M. A. Greenstein, Ph.D., R.Y.T. (a.k.a. Dr. G.) is the publisher/editor in chief of Bodiesinspace.com, and the founding director/chief brainiac of The George Greenstein Institute, Inc., the e-zine’s supporting patron.

As an internationally recognized author, keynote speaker and coach, I am dedicated to increasing global recognition of whole-brain, whole-body, whole-mind intelligence and neuroleadership. A meditation trainer at TED, a speaker on and member of The NeuroLeadership Institute and Mindshare.la, I remain committed to the generative social networking principle: Creative problem-solving begins with an awareness of breath and spawns through the matrix of collective genius.

Need more info? Here’s the scoop:

NeuroLeader and Coach in Whole-Brain/Whole Body Education:

I have long been compelled to study brain-mind science, mind-body philosophies and “East-West” studies — all three domains are rooted deeply within the foundations of my own system’s thinking about creativity, learning theory and wellness. As a young student in UCLA’s art history program, I focused on comparative art history with an emphasis upon ethnographic narratives. As a graduate dance student in UCLA’s movement therapy program, struggling with body image and OCD issues, I was at once drawn to, yet skeptical of triumphant human potential models of “optimal functioning.” My inner critic took me to The Claremont Graduate School, where I went on conduct doctoral research on mystical rhetoric and meditation traditions. During that time, I scouted around the perimeters of Neuro-Linguistic programming and the psychotheraputic use of hypnosis and went on to write my doctoral dissertation on the appropriated use of Asian “attention and awareness training” practices in American choreography and dance training.

After nearly 20 years of research and teaching in higher ed, I felt the call to push 21st century education and innovation into the global future, a future that brings whole-brain, whole body systems thinking to bear on the question of improving and sustaining life on Planet Earth. The George Greenstein Institute was born from that call and has since spawned new systems of e-learning, social entrepreneurialism and engaged leadership:

1) As Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of this website, I am committed to fostering new, world-wide networks of visionaries, thought leaders, critical thinkers, researchers and madcap inventors who are transforming the ways in which we train and improve the connectivity, creativity and quality of life on this planet.

2) Emerging as the “Creative’s Coach,” I set up a professional coaching and consulting group to partner with social entrepreneurs and cultural creatives, inventors and designers seeking high level coaching guidance. The heart of the work pulsates with energy born out of helping creatives recognize and master their own system’s approach to attend, integrate and transform design thinking and innovation practices.  In addition, as a master coach, I train other coaches, educators and interns to guide and assist “with the brain in mind.”  To learn more about my coaching practice go to http://greensteingroup.com.

Curious about my formative roots and past professional experience? Please read on:

Researcher of Somatic and Contemplative Arts

As a life long student and researcher of somatic, yogic and mindfulness traditions of the AsiaPacific region, I bring more nearly 30 years of personal and academic research inquiry to the question of the brain-mind-body integration. Fueled by experience, compassion and a Talmudic-like need to grasp deep, kernels of wholistic and quantum truth about human creativity and human knowing, I feel compelled to infuse in my transmission, a big picture appreciation of somatic and contemplative intelligence: My thoughts have been shaped by my good luck of studying with the best and the brightest of visionary somatic pioneers and contemplative teachers in the U.S. At the time of convergence, each of these courageous thinkers — Professors Val Hunt, Alma Hawkins and Masao Abe, and somatic researchers Emilie Conrad, Barbara Dilley, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen,– were working on their fundamental propositions of the evolving brain/mind/body connection, especially related to contemplative and systems studies of here and now, flow experiences.

In more recent years, I have had the distinct honor to study with master yogis Donna Farhi and Anthony Benenati, and Buddhist meditation with Ajahn Amaro of the Abhayagiri Monastery in Northern California. These practices were built on the foundations of my early hatha training in high school (with a Russian gymnast) and Kundalini studies with G. Khalsa in Los Angeles. In 2005, I became a Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance and remain a senior associate of Donna Farhi.  My love the ancient tradition rests with the deep meditative practice rooted in breath work and attention training — both shown to positively affect the health and well being of the human nervous system.

Internationally Recognized Author and Lecturer in Visual and Cross-Cultural Studies

Based in Los Angeles (and now Boulder) for most of my career, I have had the distinct pleasure to serve as visiting faculty in leading graduate and undergraduate programs in art and design throughout the globe. My colleagues — tough minded, hard working and international stars in their own right — along with thousands of students have pushed me to think beyond the limits of my own training and big picture conceptions. Where else could I have had the rich opportunity to encounter hands-on creativity, high-powered, brain-mind stimulation and engage face to face with deep thinkers on the cultural complexities of late modern globalism, if not at UCLA, The Claremont Colleges, Otis College of Art and Design, Maryland Institute-College of Art, University of Chicago, and design academies throughout the AsiaPacific region, including University of New South Wales and University of Melbourne? And in what other higher ed domains could I have easily innovated curriculum in urban ethnography, rhetorical practice, comparative aesthetics and neuro-somatic studies and mentored countless numbers of students, now working globally within creative industries? My years of teaching and writing for Los Angeles and AsiaPacific art journals have also afforded numerous international research and teaching stints throughout the AsiaPacific region, all supported by grants including the competitive Fulbright-Hays grant as Senior Scholar to Taiwan and China.

Today, in addition to publishing this ‘zine, coaching and running GGI, I remain an Adjunct Associate Professor at Art Center College of Design — a post that enables me to bring an enormous range of talents to the Brain Trust of Bodiesinspace.com.

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