Cool. I'm happy kid just received some kind of questions off the top. As some of you know from the call last week, I was definitely not feeling well,
last week.
hit the wrong button.
And I declared it a kind of cosmic overwhelm. And I'm definitely still feeling the cosmic overwhelm, but I feel a bit more able to navigate it. So um, yeah, I'm feeling like, life is a little strange and wobbly. But I have amazing friends and inner capacities, many of which are fortified by youth. So I'm very glad to be here today.
Awesome. Is
there anything that you want to bring today that you might like to have us? talk with you about or? Yes.
Yeah,
quick, you just still listening to the way we navigate this time? I think, which is generally what I find we do. So nothing specific. If it comes up.
I'll put it in the chat.
Okay. Cool. Thanks for the rain. Thank you. Who's next? I can jump in. I didn't get enough
sleep last night. We had a great Equinox celebration here. And it was such a beautiful evening, and I had a space cookie and, and just ideas started really channeling through me. And it was so exciting. And I didn't get enough sleep. And today, I just haven't, for the first time not really coat all that well, like, just on lack of sleep. And then I had a coffee. So I'm like doubling the trouble. And then I realized, and I had a difficult decision with someone who started to get involved with it, things are getting kind of fast. And I'm finding myself especially with coffee, racing to sort of treadmill along to make it happen and not being really in my center. So yeah, for the first time by I'm having to really rely on the tools and techniques. So it's very timely to be here and get that that they get that offer of support there. Thanks, Louisa. So yeah, I guess my question is, is asking the wisdom on how to be okay with all the kind of flurry and, you know, just just keep on the path.
Cool. Thanks, Karen. Who's next?
I'll jump in. Good time seems to be racing by. I don't have anything to work on in today's call for myself as showing up in support. Got a lot going on. Looking forward to today's call. So that's me.
Like a follow up.
Yeah, I'm kind of pramana a week long journey with a lot of Connect points and a lot of growth and filling in the blanks. And so for me the struggle is keeping track of all of the profundity so that I don't lose too much of it. And taking good notes so that I can integrate it once I get back home in a week. And I will see you and Louisa tomorrow. Yes, the profundity won't cease
tomorrow or tonight.
Or tonight. Tonight. Tonight.
Okay. Too much. Okay.
Thanks, Tim. Jared, I think I saw your hand.
Yes. So Hi everybody. I'm glad to be back sorry they've been gone for a while. So yeah, where the lots of things are underway and like you said it's a brand new season and haven't gotten any sleep in about three or four days which is turned away on me to be honest with you. tired but you know it There's there's like a kind of this moment of several different inflection points in this idea. You go this way. Do you work on that? Do you work on that? And I was listening to something the other day, and it was Alan Watts just jumped in there and goes, Hey, it doesn't matter what the path is. All the paths are the right path. So just go. And I was like, Oh, crap, that's great. So I'm just trying to go so glad to see you guys. And that's pretty much it. Thanks.
For thanks, Jared. Hi, hi, Alison, nice to see you here. We're just doing, we're just doing a chicken. And we're also offering that if you have something that you're struggling with, please bring it into the chicken making a note of it. And we'll we'll be putting our brains together to provide some support. So that's the offer if you'd like to, you don't have to. But let's we're still in the middle of checking. So we'll just keep going. Who would like to go next?
I'll jump in. I don't really have anything to offer to be helped with things you're sort of rocking along. I'm doing some pretty deep Shadow Work. But it's very satisfying. I'm
writing and
thinking about how well I guess I could pose that as a problem half. My my organization, tomorrow's women is working with a very old change theory, something called theory of change. And I don't know quite how to address that. So that's an issue that you might help me with. was, um, I'm good.
Glad to be here. Cool. Thank you, Sue. All right, who's next?
I think I sort of mirror some of the things people have mentioned in terms of, I feel like there's a flurry of things. And I just feel like I'm in a flurry and just need to focus. And probably, as Jared said, any path is a good path. At this point. Yeah.
And
it's remarkable how, even though there's a flurry of things, there's an element of a similarity to all of those things. Cool. Thank
you, Mary. And I think Allison, I think you're the last one. So would you like to just check in how you doing?
Oh, I'm having trouble hearing you.
Almost can hear you very faint.
She might have been having trouble. She's now she's on mute.
I think she said she was having a hard time hearing us and she might have some connectivity issues. Yeah.
Okay. She says, Okay.
Cool.
Oh, we have Sam coming in as well. Wow, we have quite a quite a nice group today.
Hey, Sam. Hey, Sam. Can you hear him?
Can you hear us?
Hello?
Hey, how are you? Good.
I'm great.
We would just throw out chicken. So I just wanted if you wanted to quickly, just chicken tell us how you're doing? Has has everything in your realm.
Yeah, wow. It's been a long time since I joined. kind of put my head in the ground for the summer. And I was working in a restaurant. But we are the restaurants just opened in this summer. And so we're closed down now and I'm kind of transitioning back into these kinds of conversations. So yeah, it's a beautiful day. I'm sitting outside watching leaves fall. And yeah, curious to just hang out say hi and listen in.
Cool, welcome.
Oh, All right, so why don't we jump into a bit of an update on the school? And then we'll take a look at some of the topics that have been put forward today. Jeff, would you like to run the chicken? The
update the update? Yeah. So most of you have been in this conversation there's a couple of you who haven't been so let me just recap it affected the best way to recap it might be to say that this summer, Louisa and I had the opportunity to sort of step back and reflect and ask ourselves where we're going, where's the school going, where's magenta going. And part of that was prompted by a business imperative to increase revenues and realizing that the school at the same time that the school in this community needs to be free of that. So we needed to decouple our own revenue stream from this community and the school. And that led us to realize okay, well we can, we can look at this differently, we can take a new angle here. And part of this was prompted by just world events, looking at lockdowns and border crossings and this and that and looking at our family situation realizing that the elder daughter has moved out of the country, the younger daughter is graduating and wants to move out of the country. And the reason I are kind of looking at our next phase of life and so there's there's personal, there's social, there's business, and boiling that down, we first thought okay, we're going to shift the value proposition of world maker and streamline the course and really just make it about people building creative capacity, you know, the kind of the person will work on that and put the social sculpture and social change more on the back burner. This week, we really took a look at that and decided, Okay, that may come but let's actually just finish the course first. And so we're going to basically keep module one as it is module two, videos one through three as they are and we're going to hurry up and produce a video to close up module two and this is new to this is new information for everybody on the call, we're going to we're going to look at the end of module two because I've written three more videos but not produce them. We're going to we're going to work on that and then we're going to we're not going to produce four videos for module three we're going to do a number a smaller number but just to streamline and and get it done so that to the people who are ready for content which is most of you all get that content bug is biting into me.
So we're going to do that and finish PDFs for modules 456 and seven. So that is the that's the roadmap from here. And so Louisa and I are kind of dividing and conquering and I'm working on that and there there will be updates soon on that so that should catch everybody up more or less on what we're doing you will continue to have access to everything that we're producing we just have needed to change this mountain range into instead of 27 mountains and 42 videos to make you know to climb and to make we have had to streamline it so that we can go ahead and get a first version a simpler first version completely done and then the last thing is to just then hand that to more to the community and and listen to the community to you guys. Where does this need to go where is this useful? How How should we grow as a community what should we do and there's some little technical updates that we're going to roll out we're probably going to switch out of buddy boss and and move over to discord and other things like that, but they're pretty minor details. So that's the update.
Cool.
Thanks, Jeff. One more thing to say on that and that is we decided to include on these weekly calls. We decided to include you guys much more into our internal processes because It has been quite a radical creative journey to first of all, begin the school, produce the school, and then pivot and adjust as we go. And we wanted to just invite the community to watch and participate as people have energy. Because we really do want this to be a co creative process, and feedback and ideas and participation and whatever, wherever your energy is, is always interesting to us. So that's, that's one thing. And the other thing is just to just a quick reminder, that if you do need and want some one on one support, we're always here. And you just have to send us an email, if you are interested in in this module to help. I'm the person for phenomenology, which is module one, and also module three, which is not yet coming out. But the sort of more meditative daily practices, which I suspect we may talk a bit about today. Both of us can support you in that. So just a quick reminder about that. Don't be shy. And I'm sorry, if you've reached
out to me, and I haven't responded. I have no excuse.
Get back. Yeah. Cool. So let's switch our attention to some of the questions that came up. So there's this theme of Flurry, which I think is a global experience with the pace of things and the pace of confusion. I'm not sure. I'd like to hear a bit more from you, Karen about that. And I think Mary, you mirrored that as well. Let's see what else can
I just speak first to the theory of change thing that mom? Oh, yeah. Because it's pretty quick. Yeah. Is that okay?
Absolutely.
Let me just say, to my mom, you have a kind of inside track to my mind, because we chat offline. And I think theory of change is very much still in use in the broader change Community and Social Impact world. To me, it is a waste of time, largely, because it's simply the articulation of a guess. Okay, it's an educated guess about how things will go. But I know from experience that those guesses
will be wrong.
So when when an organization has a theory of change, they often do that, because their funders want to see a theory of change. And it's been adopted into the industry so far that they'll have to put that and articulate that into the grant. So the funder wants some certainty about their money, and what what they can then measure, okay, but the entire edifice, the entire belief that we're going to have a plan implemented, see the plant changes and be able to measure is something that if you look closely, it just falls apart again, and again, and again, and again. So it or often, you'll see that people roll it out, and they'll get their metrics, but they will, they will often ignore the collateral damage, or they'll measure what they want to measure that proves that, you know, proves that they're not wasting money or whatever. So for me, personally, the whole thing is highly suspect, and I don't have anything to do with theories of change anymore. I think it's better to have a theory of creativity, and a theory of CO creation that you that you can use to engage people and create new realities with them. Because the social medium is always co creative and emergent, as we've said many times, so it's so in the industry, to the theory of change is completely normal and accepted. It's just, it's just that magenta in the school where I'm calling into question but I would have a lot of colleagues that would disagree with me or would not know what I'm talking about. So just an FYI.
Cool Just to sort of build on that,
incorporating when Lauren,
Lauren say, Oh, yeah,
more, Jeff, my theory of change on theory of change is to stop articulating theory of change in order to change.
What should I look into in terms of, sort of see I tells you, so you shouldn't not know not I mean, I wouldn't say that, but I'm just what do I look for? New persons Come on the board who's brought this in and,
you know,
just get out, it's just, it's not it's, it's an indicator that they, we can talk about this offline, okay. But it's a dead end, in my view. Okay. We can talk about it here two more, if people want to talk about it, but I'm happy to give some advice offline. Okay. It's just a big indicator that the person bringing that is following an established convention that helps people have conversation. The problem is people walk into it and have the expectation that it will actually happen as planned. And they often lack the know how, and the ability to pivot, and engage in relationship and emergence enough to actually make real things happen. And so theory of change often says, We don't know what we're doing, but we're going to pretend that we do. Okay, that's it. I know. It's a bit brutal, but yeah. Not Yeah. Jerry, that's a good question. Um, no.
To be honest, yeah. Yeah. To be honest, that is one reason the reason I stepped back this summer and thought, this entire industry is molded around a concept of, of change and a concept of humanity. That is, that is oil and water for us. And we saw that, especially with the pandemic. Yeah, all this rollout of the, of the authoritarianism in the in the one size fits all to, to medicine and health, really raised our shackles, we were like, this is not going to go well, right. And we found in the social in the social impact industry wasn't being questioned. And that prompted us to, like, admit that we need to get out of this industry and just serve people in their own development somehow. There's,
there's use, like I'm utilizing some of that language in conversations that I'm having, and, you know, one in five, are either receptive to it or hear it. And for like, What language is that? And like, that's the language that I'm interested in helping you move towards. But if you're unfamiliar with it, you don't know if you want to move there anyways.
Yeah. This is a question that I think we could take quite seriously. Because we might have a sense that social realities are always co created. But there is not a language in broad use, that helps people understand and utilize that observation.
is like, I wonder if there's like a bridge to get people from where they've been to, you know, the reality is of whatever their hybrid scenario is, and what the language is from point A to point z. How do you get from from here to there?
You do you find that because of the pandemic, there has been a buckling down into convention and ways of thinking that feels safer. So this is a this has been our experience. But I wonder if the rest of you have noticed or intuited that that's been happening, people have been snapping back to what they know, with greater alacrity, and therefore less open to new languages, new concepts, new ways of thinking about change.
It's true to say,
Yep, I think some of it, I think people are, you know, I just read an article in Harvard Business Review, and they're like, how do we do hybrid, right, right. And so there's the recognition Have something's different than it was a year and a half ago, they're having a harder time hiring people, people are quitting on mass, you know, all of those things. And what business, my limited experience has always done is like, oh, things are scary, put your tie back on, and let's tighten it back up. Yeah, that doesn't that's that's that model isn't working for them. And it's getting, you know, the more they squeeze, the more people leave. I don't think they've gotten to what the other side is yet, because they want to apply the model that they've always used.
The restaurant that I was working at over the summer, I started there last summer, near the beginning of the pandemic. And I mean, just in terms of staying open as a restaurant, there was a lot that we had to change order to follow the rules. And I think in a lot of ways, I saw that as other people there saw it as an opportunity to try things differently. And I've really been using that momentum to Yeah, to bring in some of these ideas like, like this theory of creativity.
It's fun. So
I would say that direction for that specific group that I'm working with.
So very to Karen's point, it's been varied the response for some, it's been an opportunity. For others, it's been a buckling down because of fear as a response.
Any other thoughts on that? Yeah, go ahead. And say,
I feel like there's a third challenge, which is, like,
I'm
noticing with some people that I've been working with for a number of years, there's a kind of openness where if I lean in, in a way that's more creative, or courageous, or whatever, they're like, oh, we're allowed to do that. And they'll sort of come along. Whereas if I don't, if I double down on like, well, this is what we did before. So let's just do it this way. Cuz we know that like, yeah, let's just do it that way. So the way I interpret that is almost like a hunger for leadership, where there's a lot of like, I don't I don't understand what's happening. And so I found where I have found my courage and my stride have been like, let's just kind of go this way and see what happens and take care of each other as we go. There's like a, okay, you know, in my hand, and I'm even seeing that in pretty corporate, like most of my paid work is in a pretty traditional corporate environment. I think it's partly the pandemic, and I'm noticing a confluence that I don't think is random, which is certainly in large corporate conversations, of very growing awareness of the quickly growing awareness of the climate situation, which for them is a risk management challenge. That is like giant, and they're like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. So anything that's looking like a path forward, they're like, Yeah, well, let's try that.
And
what it's looking like, although, Karen, I really also agree with your comfort point, like if, depending on how much you're being squeezed and pushed, I think is really influencing how much of a dynamic situation that is.
Any other any other last thoughts?
Yeah, I mean, I think I think one of the realizations for us this summer has also been and this last year is who, who we're helping and who we can't help or who we're not helping. And I know there's a lot of really good people who can hold people's hands and walk them into not knowing and there's some of you on this call, who I admire and respect because you're very good at that. Our friend Steve Atkinson is very good at that. I think Louisa is better at that than I am. I
have no interest in that.
Where and I think one of our strengths is, is however, okay, I'm I'm comfortable going into the unknown. Now what do I do and so on. That's really a different question. So I'm just highlighting that because we can, I think a lot of you in your check ins expressed, okay, so I'm in the unknown. Now, what are the disciplines and tools and practices for swimming in that unknown, for growing in that unknown, and embracing that unknown indefinitely, and being creative and productive in that unknown. And that the reason I'm highlighting this is that that's the future. That's the future of humanity. That's, that's, that is, for a lot of reasons. We're gonna go into at all scales, just radical unknowns, and there's going to be huge temptation for solutions coming from distant authorities. Like, oh, we'll solve it for you. So anyway, for what it's worth, that that space of not knowing, is a space of potentially a space of real liberation and productivity and creativity and connection. But it does require kind of swimming together. In that unknown, you know, to Susan, Sam's point creating together and co creating together, and then the life comes back. You know, then people can be real together, and they can be vulnerable together, and they can actually suit see who they are, because they're not hiding behind the theory of change, or the fixed thought, or the projected identity and all those things that just get in the way. So, anyway, it's worth mentioning, because there's a there isn't. There's a hygiene, there's disciplines, there's tools, there's practices for thriving in the indefinite unknown.
And I wonder if Lorraine, if that relates to what you said in your chicken? How, how do we navigate? And I wonder if that is related also, to what Karen, what you mentioned about being in the flurry, so how to stay centered, and how to stay on your path in the midst of all of this? So it seems to be all very much related. Is that true to say, Karen? and Laurie? What did you mean something slightly different?
Yay,
it feels true. And actually, it reminds me of an experience that I've been practicing recently, which I hadn't realized was so related until you just said it, which is, so I live just on the St. Lawrence River. And there's a lot of rapids here. And there's a lot I could say about that. But one of the things is that I noticed I've really been wanting to get in the river. But there's not a lot of like, people just don't get in this river for a few different reasons. But finally, a couple of weeks ago, I was like, screw it, I'm getting in the river, even though I don't really know where or how to swim in rapids. And what I've learned is it's really easy to swim in rapids, if you get into a place where you can lean forward and just kind of swim against the current. And so I found like the rapids are teaching me how to swim in route. Like, I know how to swim. I'm a very strong swimmer. But in rapids, it's a totally different ballgame. So it's like, I don't know how to do this, but it looks like it's doable. And I'm just gonna let this water come at me. And if I get it wrong, I go down the river, like really fast. This is a crazy River. But if I get it, right, I'm actually just like any old rock in the river. And the water just keeps coming. And then it's amazing. I have my goggles on, and the water is coming over my goggles. And I'm like, I'm just in this river. And I'm not I don't even have to navigate. I just have to behave like the other things in the river, like this rock over here. Are these comrades who know how to perch on it perfectly. So yeah, it's been a really good experience to just stop trying to navigate and just actually stop. And then the rivers like, this is how we do it. That's so
cool. What a great example. Yeah, I mean,
I think that illustrates Well, the picture that I'm holding with all the organizations I'm interacting with is, you know, that that trigger response to the flurry is okay, isolate as many variables as we can, so we can get a simple clear picture, even if it's not true, and deal with the variables that we have minimized it down to. I think that's one of the ways people end up in the old forms and old things are things you know, that's, that's not a new form. So that's a variable, they're not having to deal with. But I think that the picture that that I've been trying to work with and I was a few people, but how do we how do we make a culture of this is very much what what Lorraine just shared about, you don't have to know the river, you just have to be able to be with the river. And the slurry and the volume of variables around you is always going to be more than you can really grasp. But you have to learn to navigate with that listening well to the flurry itself. And really just find those leverage points to collaborate with it
sounds a lot, like when we talk about getting to know the nature of the medium, in which your creative medium, you know, so let it so having a dialogue with your meet with your creative medium, which, you know, as people as people, and that's why we focus on the in, in life in Module Two, because that's the medium in which we work. Except for when we're in rivers or fly fishermen, someone's a fly fisherman, that's clear.
Yeah, it's, you know, if I fight the river, I'm going to fall down and I'm going to get really wet and and my waders are going to fill up with water, and then I'm going to drown. Right? If I like, if I fight it, that's not going to work. But if I find someplace to kind of steady myself, and and, you know, after a while, you'll feel where it's flowing faster and flowing slower. And if you get into where it's flowing faster, you can't push against that harder, it's just not gonna work. But if you find where it's flowing slower, then you can move with it, you can't, you're not gonna win, you're not gonna beat the ocean, you're not gonna, you know, outmuscle the river. But it's, it's, you know, in the metaphor, I'm thinking about, like, people are used to going the way they've always gone in, that all of that got thrown out the window. Now, they don't know what to do, and they're trying to pretend that they know, without changing anything. And, you know, for me, I The struggle is getting to getting to the clients to say, Hey, you know, I know you don't know what's going on. I don't either, but my perspective is to figure out the flow as opposed to try and block it. Yeah. And helping them understand that that's a value.
Yeah. Yeah.
So when so when every when there's no foundation, you know, you're you're you're not feeling centered, or you're not feeling grounded, or there's a lot of uncertainty. And you're in, you're surfing, the not knowing, you know, what are the practices so that you stay centered, you don't get triggered? You don't jump into what you already know, which is habit loop, you know, rips, positive feedback loops that you don't want to get back into. It's kind of like so some language that Jeff and I have used as kind of in a fire language, but we call it like air trial, the air trial is when you're floating, there's no, there's there's nothing to help you, except for your own inner resources. So what are the daily practices that you can have or that you can use to help you manage the floating in the air where there's no foundation and everything's not knowing and if there's a flurry of confusion, confusion is the enemy of self knowledge. It's it to not know is okay, you're just at the limits of your knowledge, but to be confused as a problem. So I just want to put it back on you what your daily practices to help you stay grounded and centered, no matter what's going on, because that's all that you have. Right?
Just before we go to the I just want to let this idea land. Because it has to be a concept before it can be a practice. And, in my experience, advancement on this path, the path that we're describing the path that we take the path that we teach. It's gonna look different for everybody like everybody, every artist has their own language their own way. But there are commonalities across artists or across creative people because we're all human beings, right? We all have a head and the neck in a beating heart.
So
surfing in the not knowing no matter how sort of quote unquote advanced No matter how far you take this path, no matter how many years of behind you the next stage always is that you're always surfing in the not knowing. That is not a stage that you leave behind you and come into knowing. Because as soon as you know something you're in not knowing, then something else. And so the concept that we need to land, I think we're just socializing, and, you know, to respond to Tim's prompt about building a culture that can survive and thrive and be creative together and not knowing is. And you know, this, this, I think builds the bridge that some of you have answered is okay, how do I build this surfboard? How do I how do I practice? And how do I build the capacity to not know, as part of life, I'm always riding that edge of not knowing, because that's actually where I exist. Whenever I think I know is already past. So wherever, wherever I don't know, is where I exist.
So I just want to just kind of land this image that it's a, it's a healthy, beautiful place to be. Because you're riding that wave, you know, you're not getting bowled over by the waves, you're not in the churn, you're not hitting the rocks. You're like, a wave connected with the wave waves, like, I got you and you're like, Okay, you got me, and I'm writing because I'm with your wave. I'm with you with this, and I can do this. So anyway, that's just worth breathing a little bit into that idea. Before we dive into the practices, I think.
Any questions around that?
Or confusions?
I think we could probably talk about this for a long time. But I think there are other things we need to talk about, but I really appreciate the conversation. I like that Sam, create creative together uncertainty.
I'm not sure it would sell though. Well, basically what Sam is doing is he's providing some structure, some handrails, and the uncertainty. And he's got that, you know, he's got that own his own knowing. And people can sense Oh, we weren't we weren't drown. Sam knows this. So you're like holding that structure and people can be like, okay, now Now I can see that we won't drown. We can just navigate this together. Again, what happens is creativity can activate. Vulnerability can activate bravery,
willingness,
safety signaling, I've never thought of that. That's good.
What does that mean? Safety signaling? Well,
yeah, you know, virtue signaling. I was sort of riffing on that. And I felt that that Sam's one of you know, the the creative together the safe, he was signaling that safe where we can move forward. So safety signaling, it's a new, it's a new thing you first hear.
Karen, that's awesome. You just started a new mean.
It's funny. The first reference I have to safety signaling is when they studied laughter in mice that they tried to say biologically laughter is a way of signaling that I'm overwhelmed and can't contain it. But it's okay.
That's good.
Is that when they were doing the LSD tests on them?
Maybe I hadn't heard that part. But yeah, but there's that sense of like, yeah, this is this is more than I
can stand. yet.
I'm not in crisis. You know, and that that's to me, that sense of It's okay, like giving that signal that it's okay to not stand It's okay to like you know, in our practice I mean the name of the company was gentle, slow and humble works and we keep you know, every time we ask a big question is like well the most important thing to answer is I don't know but living into the possibility it seems like this might be the way to try and with that as a foundation that feels like you know this creating like Sam said, a direction to test a metric for checking in because you can't be checking in all the way you're testing right up the thinking kills the will. So that that you got to really go for something but be clear around where the boundaries of how far you're going to go with this idea before you check in with it. I think that that's that rhythm with creating a rhythm practices is how I've tried to build conscientiousness into to the not knowing and still accomplishing together and you know, really have that let's give this our full force. Let's understand where our boundaries are. And then what metric we're going to use to check in for whether or not we've made it anywhere of value.
And it'd be really cool if we could just collectively be more Okay, socially, okay with crying as we are with laughing because they're as as we're seeing in the chats. They're so similar and yet one crying is not okay. Yeah. I love it when people cry because it tells me that whatever it is they're talking about is really matters to them is such great intelligence, you know, such great information.
So can we can we talk a little bit about daily practice because a lot of things are coming up in me about different things that you can do in the structure not knowing as you move forward, all these fantastic experiences and ideas that you guys have just did you know, and other things like don't get attached to something, you know, your darlings, like kill your darlings, creative destruction, and things like that. But they all of them require something. And they require this ability to be okay. In the not knowing no matter what happens. And that's the individual practice just to build on what you said, Tim? So I'm really wondering if you guys have a kind of a daily practice where you're strengthening your I guess, what I would call a my language, your higher self that part of you that it can witness everything that's going on in your life with a kind of dispassionate objectivity. And that part of yourself, the more connected you are to that, the more you can navigate uncertainty and the stress that that can cause so I'm just wondering, do you guys have a practice? And if you do, what is it? And is it working for you? No. Odia right, anyone else? So yeah,
let's hear from you.
Lisa, you said the higher self witnesses your life with dispassionate, tivity objectivity. word that came to me was in different than I knew that wasn't right. Yeah, actually, my meditation practice is strengthening that capacity. I'm seeing
I'm seeing that
just calmer and clearer and, and aware of the feelings but not being jerked around by them.
Yeah, awesome.
Oh my god, the six basics.
Yep. Very cool.
six basic exercises. That's what Tim just showed us on this little pencil, or whatever it is.
Yeah.
Yeah, we're gonna get into that in Module Three. The six basics come out of steiners work and they are basically concentration Which is related to thinking a will exercise which is about sort of ability to be consistent and self directed and autonomous in the will. There are three feeling exercises, positivity, equanimity and open mindedness. And the sixth one is once you've done these five, to bring them together, kind of in promissory aliy. to note it, because when you do these consciously, you'll notice it's a little bit like, it's a little bit like you notice new fins or new wings opening up. You know, you, especially with thinking in the will or, you know, you don't maybe notice concentration, the fruit of the concentration exercise right away. But the feeling exercises, you can notice it immediately, it's like these little fins open up and now you're not running around it, you're not just twirled around in the chaos, you've got steering mechanisms. And so the sixth one is about sort of deploying different steering mechanisms at will, and learning how they all fit together, and how they work together. So that we're going to be we're going to be working with these things in Module Three. Anyone
else have some daily or regular practices that they that that you're finding really useful or not working for you or anything like that?
Mary, you're muted.
I have a gratitude practice that I do every morning, when I wake up. It goes through all the layers of the living, and includes the invisible are those that are past. And I find that really valuable.
And, and
I'm giving a talk to a small group at UC Berkeley, part of their wellness have two parents and caregivers who are overwhelmed with COVID. So I'm thinking of other practices that people can do with their families. So I'm checking out the moon every night, and has one of those.
I'll be thinking of more.
Cool, we are nearly at the top of the hour. So I want to say the last three minutes just to do a checkout. And if that's okay, maybe we can
just say one quick Man, these exercises. One of the things in Module Three, like we've written, we've written a module, and there's like 47 exercises. And so we need to distill it down because it's just it's sort of another giant mountain to climb. But it would be helpful to as we go forward to continue this conversation about exercises so that we get some input from you about what sticks and what works and what's interesting to you. And we can include some of your exercises, like, we don't have a kind of communication dojo, but that sounds really interesting. So I'd love to flag this for continued conversation and iteration as we as we move forward.
You're Yeah,
yeah. Right. Just
I'd like to see the expanded list. Just, you know, just for ideas.
Maybe not,
you know, explain them all. But you know, at least that I could come back to on the call and ask about one.
Okay, we're gonna put plenty of exercises in there. We just don't want there to be too many, but we'll definitely put a lot of them in there. And we can always talk about other things, other exercises that come up.
So yeah, and you won't miss anything. Make sure
yeah, I mean, it's a it's a dance like many there are many paths to the same destination. So we want to, but we have the tendency to give too much to have to much information. And we need to pare it down. And at the same time, there are many, you know, as many pairs as there are individuals, different many different needs. So, alright, is it okay if we switch to checkouts? It's a good, good moment. And the checkout question is, how are you feeling right now as you leave, and just a couple of feeling words or a sentence or two. Library start soon.
I'm feeling really grateful and helpful. And I'd like to know more about the layers of Mary's gratitude practice.
send that to
thank you. Thanks, Sue.
I feel really inspired by the conversation and and the techniques that everyone has suggested, on how to navigate through this time. So as well as feeling sleepy, I feel very inspired and, and peaceful.
Thanks, Karen.
Yeah, I feel really encouraged. Like, I feel like I kind of shared a couple things, just loose fragments from what's going on. And the feedback was really encouraging and kind, and that feels really good. And then I also just wanted to acknowledge Sam is the only person I think on this call that I that I know in person in real life, and we haven't seen each other in a while. So it's really neat to see you in real life and kind of combine this virtual world and kind of real life world. So anyway, me.
I'll check out real quick, I just feel very grateful and blessed to be a part of this community. I it's like I can feel the energy lifting and it's great that couple of folks we haven't seen in a while Jaron and Sam joined us, that's just really, to me, that's just like, fresh fuel on the fire where when people are showing up and sharing and we're returning a corner together. And that, that just brings me more energy to do my part in my role. So I'm just feeling really grateful for all of you showing up and, and we're on it and, you know, taking next steps with a lot of joy. So thank you very much.
Thanks, Jeff.
I'll jump in. Yeah, it's great to be on the call with everyone. I actually like didn't even remember but I got an email with the message about it. So thanks, Louisa, for sending that Yeah, nice to see you Lorraine and and Jeff and Louisa and others that I somewhat know
I guess that
I just want to keep working now. I feel like I learned so much the summer working and working with people. And I I'd like to dance back and forth a bit more between conversations like this and then actually cooking food with people and learning together in the kitchen.
Cool, beautiful. Yeah. Yeah.
I think I'm I'm glad to be back and thanks for the warm welcome. It's really nice to see you guys. And I'm feeling inspired and, and checked back in. Because, you know, I felt checked out of like, Okay, well, what now what? And, you know, the, the, the familiarity of the uncertainty is is encouraging like everybody's like, Oh, no, what's going on? And I'm like, I thought it was just me. I really do appreciate that and it it you know, it kind of says, Okay, well, you know, the, all the things that you're thinking about and trying to plug into your business and trying to make makes sense to you. Everybody's doing the same thing. So that's, I feel aligned. And I appreciate that and I'm really grateful for it. So thanks.
Awesome. Thanks, Jared.
Yeah, can I go all that and no less profundity than before. Keep Swimming.
I was in a, another community a practice conversation. And it had to do with paradigm shift. And I always think of paradigm shift is this collective really big thing that requires a fundamental shift? individually. And I've always been looking at that huge gap and frustrated and another person looked up the definition of paradigm. And one definition is a way of working and it made me realize that all the work we're doing is part of the paradigm shift. we're shifting right now. And that gave me more confidence and insight that it's not the end of the road. It's right now.
Yeah.
Good insight.
Thanks, Mary. Who has not checked out yet? Karen, did you check out? He did? Okay.
Well, then it's just me. I'm so happy you guys are here. And lots of love and gratitude to those who've been with us all along, if we week by week and those who pop in and out as they can. It's just fantastic. And glad that you're here. And I look forward to seeing you again. Next time you can come. We'll always be here. So thank you again. Lots of love to you all, and see you next time. Bye everyone. Okay, Bye, guys.
