About Kairos
Kairos Project
Kairos Network
Support Kairos
Resources for Caregivers
The work of Kairos is to:
· Provide support for people who are committed to bringing the consciousness of heart into human service work.
· Raise awareness of the risks and potentials of working deeply with the human condition, human development and trauma, and the needs of helpers.
· Explore, through pilot projects in burnout prevention and support, the re-empowerment of the individual within his/her profession and the return of meaning to both work and service.
· Conduct research on how the human heart and psyche affect the workplace, as well as how the workplace affects the heart, body and psyche.
To support Kairos, join the Kairos Network or participate in Kairos Projects:
call 845-598-1727
email: RIMBE@email.com
Kairos: Help for Helping Professionals
Kairos is a Greek word for time. Not measured, scheduled linear time that we are used to thinking about, which is described by the other Greek word for time, Kronos. Kairos is a word for synchronistic time, “right timing”, or one might say “spiritual time". According to Wikipedia, Kairos is “a moment of undetermined time in which something special happens.” This quality of time underlies all important human developmental processes that unfold of their own accord and according to their own mysteries, such as birth, death, learning, growth, maturation and healing. It is a principle that belies intrinsic processes, one that follows laws of flow and pulsation, rather than extrinsically driven processes, which are perhaps driven more by the plans and goals of ego, mind and will.
Neither Kronos or Kairos is inessential; neither more or less important than the other. However it must be acknowledged that we live in a time that is heavily skewed to “Kronos thinking” and that this imbalance has had peculiar, unintended consequences, particularly with regard to the activities of human nurturing and care.
The word Kairos was chosen for this group to support helping professionals because this quality of time is essential to doing any of the human service work of importance. It is a quality of time that is uniquely associated with the energy and intentions of the heart, rather than the mind.
Perhaps Kairos is important to all work anywhere, but this acknowledgement is often missed in support venues for human development and change. We see this in the fact that passionate and intrinsically motivated teachers, nurses, hospice workers, doctors, birth professionals, social workers and many others who work in Kronos-based agencies and institutions are often unhappy in their work, experiencing burnout at alarming rates, many leaving the fields that they love prematurely or in disillusionment. Attempts to put support for human development on a chronological, outcomes-based grid may contribute to exhaustion in work, as well as diminish joy, creativity and pleasure on both sides of a helping relationship.
In response to the problems of caregivers, Kairos is formed as an activity of the Rockland Institute for Mind/Body Education to perform nonprofit activities. These activities explore whether constructs external to the workplace can be found to support and re-empower professionals, parents and caregivers in their work.
True to the spirit of Kairos, it is an unfolding, collective exploration rather than a top-down delivered destination or one that offers fixed answers. Kairos is an invitation to caregivers to participate in finding solutions and being solutions for self and others.
Principles of Kairos are:
· Dedication to the idea of right unfolding and personal empowerment in all human developmental processes as well as all work to support developmental processes.
· Focus on the use of helping roles to learn and grow with another, rather than to control, manipulate toward an external outcome or be heroic.
· Empowerment and respect for the dignity of each person’s inner processes of development.
· Respect for the dignity of our own inner processes and creativity as a helpers, making studying and empowering these processes part of supporting and witnessing others.
· Dedication to principles and practice of self-care, including physical care, emotional care, spiritual care, inner processing, peer support and review.
Present Projects of Kairos Include:
The Kairos Network for Death, Dying and Eldercare Professionals
The Kairos Project
