eve of my 32nd birthday, I share my lifelong struggle with seeking approval — and that perfect intersection of readiness and permission where everything seems to click. When I turned 30, I suddenly had this realization that I was officially [Keep Reading…]
Who Do We Think We Are?
In my April contribution to The Pastry Box Project, Who Do We Think We Are?, I share my frustration with the rampant intellectual bullying I have observed in our community, and how I’ve overcome my own tendency to contribute to it. Now we’ve all heard the saying about the cobbler’s children having no shoes, and [Keep Reading…]
Searching for Space
In my March contribution to The Pastry Box Project, Searching for Space, I share the story of why I left NY to find what I was looking for, and how I eventually found it within myself. My heart started racing. My palms got sweaty. I couldn’t breathe. I felt faint. Out of nowhere I screamed [Keep Reading…]
Awakening to Buddhism
I’ve been a Buddhist my entire life — though I didn’t know to call it that until recently. I made a career out of reducing human suffering. In 2002, I was called to Human-Computer Interaction to reduce the suffering caused by technology, the result of a lack of mindfulness and compassion in the design and [Keep Reading…]
Where Compassion is Born
An excerpt from my dialogue with Paul McAleer on our podcast Designing Yourself, Episode #9: Embracing the Suffering (originally aired October 1, 2013), with minimal editing for readability. The things we don’t like in others are the things we don’t fully understand. It’s a sign we haven’t gone out of our way to develop empathy [Keep Reading…]
