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Last December at the Habitat JAM, there was a meaning-full conversation about spirituality and it's relationship to sustainability. It emerged from a few thoughts I shared in seeding the dialogue. Many people showed up to share their points of view in this unprecedented, three-day online conversation. This topic continues to come up and seems particularly timely with all we see going on across the world. I still remember some of the "meaning-full" insights that ERIC from Canada offered at the Habitat Jam. I pasted them in below. Following, I've also offered my reflections and invite you to share your thoughts:
INSIGHTS FROM ERIC from Canada:
1. Many sustainability discussions are "outer-focused" (i.e. how can WE get someone ELSE to change?). To be more effective, I believe we need to shift from "what should others be doing to be more sustainable" to "how do we help people discover what matters most and is most sustainable to them?" For some it will be about creating work which is fulfilling and provides sufficient income (without being overly consumptive). For others, it will be about resolving conflicts in relationships. For still others, coming to peace in our battle with time.
These are all sustainability issues, and we all face them. In fact, I'm coming to see that "sustainability" is really about helping each other deal with the very real challenges of being human.
2. My experience of spirituality and sustainability is that both are deeply inside jobs (or begin there). For example:
- Finding what matters within us, listening to our values/meaning, purpose/call, higher wisdom.
- Acting on what is powerful, meaningful and alive in us (and true to us)
- Doing what we personally can do, rather than getting others to change first.
- Communicating what matters to us, in our words/actions
- Attracting others because it speaks to them. They want to do it, and feel this way, too.
- Building community by sharing our truths, and being willing to listen (deeply) to others.
These steps seem to me to be at the core of most fundamental change. It expresses what Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."
Moving from a culture based on consumption/control/violence to one of caring for the earth/each other requires a fundamental shift in our values and consciousness. Whether it's called deepening our humanity, listening to indigenous wisdom or embracing our spirituality, the shift must come from deep within each of us."
MY REFLECTIONS:
I agree with ERIC that so much of the sustainability discussion is focused on fixing things "outside" of ourselves that we often miss the ultimate source of sustainable energy--the human spirit. Even on an intrapersonal level, there is so much that each of us can do to improve sustainability in our personal lives--through our choice of attitude and actions.
On an interpersonal level, each of us also has many opportunities to improve sustainability through how we "choose" to interact with our neighbors, broadly-defined. Whether we like it or not, we're all "role models" for others. And each of us has a personal responsibility to decide what kind of role model we want to be. NBA coach Phil Jackson, in his book, Sacred Hoops, notes:
"It's more important to be aware then it is to be smart."
As we participate in dialogues like the Habitat JAM that attracted 39,000 people from 180+ countries over three days in December, as well as other gatherings, we will raise the level of awareness that we have of ourselves, of each other, and of the planet for the better of all humankind. The human quest for meaning, in my opinion, has to "drive" sustainability, not the other way around. Human beings should not be marginalized by treating them like mice running around in a maze looking for cheese!
"The true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as if it were a closed system." ---Viktor Frankl
What are your thoughts?
All the best,
Alex
Alex Pattakos, Ph.D.
author, Prisoners of Our Thoughts
founder, Center for Meaning
Santa Fe, NM USA www.themeaningdifference.com
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