The HeartWell Institute

12/21/2025

They’re being born into a world that has never existed before.
Babies arriving in 2025 mark the beginning of Generation Beta, the first generation to grow up completely surrounded by artificial intelligence, automation, and deeply integrated digital systems. For them, AI won’t be a tool they “learn later” — it will be part of the background of everyday life from the very start.
Generation Beta spans births from 2025 to 2039, following Gen Alpha, who witnessed the rise of smart technology and early AI. But where Gen Alpha adapted to digital tools, Gen Beta will coexist with them. AI will shape how they learn, communicate, explore, and solve problems almost from infancy.
Experts suggest these children will develop new cognitive patterns influenced by AI-rich environments. Virtual assistants may answer their questions before adults do. AI tutors could personalize learning in real time. Play, creativity, and even social interaction may be guided by intelligent systems, quietly reshaping what childhood looks like.
This reality is already forcing parents and educators to rethink everything. How do you raise a child who has never known life without AI? Skills like emotional intelligence, critical thinking, adaptability, and resilience may become more important than ever.
Generation Beta isn’t just another label — it’s a turning point. Their lives will blend human growth with digital guidance in ways we’ve never seen before. How society prepares for them won’t just shape their future — it will shape the future of education, work, and what it means to be human.

12/21/2025

In 2008, writer Rebecca Solnit described a familiar scene: at a party, a man confidently explained a book to her—without realizing she had written it. The story became the opening of an essay about a broader pattern many women recognize: being talked over, corrected, or treated as less credible, even when they are the expert.

That essay is best known today as “Men Explain Things to Me.” Solnit’s point was never “one rude man.” It was the cultural reflex behind the moment: the assumption that male confidence equals authority, and that women’s knowledge is optional.

The piece traveled widely and helped crystallize a feeling people had struggled to name. The popular term “mansplaining” is often linked to Solnit’s essay, even though she did not use that exact word. Over time, the term entered major dictionaries.

Across her work, Solnit keeps connecting the small and the structural. Everyday interruptions are not just awkward social slips; they sit on the same spectrum as larger forces that silence women in public life, in workplaces, and in culture. When one group’s perspective is treated as “neutral” or “universal,” other perspectives get pushed into side categories—separate shelves, separate labels, separate rooms.

Solnit also writes about how “polite” questions can function as pressure: questions that sound harmless, but subtly enforce what women should be, choose, or tolerate. The absence of open conflict, she argues, is not proof that everything is fine. Sometimes it means people have learned that speaking up comes with a cost.

What makes her writing last is its clarity. She doesn’t just describe injustice; she makes it visible. And once something becomes visible, it becomes harder to dismiss—and easier to change.

Sources:
Solnit, R. (2008). Men who explain things. Los Angeles Times.
Solnit, R. (2012). Men Explain Things to Me. Guernica.
Solnit, R. (2014). Men Explain Things to Me. Haymarket Books.
Merriam-Webster. (2018). Mansplaining: Words We’re Watching. Merriam-Webster.
Los Angeles Times. (2018). Oxford English Dictionary adds new words including “mansplain.” Los Angeles Times.
Solnit, R. (2016). Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities. Haymarket Books.
Solnit, R. (2020). Recollections of My Nonexistence. Viking.
Image: The Guardian

12/21/2025

12/21/2025

OUR NEXT TRAUMA TRAINING TUESDAY:
SELF-COMPASSION FOR HELPERS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 12-2pmET

People in supportive roles often hold themselves to higher standards, sometimes carrying tension or self-criticism. This session focuses on meeting oneself with kindness and understanding, which helps protect against emotional strain and supports long-term wellbeing. Key themes include gentleness, lightness, and supportive self-talk.

Sandy Lashin-Curewitz, Mindfulness Teacher, and Susan Buchholz, Executive Director from the Heartwell Institute for Mindfulness, will share practical tools you can use now to slow down and show yourself love and kindness in this busy season.

Join us on Zoom. (No need to RSVP.):
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81768933438?pwd=am9HZmxxSkg1TmRDTDBFRzMzdjlnUT09

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WorcesterACTs.org

12/21/2025

THE TRAUMA OF RACISM
In 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics added “Experiencing Racism” to the list of Adverse Childhood Experiences. BIPOC individuals living in America in 2020 did not need any pediatricians to tell them that, nor did generations of their ancestors. Racism is a trauma that impacts every area of civic life from health care to economic opportunity, to physical and social location to educational attainment to daily physical safety. White America has done everything possible to ignore the harm done and to shift responsibility back to the victims. Like every other trauma, not reckoning with it only makes it worse.
https://www.worcesteracts.org/node/29

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WorcesterACTs.org

12/21/2025

❄️ Celebrate the Longest Night of the Year! 🌌

On this day, the Sun reaches its lowest point in the sky for the Northern Hemisphere, marking the Winter Solstice—the shortest day and longest night of the year.

Meanwhile, in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the Summer Solstice, bringing the longest day and shortest night of the year.

🌌 Whether you’re embracing the long, quiet night or enjoying extended daylight, this moment marks a powerful turning point in Earth’s annual journey around the Sun—when the light begins its slow return.

12/21/2025

THE TRAUMA OF COLONIZATION
How does colonization harm all of us?
https://www.worcesteracts.org/node/19

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WorcesterACTs.org

12/21/2025

There is something special about meditating in a group. That sense of share experience, of like-minded people engaging in a practice to benefit themselves and everybody else too! There is the sense that the group is there for each other. Smiles are shared, kind words are offered and there is the opportunity for a deepening of our practice.

As part of our commitment to making mindfulness available to as many people as possible, the Mindfulness Association offer free online guided meditations from Monday to Friday on Zoom (the sessions are at 10:30 and 19:00 UTC).

The daily sit is open to all comers and are an excellent way to prioritise your mindfulness practice.

Why not join us!?! https://www.mindfulnessassociation.net/free-resources/free-daily-online-mindfulness-meditation/

12/20/2025

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WorcesterACTs.org