The ‘story of separation’ is what we have all been born into and it’s a story that runs deep within us, between us and in the institutions and organisations all around us. It separates us from each other, making us compete and fear each other. It separates us from the Earth and even from ourselves in the ‘wars’ we wage on ourselves with harsh judgement and criticism.
As Charles Eisenstein so brilliantly outlines in his fantastic books this ‘story of the people’ runs incredibly deep. Without working at the level of story many of our attempts to change things may inadvertently serve to reinforce that which we are trying to change. For example this can be seen in campaign language that emphasises ‘war on poverty’ or an ‘us versus them’ mentality.
However the ‘story of separation’ is beginning to crack and crumble and strong shoots of what Charles terms a ‘new and ancient story of interbeing’ are emerging. Although this story is not yet in the mainstream of our Western societies it is growing deeper roots on the edges and is beginning to emerge and resonate for many concerned with the world in our times.
The world is currently facing multiple interrelated challenges on many different levels. For example in the West many individuals are suffering from social isolation, burnout or depression. Between individuals inequality is increasing in our society and global challenges such as the refugee crisis or climate change cannot be easily solved by so-called ‘experts’.
I have worked to support changemakers on their leadership and impact for seven years and the heart of my work is about re-imagining our relationships with ourselves, each other and the whole in order to live and act from the ‘new story’ and bring about lasting and impactful change – at multiple levels. This is a deep journey into ‘walking our talk’ as agents of the new story in all aspects of our life. It involves great compassion for where the ‘story of separation’ is still running us and great courage and mutual support in order to fully step into and co-create the emerging ‘new and ancient story’.
In this work I have found that holding space as a facilitator is a powerful experimental cauldron for living the new story. I believe that those of us called to be facilitators can be powerful models for living and acting from the new story in how we hold space and how we show up and that this can then powerfully spill over into the rest of our lives as we embody the new story more and more deeply.
It is for this reason that I am offering a retreat specifically for facilitators to explore the question of how to live and act from the new story in our facilitation. This is being offered at a magical retreat centre where I have been working recently in Sweden. The retreat is for new or experienced facilitators keen to deepen their practice in service of radically embodying and modelling the new story in action. I will provide training, insights and input from my work in this area and it will also be a space for sharing, exploring and co-creating together.
Details below:
Living the new story as facilitators
Fri 2nd Dec - Sun 4th Dec 2016
Sörby Naturhälsogård, Vessigebro, Halland in West Sweden
Note: The same retreat will also be run in 2017 from Fri 1st Dec - Sun 3rd Dec also at the magical Sörby Naturhälsogård, Vessigebro, Halland in West Sweden.