 No matter who you are or what you believe, it can feel almost impossible to avoid getting sucked into the dominant cultural paradigm, what I’m calling the Conventional Paradigm. For many of us, it starts with a trigger first thing in the morning, You read the news. You look at your email. You complain about what you’ll be facing at work. You begin your day by expressing and reinforcing the Conventional Paradigm. And so the day goes.
Does that happen to you? Are you more angry, reactive, victimized, stressed, or competitive most days than you’d like to be, than who you really are? If so, I invite you to take 15 minutes to re-ground yourself in your Natural Paradigm — your core and fundamental belief in abundance (rather than scarcity), systems (rather than individuality), synergies (rather than competition), trust (rather than greed), resilience (rather than resistance), and curiosity (rather than fear). It’s called a BCI session, where B is for Be, C is for Contemplate, and I is for Imagine. Here’s how it works: FInd a place to sit outside in Nature, or a spot inside looking out at Nature, where you won’t be disturbed for 15 minutes. Set your phone timer to 5 minutes. When you’re settled, hit start. Be: Just be. Relax. Breathe. Gaze at Nature. If you’re outside, enjoy using all of your senses. Slowly observe Nature’s abundance, systems, synergies, trust, resilience, and curiosity. Notice how they are expressed. Let yourself feel it, feel part of it. Relax into it. Enjoy it. Be it. When your timer goes off, hit repeat. Contemplate: Keep enjoying this moment with Nature. Contemplate the presence and feeling of abundance, systems, synergies, trust, resilience, and curiosity in your body, in your life, in your work. Explore each one, slowly. What does it feel like to you, in your body, in your soul? When your timer goes off, hit repeat. Imagine: Continue to enjoy this feeling, this being with Nature, of Nature. Now imagine what a specific upcoming task, project, or meeting might feel like if you approached it with this deep sense of abundance, systems, synergies, trust, resilience, and curiosity. How might you show up? How might it play out? What might emerge? What outcomes might result? Enjoy this. When your timer goes off, hit stop. Take a nice deep breath. Commit to taking this feeling forward into the day ahead, your innate Natural Paradigm. If you have time, take a few minutes to journal about the experience and what emerged for you. That’s it! The more often you practice being, contemplating, and imagining your Natural Paradigm, the more natural it will become for you. If you’d like to learn more about shifting from the Conventional to your Natural Paradigm, please request the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook. While you're there, enjoy the other resources available on the Wild Hazel website.
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 A paradigm is what you believe to be true about the world, how it works, and your role in it. One of the most self-perpetuating elements of the Conventional Paradigm is a sense of scarcity of time. We feel we never have enough of it. The sense of lack of time both triggers and is reinforced by the other elements of this paradigm.
The sense of Individuality — that ultimately everything rests on you, you have to do everything, follow-up on everything, fix everything. The sense of Competition — that you have to keep up with, or beat, everyone else, all the time. The sense of Greed — that you’ve got to relentlessly drive to be more, have more, and do more than is needed, than is enough. The sense of Resistance — that things are changing too fast, that you have to constantly be on the lookout and on the defense. And a sense of Fear — that you’re going to fail, going to lose, going to miss out, going to fall behind, going to run out of time. To succeed in the “real world” we’re supposed to be fast-paced, driven, tough, relentless, winning, climbing. But of course we end up stressed and paranoid, self-absorbed and self-important, more distracted and less reflective, regardless of our externally measured level of success. And regardless of the fact that (for practical purposes) the Earth always rotates and spins at the same rates, all the time. In Nature, time just is. Organisms and ecosystems have evolved, together, so that things happen when and at the speed that makes sense, in response to appropriate needs and triggers, in cascades, in concert. In Nature, there’s just enough time, all the time. Your nerve impulses reach speeds over 100 meters per second. Hair grows at a rate of about six inches per year. Kept dry, your hair can last indefinitely. Blood can travel through your whole body in one minute. Your blood plasma is replaced every couple of days, while your red blood cells are replaced every month or two. Your skin renews itself in about 4 weeks. Your heartbeat and breathing speed up when needed and slow to a resting pace whenever possible. All this is happening in your body at the same time, at the right time, over time, and at the right speed. That idea of “never enough time” doesn’t even make sense. That is how your body — and the rest of Nature — is designed. Nature is designed to do what it needs to do in the time available. This can happen because Nature relies on and values abundance (rather than scarcity) as well as systems, synergies, trust, curiosity, and resilience. If you’ve always felt that you’ve never had enough time, pause and reflect if that even makes sense. Have you never completed anything? Have you never made it where you needed to go? How are you even here, now? A paradigm is what you believe to be true about the world, how it works, and your role in it. Your paradigm, and the current dominant cultural paradigm, are constructs, perceptions — they are made up. You can live believing that you never have enough time or that you always have just enough time. It’s up to you. If you’re curious how you might shift your paradigm, I invite you to request the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook and explore the other free resources offered through Wild Hazel.  I learned a new word today from Vincent Skyers, a student in my class Leading for Regenerative Sustainability: Asé
I learned that Asé has different meanings. It can be used like “Amen” or “Right On”. It can refer to your Life Force or Life Energy. And it can refer to the power to create that which you speak, that you are adding life force onto every word that comes out of your mouth. As I continue to explore the meanings of our individual and collective reflections and reinforcements of the Conventional and Natural Paradigms the tiny word Asé resonates deeply. How about you? If you reflect on your day-to-day decisions and behaviors, would you have felt compelled to say Asé? What did you do today? Did you buy a new outfit that will make you look great? Did you nail that product proposal? Did you whip around in traffic in order to get that sweet parking spot? Did you hug your child or partner or friend with deep unconditional love? Did you breathe the morning air and feel deep gratitude for the abundance of Nature? If you reflect on your day-to-day decisions and behaviors, are you increasing or decreasing your Life Energy — and Earth’s Life Energy? Are you expressing, engaging in, and contributing to abundance, systems, synergies, trust, curiosity, and resilience? Or are you reflecting and reinforcing your, and our collective, devotion to scarcity, individuality, competition, greed, resistance, and fear? If you reflect on what you said out loud today, as well as your inner monologue, what are you doing to your Life Force — and to Earth’s Life Force? What do you think you’ll say tomorrow? How will you say it? What is your intention? How might that impact your Life Force, their Life Force, our Life Force? Given that most of us live and work in a world driven by the Conventional Paradigm — the “real world” — it can be hard to reflect and express our Natural Paradigm. But it can be done. It must be done. Perhaps pondering the word Asé might give you a new perspective, a new reason, to begin re-aligning with Nature. If you’re curious how you might begin, I invite you to request the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook and explore the other resources offered through Wild Hazel  We’re all familiar with the expression “Fight or Flight”, which refers to the strategies that animals employ when faced with danger — they can stay and fight, or they can fly (or run or swim or slither) away. When learning about how people are experiencing their tiny transformation from the Conventional Paradigm to the Natural Paradigm, another interpretation of that expression comes to mind.
When exploring how they express and experience the Conventional Paradigm, the sense of fighting comes up often. They feel like they have to fight for limited resources, fight to maintain their power or position, fight everyone they engage with, fight to get more, fight what is unfamiliar, and fight their fears. It’s so stressful! But when they explore how they express the Natural Paradigm, the sense of flight seems to permeate their descriptions. When they let go of scarcity, individualism, competition, greed, resistance and fear, they feel like a bird being released from a cage, free to fly. Their words are uplifting, compelling, inspiring. Hearts soar, including mine. I often talk about how critical it is for sustainability advocates and leaders to operate from the Natural Paradigm if we are to achieve any of our sustainability goals. What might be even more profound is how incredibly wonderful it is — perhaps even critical — to operate from our Natural Paradigms on a personal level. And it can be so easy to start, and to start feeling the benefits. Often when we want a distraction or need a break, we reach for our phones and scroll through the news, social media, or shopping sites. In doing so, we reflect our devotion to the Conventional Paradigm, and reinforce the power it has over our lives and our minds. What if instead, you took that few minutes to doodle, to work on a gratitude list, to write a quick note to reinforce a relationship, to go for a walk, to watch how the steam rises off of our coffee or tea, to ponder the unique beauty of a knot of wood, to touch a tree. That’s all it takes to begin to reflect and reinforce our Natural Paradigm, but it does take a bit of awareness and intention. The key to continuing this practice is to notice the value that it brings to your life, even in small moments. Did your blood pressure come down? Did you smile? Did your mind relax and expand? Did you recognize that you are part of a much bigger and beautiful world? Next time you get that sense of fight or flight, imagine another way to fly. If you do, please share your experience and insights!  When I ask people how they feel when they are experiencing or expressing the Conventional Paradigm [https://www.wildhazel.net/blog/how-are-you-expressing-the-conventional-paradigm], they respond with words like: suspicious, inauthentic, victimized, stressed, anxious, greedy, ashamed, unsupportive, selfish, paranoid, annoyed, angry, lonely, unhealthy, myopic, cynical, rude, frantic. Of course when a collection of us feel this way, it is continuously reflected and reinforced, reverberating through all parts of our lives and society. How can you be thoughtful with your partner or kids when you get home when you’ve been cynical, selfish, and inauthentic all day?
Most of us working in sustainability focus on solving the problems of the world, perhaps striving to achieve the UN SDGs. This is crucial work; however, how can we possibly “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (Goal 3), or any of the other SDGs, when we’re feeling paranoid, myopic, and lonely? Before we can save the world, we need to save ourselves. This is not only necessary, it is wonderful. When I ask people how they feel when they are experiencing or expressing the Natural Paradigm [https://www.wildhazel.net/blog/what-is-natures-paradigm], they respond with word like: accepted, aware, present, authentic, honest, compassionate, fun, supportive, inspired, playful, collaborative, creative, joyful, caring, excited, safe, curious, healthy, open, heard, myself, trust, expansive, generous. This way of being, individually and collectively, is exactly what we need to imagine, design, and create the world that we all want to live in, a world where all can flourish. And it isn’t limited to working on sustainability. When we feel and engage this way at work, we bring it home with us. Our personal relationships, as well as our sense of self, are stronger, healthier, happier. How do you feel day in and day out when doing your work in the world? How do you feel when you get home at the end of the day? Is that how you want to feel? Is that how you want to be in the world? Current cultural, societal, and economic paradigms are human constructs that are self-serving, self-reinforcing, and damaging to people and the planet. They do not reflect, support, or reinforce basic human values or nature’s principles. We need as many of us as possible to recognize the damaging Conventional Paradigm and that there's an alternative — the Natural Paradigm. When you understand and engage in your world from your own Natural Paradigm, it makes you and your world — our world — a better place. If you’re curious, I invite you to request the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook which will give you a tiny experience of intentionally living from your Natural Paradigm.  Resilience is the ability to recover from disturbance. In Nature, resilience is achieved through diversity, decentralization, and redundancy. Nature makes sure there is more than one way to accomplish the same function, especially critical functions. Over the long term, life on Earth has lasted and biodiversity has increased because of life’s drive to try new things, test out new ideas, explore the unknown, work together, and learn from others. This is why resilience is a core element of both Life’s Principles and Nature’s Paradigm.
We all recognize the need for resilience, especially now as we’re increasingly feeling the impacts of climate change. Some have even argued that the term sustainability should be replaced with resilience. So if you’re a sustainability leader or biomimicry practitioner, you probably believe in, and believe you’re driven by, resilience. I’m sure you’re also aware that polarization is detrimental to democracy as well as social and environmental sustainability. You know that compromise, collaboration, and co-creation are needed for us to successfully address the many interconnected challenges we face. But in practice, how often have you really listened to the other side, to “them”? How often do you simply and totally resist “their” perspectives, their ideas, their proposals? You might go beyond resisting and add name-calling and insulting, if only at the radio. We all know the importance of resilience, but more than likely our day-to-day actions and decisions are driven by resistance. We resist change, we resist ideas that we don’t understand, we resist following someone else’s process, we resist “them”. Resistance is not all bad, of course, but it is a core element of our current dominant cultural paradigm — the Conventional Paradigm —that has led to the sustainability challenges we need to fix. Resistance feeds and is fed by the other elements of this paradigm: scarcity, individuality, competition, greed, and fear. It is not only keeping “them” from making the changes that “they” need to make, it is inhibiting our own ability to co-creatively imagine unknown alternative futures and the pathways that will get us there. In Nature’s Paradigm — your Natural Paradigm — resilience feeds and is fed by other elements: abundance, systems, synergies, trust, and curiosity. If you find yourself driven by resistance, try pausing and reflecting for a moment, then try being curious about that which you’re resisting. Trust that there are good reasons that “they” may be thinking and acting the way they do. Know that you’re not alone, you’re not a victim, and that we — which includes “them” — can only imagine and create the resilient future that we want if we do it together.  According to the American Psychological Association (APA), money is the top cause of stress in the United States . The problem is, we just never have enough of it. Do you live with that feeling, that belief?
Our current dominant cultural paradigm — what I’m calling the Conventional Paradigm — is based on believing that we live in a world of scarcity, that resources are limited and there’s not enough to go around. This belief is reinforced by the other beliefs of this paradigm: individuality, competition, greed, resistance, and fear. Being able to manage scarcity is important, of course. Stress about scarcity has evolutionary roots. But it is curious that our stress about money is increasing at the same time our home sizes and waistlines are increasing. There are clearly too many people that don’t have enough, but is that you? Our exploitative capitalist system is very effective at controlling our minds, convincing us that we never have enough. If you’re reading this, I’m guessing that you have a roof over your head, that your closets are too full, and that you’ve thought about losing weight. If so, you not only have enough, you have more than enough. Do you really need to be stressed about money all the time? What are you using your money for? How much would be enough? What is really important to you? Does it include connection, purpose, joy, nature, inspiration, and love? These are things that money can’t buy. In fact, focusing on obtaining ever more material things diminishes our ability to focus on what really matters. Nature’s Paradigm is based on valuing and believing in abundance, rather than scarcity. This belief is reinforced by the other beliefs of this paradigm: systems, synergies, trust, resilience, and curiosity. Wonderfully, the things that are most important to you are abundant — the more you seek, the more you find. The more you give away, the more you have. The first step in shifting from the Conventional Paradigm to Nature’s Paradigm is to challenge your assumptions. Next time you’re stressed about money, or simply wishing you had more, challenge your assumption, challenge your belief in scarcity, challenge your participation in the Conventional Paradigm. Paradigm shifts seem impossible, but shifting from the Conventional Paradigm to Nature’s Paradigm is possible because it’s already in you, and it’s freeing. It not only allows you to live in alignment with your own values, it allows you to live in alignment with Nature. If you’re curious to learn more, I invite you to request the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook which gives you tiny peeks into the Conventional and Natural Paradigms, and then a tiny experience of intentionally living from your Natural Paradigm.  The goal of biomimicry workshops is to share a fantastic (and fun) methodology for generating radically innovative and sustainable design ideas, inspired by Nature. Interestingly, however, while very few people get the chance to apply what they learn, most people are deeply impacted by the workshop experience. What is this experience? Why is it so compelling? Could it be that this experience is even more important than learning the design methodology?
If you’ve had a chance to participate in a biomimicry workshop, you probably know what I’m talking about. While learning to look at Nature as model, measure, and mentor, you experienced an expanded sense of curiosity and possibility. While working with the other participants, you experienced trust and synergy. Even without knowing biology, you sensed the logic and power of Nature’s strategies and systems, its abundance and resilience. You were inspired — and probably inspiring. You might have experienced a deep sense of well-being. I believe that what’s happening in biomimicry workshops is that people get a tiny taste of letting go of our current dominant cultural paradigm — what I’m calling the Conventional Paradigm — and operating from Nature’s Paradigm. They have a sense of abundance rather than scarcity. They easily synergize rather than compete. They feel open to the insights and ideas of others, rather than resistant. They engage in authentic listening, co-creativity, emergent thinking. Why is this important? First, because these are the very characteristics and conditions we need to imagine and co-create a sustainable, flourishing world. Second, while designing products and processes that emulate Nature’s strategies is critical to saving the planet, re-aligning our hearts and souls with Nature’s Paradigm is critical to saving ourselves, our humanity. It is important because it tells us that we need to shift our dominant cultural paradigm. This seems like an impossible task; however, there are two reasons why I’m hopeful. The first is that Nature’s Paradigm is our natural paradigm. We already know it and love it. When we operate from Nature’s Paradigm, we can be our full authentic self, our best self. When we learn to intentionally live from our Natural Paradigm, especially while engaged with the “real world”, we can begin to flourish. It's a very good feeling. The second is that we already value expression of the Natural Paradigm in the “real world” — we just don’t recognize it as such. These are the times when a person hits flow at work and gets amazing things done. It’s when a team is energized and synergized and comes up with incredibly creative ideas and solutions. It’s the culture that eats strategy for lunch. If you’d like to learn more, please explore wildhazel.net. While there, I invite you to request the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook!  “You can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet” is a mantra in the sustainability community. This statement makes logical sense, of course, but I also believe that finite planet thinking is inhibiting us from achieving our sustainability goals.
In his book The Infinite Game Simon Sinek says that an infinite game is where all parties are working to keep the game in play perpetually, and that there are no winners or losers. By contrast, a finite game is where all parties agree that the game will end and that there will be winners and losers. Sinek describes how business is an infinite game, yet most companies play this game with a finite mindset. Leaders with a finite mindset are focused on themselves, on their competition, and on winning. This mindset can lead to short-term wins for the leader and the company, but there are always losers, and there are always negative long-term consequences. The problem is that many sustainability leaders have come to believe that to be successful, they need to think like business leaders — they need to operate with a finite mindset. They believe they have to play the game and play to win. They may seek win-win scenarios, but they still need to win. They may seek collaborations and partnerships, but when push comes to shove, they need to protect their own organizations, and themselves. Does this sound familiar? It may be true that “You can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet”, but the planet, the celestial body we call Earth, is not really the focus of our concern. What we really care about are the systems of life that exist on our planet. We care about Nature and human well-being. The goal of life on Earth is to keep life going, forever. Although each living thing is ephemeral, life itself continues by focusing on reproducing, recycling and regenerating, adapting and evolving, creating conditions conducive to life — and by depending on sunlight, an infinite energy source. Nature has an infinite mindset and plays an infinite game, so in Nature infinite growth is possible. Nature’s Paradigm — believing in and valuing abundance and systems, synergies and trust, resilience and curiosity — is an infinite mindset. The Conventional Paradigm — believing in and valuing scarcity and individualism, competition and greed, resistance and fear —is a finite mindset. I believe if we want to succeed in achieving our sustainability goals, we need to shift from a finite mindset to an infinite mindset. We need to shift from the Conventional Paradigm to Nature’s Paradigm. If you’re curious, I invite you to download the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook which will give you tiny peeks into the Conventional Paradigm and the Natural Paradigm, and then a tiny experience of intentionally living from your Natural Paradigm.  I’ve described the magic people feel during biomimicry workshops as experiencing their Natural Paradigm. It’s a wonderful feeling.
Since then, I have been exploring how you can increase your well-being, or the well-being of your employees, by intentionally operating from the Natural Paradigm. A recent article by Richard Sima called Why it is awesome that your brain can experience awe describes how seeking awe-inspiring experiences can improve our well-being. I believe it also makes the case for why we should shift from the Conventional to the Natural Paradigm — and how to do just that. It is clear that you cannot experience awe when you believe in a world that values scarcity and individualism, competition and greed, resistance and fear. This worldview is narrowing and paranoid, places man above Nature, and inhibits deep and meaningful connections with others. By contrast, awe is a common experience when you believe in a world that values abundance and systems, synergies and trust, resilience and curiosity. This worldview is open and expansive, recognizes humans as a part of the beautiful system of life, and supports connections with other people as well as the non-humans with whom we share Earth. Wonderfully, seeking experiences of awe can also help us let go of the Conventional Paradigm and enjoy the benefits of living from our Natural Paradigm. According to the article: Research has repeatedly found that experiencing something extraordinary may make us (and our worries) feel small. And not in a bad way. By becoming less attuned to ourselves and more attuned to the rest of the world, awe helps us re-contextualize ourselves, said Paul Piff, an associate professor of psychological science at the University of California at Irvine. “It helps make you feel like there’s more going on in the world than just you. And it gives you that sense of being a part of something much bigger than yourself,” he said. Emerging research shows that experiencing awe may make us more curious, creative and compassionate people. Awe leads people to feel more connected with others and identify with more universal categories such as “a person” or “inhabitant of earth,” as opposed to more individualistic, limited ones. If you’d like to experience the awe of your Natural Paradigm, I invite you to download the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook which will give you tiny peeks into the “Conventional Paradigm” and the “Natural Paradigm”, and then a tiny experience of intentionally living from your Natural Paradigm. |
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May 2023
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