St. David
GENA
Research-based
insights into your questions:
"Why does the problem of
violence feel overwhelming?"
"How can I start changing violent patterns... today?"
"What is happening inside my nonviolent brain?"
"Who is practicing nonviolence... and can I meet them?
In 2024, I embarked on the largest known grounded theory study of nonviolence to date.
I began interviewing nonviolent practitioners from across the world — Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and atheists — and pairing their experiences with neuroscience.
Thirty people like you and me who are practicing nonviolence in their daily lives – toward the planet, animals, or people.
What I heard changed everything.
What is happening inside
the nonviolent brain?
I was wrong to think nonviolence has to be stressful.
That was the unexpected finding of my research.
Nonviolence may be simpler than we think.
The fact that I was wrong has been a delightful surprise.
Because even though none of us is superhuman…
if nonviolence feels good, it may be
the superpower
we have been waiting for.
How to Give It Time
Lean in when pain’s
white-hot edge does pierce you
with amputation’s sting or
deprivation’s curse.
Do not force the
hourglass as the fierce do;
put your song of
misery into verse.
Recite—and do not cling to
blood already let;
desire to save the
limb will make it worse.
Allow your appetite
for time to wet.
The torch which reaches in
to burn your heart will find:
no fire known can melt
a diamond yet.
Trust the spark which
struck you was not blind;
and bid the flame begin to
ravish every tie,
that with denial’s end, all
knots unwind.
- GSD