Repatterning #2: Essence through Discernment ( Regen / Regenerative Principle 2)
Repatterning
This is all about how we go from extractive practice to regenerative practice. I don't know everything, but I'm doing my best so that we can learn together. We're doing this through the Regen principles from the work of Carol Sanford. So a big acknowledgement to her. She's played a big role in this place. If you haven't heard of her name, go check her out.
If you prefer reading, do a big scroll for me to get past my pretty face
If you prefer audio, we got you
A big hello to all you beautiful snowflakes and the people who think snowflakes is a derogatory term. I'm obviously a snowflake because I'm wearing a pink hat, right? Well, I'll let you discern that with your brain, your body, your heart. Who knows, maybe your spirit. You're back with repatterning #2. This is brought to you from Kaurna country, Kaurna land. It always was, it always will be.
Repatterning #1 Recap: Whole Living Beings
In the first repatterning, we talked about the principle that we always start with a whole. There are whole living beings and we have to hold that whole. And we can do that by being open.
If you missed it, read/watch/listen here:
Hello Bioregional Institute
2nd Regen Principle - Essence
Each whole living being has its own essence.
Join the conversation on Linkedin
So those people who were saying you're a snowflake, they're probably right.
The way you do your job, even if you are in the exact same role, is going to be completely different to how someone else does their job, even in these little little tweaky intricacies.
Every doctor does doctoring in a completely different way. Every dancer does dancing in their own unique energy. Every artist paints in their own way.
Two Educators Two Experiences
I'm an educator, at least that's what I think I do. And I do that completely differently to one of my awesome colleagues that I look up to, Lucy. I can never do educating how she does it.
She's been trained in improv, she's been trained in theatre. I haven't. I do it in a very, very different way. But we both get beautiful experiences that help people shift not just the way that you think, but -
The way that you are in your being, how you show up in the world, and how your spirit and your will influence what you want to do and how much energy that you want to put into things. So every whole living being has their own essence.
Sensing, experiencing another's Essence (what a gift?!)
You look at a little kid, you can tell where their energy goes, what gives them life, what gives them that vitality.
You can do the exact same thing for a place, a whole living ecosystem.
If you have ever been to Sydney, you know that it feels very different to being in New York. There's a very different energy that place has.
From the work of regenerative practitioners, the premise is that this comes from the energy of how that earth was formed, how the layers of energy over time have built up the way that essence is expressed as a particular type of potential.
Bali Ain't Cornwall
Based on another principle we'll talk about a little bit later, Bali feels very different in your body, how it processes you, to a rural country town in England. The energy is completely different and it's how we work with that energy or against that energy.
What shall we then do?
Do we extract that energy? Do we take away from it and reduce its life? Or do we give energy back and nourish and honor the energy in the essence of that place, that whole living being? You can do this with yourself.
Do you lean into who you are, your core sound, the essence, the way you move in the world? Or do you shy away from it? And acknowledging here, the external environment we live in can make this really fkin hard. It's a big time to be and show up as your authentic self. From spending time with Auntie Ange, what she talks about is every person has this sound, this unique energy, this unique essence. A lot of cultures around the world believe that every person has this uniqueness to them. And it's how we come into relationship that we can support each other.
Why does this matter?
To have a regenerative life in a regenerative community, we start with a whole living being. And through openness, we can sense into that whole. You need to then be able to discern its essence, your own essence, your community's essence, your bioregion's essence. And through that discernment is where it becomes really important because, is this just this one time it pops up? Building our capability to discern through all of our senses, not just our head.
Alivened Sensing
Like I said to people who think snowflake is a derogatory term, I said go...
Think about it AND go use your body.
How does it feel? Go use your spirit. What do you know?
We can choose to listen to just our brain, but we have a lot of other sensory parts of our bodies.
You know in your body when you've done something wrong, not just in your head,
you know what the right thing to do is.
where does that come from? will you be open to listening?
Discerning Tracks and Patterns
Building the ability to discern between what is a track, something that has happened, and then a pattern that is occurring through time. And obviously patterns change, but being really core to each being is an essence that will be expressed in a particular way depending on the environment that's around it.
Context influences behaviour. Environment and conditions influence Potential
A lot of kids who have ADHD or other learning disabilities do really badly in a traditional classroom where they're being told what to do. They have to sit down all day. As soon as you put them into an open learning space where they can follow their interest, what they care about, and what gives them novelty and meaning over time, have some flexible arrangements, they thrive.
Developmental Work
And so my questions for us
how, or what, or when have you been able to use your alivened sensing — all the different senses in your body - to discern the essence of a whole living being?
How did that go?
What did it feel like compared to putting preconceived ideas of who or what they are onto that whole being, person, place or thing?
What was the effect/impact and significance of how you related with that being? What potential did it allow?