Monday, May 04 2009. It's 09:57 AM GMT-8
Building Self-Sustaining Communities from the Inside Out
There are a lot of organizations and individuals using various strategies focused on strengthening their communities because of the current economic situation. These strategies have much in common: self-reliance, interdependence, localism, conservation, permaculture, alternative energy resources and even alternative local currencies. But are these methods, visonary as they are, enough on their own to preserve and more importantly, truly transform the human presence on the planet to a more sustainable, balanced existence with all life on Earth?
Kit Miller tells me, "If I don't pay attention to my heart and gut about where we're heading, I am denying myself." Her story is an example of a response to the times that many people and organizations are moving towards, not only in response to the economy, but to the environmental crisis that we are all becoming more aware of every day. Kit is releasing her role as director of Bay Area Nonviolent Communication (Bay NVC). I am told Kit has been an excellent leader. But Kit relates that as a leader she must think about the future. And she feels, as more and more folks are coming to believe, that our future will require strong, resilient self-sustaining local communities. After she leaves Bay NVC, Kit will be redirecting her energies into the Transition Initiative "an emerging and evolving approach that enables communities to develop a vision of a more resilient, sustainable future that responds to the interrelated peak-oil and climate change problems as well as fostering an enhanced quality of life." With the current global economic implosion this movement is even more necessary.
Like many others, Kit is relocating her work and grounding her life closer to home. As Bay NVC's director, she shuttles back and forth between Rochester, New York, where she lives 3 weeks out of every month, to the Bay Area. She believes that Bay NVC will benefit from a director that is more physically present. Focusing in New York will reduce her ecological footprint and allow her to strengthen her community ties, which is what the Transition Initiative is all about. As her contribution, Kit has initiated a transition initiative in the Rochester area and offers support to the East Bay in California as well.
"We are headed for a rocky time," says Kit. The latest dire warning from Katie Couric's blog, says that "arctic ice is melting so fast it may disappear in 20 years." Despite this, we now live in a situation where communities make only about 20% of the resources they need and import the rest. Fifty or sixty years ago it was the reverse. Most folks lack basic skills to sustain themselves, like growing food or making clothes; we don't have alternative transportation systems in place or any systematic plans for how we can share resources, while using less as a whole. The Transition Initiative says the time to prepare and develop solutions together is now.
Unlike most survivalist movements, with their focus on weapons and silos of food, the Transition Initiative is a broad-based, community movement that is far from saying 'the sky is falling'. These folks actually have a positive outlook on our future. That is, if we can come together now. Rob Hopkins, founder of Transition Initiative, explains in the Green Issue of the New York Times Magazine: "Hopkins insists that if an entire community faces this stark challenge together, it might be able to design an "elegant descent" from that peak. We can consciously plot a path into a lower-energy life -- a life of walkable villages, local food and artisans and greater intimacy with the natural world -- which, on balance, could actually be richer and more enjoyable than what we have now. Transition, Hopkins has written, meets our era's threats with a spirit of "elation, rather than the guilt, anger and horror" behind most environmental activism. "Change is inevitable," he told me, "but this is a change that could be fantastic."
Amen. And -- after so many years of living disconnected from each other, going so deep into our own, individualized worlds, complete with personalized soundtracks (through our iPods), our personal cars, pre-packaged food, Tivo for all our personal shows, and convenience-single-serving-sized-everything, it's a big, well, transition to approach our lives, our cars, our food communally and to be in conscious relationship to it all. How can we begin to do this if we are often not in good relationship to even ourselves? Can the work of living in community begin anywhere else but with ourselves?
At Center for Transformative Change we believe that social transformation requires presence, "the moment-to-moment practice of being in relationship to one's life as it unfolds." We call the process towards presence the MAP of social transformation. MAP stands for Mindfulness, Awareness and Presence. I'll apply the MAP to the Transition Initiative as an example of how any movement for change requires this foundation to succeed in the long run. (The text that follows is adapted from writings by angel Kyodo williams, founder, Center for Transformative Change.)
Based on the premise that true change necessarily begins with individual, mindfulness practices, such as meditation or yoga, help us develop the skill of concentration, which lets us notice in fine detail, unconscious patterns of behavior. We often say "if you're not doing your inner work, your inner work is doing you." In other words, our unconscious patterns of behavior impact our work for change in the world whether we realize it or not. But with mindfulness practice the intention to pay attention gently reveals us. And peace arises as inner-conflict is released.
Unconscious patterns ranging from, "more is better" and convenience at all costs to changemakers' beliefs that whoever-can-get-the-most-done-in-the-shortest-amount-of-time wins, all can be revealed through fine attention. These patterns have led us to the imbalanced, disconnected world we find ourselves in and that the Transition Initiative wants to shift. Our individual choices, communication and behaviors plant the seeds of the future. Without cultivated attention to what motivates our thoughts, words and actions, those can either be seeds of oppression or seeds of change.
Having discovered our own personal patterns, we begin to notice the impact we have on the community around us. We develop awareness. We are empowered with new levels of information that allow us to make more informed choices. These practices help us self-interrupt unwanted behaviors at their very core. Putting judgment aside, healing begins and we can create space for new possibilities. From here we welcome challenge and learn to approach difficult situations with increased grace and skill.
It's only when we are truly in relationship to ourselves that we can be aware of how we impact our surroundings. We can begin to see that when we drive alone to and from work every day, not only is it expensive, it harms the environment and leaves us feeling disconnected from our neighbors. That feeling of disconnection is often one we miss. It lurks unrecognized as a feeling of unease, often drowned out by the myriad distractions that our atomized existence provides us. Though most work for change is focused on programs that encourage people to change their behaviors, without attention to why people behave in those ways, it is more challenging to support that shift. For example, it is more difficult to arrive at the motivation to share resources in a sustained way, much less to plan resource use and sharing with our whole community, if we can't identify the core, subtle feelings of disconnection that allow us to exist the way we do now. Inner work, far from being a nice aside to the "important" work of reducing car use, for example, is the best beginning point for true, lasting transformation.
Lastly, with mindfulness of our inner life, and awareness of its impact, social presence arises. With increased clarity about the world we wish to see and the skills to create it, we can leverage our social impact with greater effectiveness than ever before. "Doing" is balanced with "being," resulting in integrity in all of our choices and actions. Who we are is what we wish to see. With transformation happening inside each of us, the Transition Initiative becomes a movement for transforming how we live together, with the Earth and all life, from the inside out. Not simply policy changes or even a different overall approach to use of resources, but complete transformation that expresses itself at all levels and will simply arise organically.
If we aim to come together, to realize the truth of our interdependence and that our survival is based upon that common realization, then we must have presence in order to be able to do it. Presence is a capacity that our movements for change and justice can be neither viable nor sustainable without. With the root causes of imbalance, oppression and aggression removed from our work for change, practice gives way to irrevocable change. Real transformation begins.
Resources
Center for Transformative Change:
To cultivate presence:
http://transformativechange.org
Bay NVC:
"This site is here to support you in gathering information and, we hope, in choosing to start a journey of transforming your life through conscious communication."
http://www.baynvc.org/index.php
Transition Initiative:
Rob Hopkins Video (5 min) Explains Transition Movement
http://www.thedirt.org/node/3633
East Bay Transition Group
judith@baynvc.org
Transition US Social Network
http://transitionus.ning.com/
Media on Transition Initiative:
Elle
Do Worry. Be Happy.: Get in fighting shape for the coming storms--psychologically, economically, and environmentally
http://www.elle.com/Beauty/Health-Fitness/Do-Worry-Be-Happy
New York Times Magazine - Green Issue
The End Is Near! (Yay!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/magazine/19town-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Food Strategies and Community:
YES! Magazine
How to Grow A Local Food Revolution
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=3271
YES! Magazine
"The City that Ended Hunger: A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger"
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=3330
Ithaca Hours: Local Currency ("Ithaca HOURS is backed by our relationships," said Rebecca Nellenback, HOURS board member. "That's what we want our town and our community to be.")
http://www.ithacahours.org/mission.php
Permaculture As A Path To Peace: The Yoga of Sustainable Culture
http://layogamagazine.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92&Itemid=34
Earth Activist Training
Planting the Seeds of Change
http://www.earthactivisttraining.org/what_is_EAT.html
Kit Miller tells me, "If I don't pay attention to my heart and gut about where we're heading, I am denying myself." Her story is an example of a response to the times that many people and organizations are moving towards, not only in response to the economy, but to the environmental crisis that we are all becoming more aware of every day. Kit is releasing her role as director of Bay Area Nonviolent Communication (Bay NVC). I am told Kit has been an excellent leader. But Kit relates that as a leader she must think about the future. And she feels, as more and more folks are coming to believe, that our future will require strong, resilient self-sustaining local communities. After she leaves Bay NVC, Kit will be redirecting her energies into the Transition Initiative "an emerging and evolving approach that enables communities to develop a vision of a more resilient, sustainable future that responds to the interrelated peak-oil and climate change problems as well as fostering an enhanced quality of life." With the current global economic implosion this movement is even more necessary.
Like many others, Kit is relocating her work and grounding her life closer to home. As Bay NVC's director, she shuttles back and forth between Rochester, New York, where she lives 3 weeks out of every month, to the Bay Area. She believes that Bay NVC will benefit from a director that is more physically present. Focusing in New York will reduce her ecological footprint and allow her to strengthen her community ties, which is what the Transition Initiative is all about. As her contribution, Kit has initiated a transition initiative in the Rochester area and offers support to the East Bay in California as well.
"We are headed for a rocky time," says Kit. The latest dire warning from Katie Couric's blog, says that "arctic ice is melting so fast it may disappear in 20 years." Despite this, we now live in a situation where communities make only about 20% of the resources they need and import the rest. Fifty or sixty years ago it was the reverse. Most folks lack basic skills to sustain themselves, like growing food or making clothes; we don't have alternative transportation systems in place or any systematic plans for how we can share resources, while using less as a whole. The Transition Initiative says the time to prepare and develop solutions together is now.
Unlike most survivalist movements, with their focus on weapons and silos of food, the Transition Initiative is a broad-based, community movement that is far from saying 'the sky is falling'. These folks actually have a positive outlook on our future. That is, if we can come together now. Rob Hopkins, founder of Transition Initiative, explains in the Green Issue of the New York Times Magazine: "Hopkins insists that if an entire community faces this stark challenge together, it might be able to design an "elegant descent" from that peak. We can consciously plot a path into a lower-energy life -- a life of walkable villages, local food and artisans and greater intimacy with the natural world -- which, on balance, could actually be richer and more enjoyable than what we have now. Transition, Hopkins has written, meets our era's threats with a spirit of "elation, rather than the guilt, anger and horror" behind most environmental activism. "Change is inevitable," he told me, "but this is a change that could be fantastic."
Amen. And -- after so many years of living disconnected from each other, going so deep into our own, individualized worlds, complete with personalized soundtracks (through our iPods), our personal cars, pre-packaged food, Tivo for all our personal shows, and convenience-single-serving-sized-everything, it's a big, well, transition to approach our lives, our cars, our food communally and to be in conscious relationship to it all. How can we begin to do this if we are often not in good relationship to even ourselves? Can the work of living in community begin anywhere else but with ourselves?
At Center for Transformative Change we believe that social transformation requires presence, "the moment-to-moment practice of being in relationship to one's life as it unfolds." We call the process towards presence the MAP of social transformation. MAP stands for Mindfulness, Awareness and Presence. I'll apply the MAP to the Transition Initiative as an example of how any movement for change requires this foundation to succeed in the long run. (The text that follows is adapted from writings by angel Kyodo williams, founder, Center for Transformative Change.)
Based on the premise that true change necessarily begins with individual, mindfulness practices, such as meditation or yoga, help us develop the skill of concentration, which lets us notice in fine detail, unconscious patterns of behavior. We often say "if you're not doing your inner work, your inner work is doing you." In other words, our unconscious patterns of behavior impact our work for change in the world whether we realize it or not. But with mindfulness practice the intention to pay attention gently reveals us. And peace arises as inner-conflict is released.
Unconscious patterns ranging from, "more is better" and convenience at all costs to changemakers' beliefs that whoever-can-get-the-most-done-in-the-shortest-amount-of-time wins, all can be revealed through fine attention. These patterns have led us to the imbalanced, disconnected world we find ourselves in and that the Transition Initiative wants to shift. Our individual choices, communication and behaviors plant the seeds of the future. Without cultivated attention to what motivates our thoughts, words and actions, those can either be seeds of oppression or seeds of change.
Having discovered our own personal patterns, we begin to notice the impact we have on the community around us. We develop awareness. We are empowered with new levels of information that allow us to make more informed choices. These practices help us self-interrupt unwanted behaviors at their very core. Putting judgment aside, healing begins and we can create space for new possibilities. From here we welcome challenge and learn to approach difficult situations with increased grace and skill.
It's only when we are truly in relationship to ourselves that we can be aware of how we impact our surroundings. We can begin to see that when we drive alone to and from work every day, not only is it expensive, it harms the environment and leaves us feeling disconnected from our neighbors. That feeling of disconnection is often one we miss. It lurks unrecognized as a feeling of unease, often drowned out by the myriad distractions that our atomized existence provides us. Though most work for change is focused on programs that encourage people to change their behaviors, without attention to why people behave in those ways, it is more challenging to support that shift. For example, it is more difficult to arrive at the motivation to share resources in a sustained way, much less to plan resource use and sharing with our whole community, if we can't identify the core, subtle feelings of disconnection that allow us to exist the way we do now. Inner work, far from being a nice aside to the "important" work of reducing car use, for example, is the best beginning point for true, lasting transformation.
Lastly, with mindfulness of our inner life, and awareness of its impact, social presence arises. With increased clarity about the world we wish to see and the skills to create it, we can leverage our social impact with greater effectiveness than ever before. "Doing" is balanced with "being," resulting in integrity in all of our choices and actions. Who we are is what we wish to see. With transformation happening inside each of us, the Transition Initiative becomes a movement for transforming how we live together, with the Earth and all life, from the inside out. Not simply policy changes or even a different overall approach to use of resources, but complete transformation that expresses itself at all levels and will simply arise organically.
If we aim to come together, to realize the truth of our interdependence and that our survival is based upon that common realization, then we must have presence in order to be able to do it. Presence is a capacity that our movements for change and justice can be neither viable nor sustainable without. With the root causes of imbalance, oppression and aggression removed from our work for change, practice gives way to irrevocable change. Real transformation begins.
Resources
Center for Transformative Change:
To cultivate presence:
http://transformativechange.org
Bay NVC:
"This site is here to support you in gathering information and, we hope, in choosing to start a journey of transforming your life through conscious communication."
http://www.baynvc.org/index.php
Transition Initiative:
Rob Hopkins Video (5 min) Explains Transition Movement
http://www.thedirt.org/node/3633
East Bay Transition Group
judith@baynvc.org
Transition US Social Network
http://transitionus.ning.com/
Media on Transition Initiative:
Elle
Do Worry. Be Happy.: Get in fighting shape for the coming storms--psychologically, economically, and environmentally
http://www.elle.com/Beauty/Health-Fitness/Do-Worry-Be-Happy
New York Times Magazine - Green Issue
The End Is Near! (Yay!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/magazine/19town-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Food Strategies and Community:
YES! Magazine
How to Grow A Local Food Revolution
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=3271
YES! Magazine
"The City that Ended Hunger: A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger"
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=3330
Ithaca Hours: Local Currency ("Ithaca HOURS is backed by our relationships," said Rebecca Nellenback, HOURS board member. "That's what we want our town and our community to be.")
http://www.ithacahours.org/mission.php
Permaculture As A Path To Peace: The Yoga of Sustainable Culture
http://layogamagazine.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92&Itemid=34
Earth Activist Training
Planting the Seeds of Change
http://www.earthactivisttraining.org/what_is_EAT.html