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Read these short blog posts to explore the Conventional and Natural Paradigms, and what it might mean to you to Re-Align with Nature.
 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.
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 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.  You’re not greedy, are you?
Of course you’re not greedy. You’ve devoted yourself to making the world more sustainable! You are probably working hard to find ways to consume less, reuse and recycle more, spend your money on experiences rather than things. That’s in your personal life. What about in your work? You might say you are also not greedy at work, especially if you’ve chosen to work for a non-profit. But what are your goals at work? Do you have KPIs? Do they directly reflect the mission of the organization? Many of us working as sustainability advocates spend our time and energy on things like fundraising, attracting members, and otherwise racking up statistics that look good in the annual report or on your resume. We believe that to be successful, we have to play the game and play it to win. We may have KPIs, but our aspirational goal is infinity — the more the better. Ideally, it would come easy, too. Money would come flowing in with very little effort. It’s all good because it’s for a good cause, right? Greed is one of the elements of the Conventional Paradigm. Greed is wanting more — usually much more — than you need, have earned, or deserve. It is wishing to get more than fair value, more than you’re willing to give. It is wanting something for nothing. In business, the goal is for revenue to exceed costs — to get more value than you’ve created. The goal is to earn as much money as possible, with no upper limit. In business, greed is a given. Most organizations, including those working in sustainability, have come to believe that to be successful they need to operate like a business. They have to act as though they are greedy. Greed is an imperative in a world that is characterized by scarcity, competition, resistance, and fear. They subscribe to the Conventional Paradigm, even though it is that paradigm that caused the problems they are trying to solve. We cannot achieve our sustainability goals, cannot co-create a world where any and all can flourish, if we follow the Conventional Paradigm. If we want to re-align ourselves with Nature and Nature’s Principles, we must also re-align ourselves with Nature’s Paradigm. The good news is that we already know and love being in our Nature’s Paradigm. It’s our worldview when we’re immersed in Nature, immersed in creative activities, immersed in love. And, interestingly, the conventional world also values the Natural Paradigm, but just doesn’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. Does this resonate with you? If you’d like to explore this further, 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.  According to the article What to know about eco-anxiety:
Eco-anxiety refers to a fear of environmental damage or ecological disaster. This sense of anxiety is largely based on the current and predicted future state of the environment and human-induced climate change. Honestly, all of us who think about sustainability likely suffer from eco-anxiety to some degree. But, according to the research, there are some things that you can do. One thing is to get educated. You are probably well educated about what’s wrong, but not many understand what’s right, what sustainability actually looks like. Thankfully, that’s an easy to learn. Nature shows us what sustainability looks like. Living things thrived on Earth billions of years before humans emerged, and will continue to do so in spite of our impacts. Sustainability in Nature is about adapting and evolving, creating conditions conducive to other living things. It’s about relying on things that are abundant, rather than things that are scarce, and relying on each other. If you want to see what sustainability looks like, just go for a walk in a forest or a prairie and take a closer look. Just ask Nature. Another thing you can do is become more resilient. You know what to resist (over-consumption, single-use plastics, fossil fuels), but how might you bounce back from change and disruption? Life has been facing change and disruption for billions of years. At the beginning, life emerged in seemingly toxic atmospheres. Life adapted and evolved and diversified to spread across every continent as well as all of the oceans, figuring out how to survive bitter cold, blazing heat, and the incredible pressures found at the bottom of the sea. Learning to discover and apply Nature’s strategies for resilience to your work, as well as your personal life, can make you more optimistic and, well, more resilient. Finally, you can foster a closer relationship to Nature. You can go outside more often. You can bring Nature inside. You can also recognize that you are a part of Nature, body and soul — you can’t not be. When eating, breathing, and digesting your body is participating in Nature’s endless systems and cycles. You are also born with an innate understanding of Nature, the way it works, and your role in it. This paradigm, the one you experience when you’re enjoying the outdoors, is your Natural Paradigm. Learning to live from your Natural Paradigm can give you new clarity and understanding of our world while building your resilience. If you’re interested in learning more about how to rediscover your Natural Paradigm, I invite you to download the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook which will give you a tiny peek into the Natural Paradigm and then a tiny experience of intentionally living from your own Natural Paradigm.  Wisdom might be described as the intention to use accumulated knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgements, and to behave in ways that are appropriate for the moment and the long-term.
Everyone accumulates knowledge and experience as they go through life, but not everyone gains wisdom in the process. What’s the difference? People who gain wisdom over time pay attention. They intentionally and constantly observe what is going on around them, as well as within themselves. Later, they reflect on their observations and seek to gain new insights and understanding about the world, others, and themselves. With these reflections, they imagine how they might make better decisions and judgements, and might behave in ways that are more appropriate. Beyond that, they not only intend to follow through on what they imagine, they act on it. Of course when they act, they observe and reflect. Wisdom is gained by following the Continuous Learning Spiral. Our current dominant cultural paradigm — what I’m calling the Conventional Paradigm — favors action and reaction over reflection and imagination. Who’s got the time for that? Instead of using our accumulated knowledge and experience to learn ever more, we look at them as personal assets to hoard and to keep ahead of or suppress the competition. The older we get the more we think we know — especially compared to others. Being open-minded, learning from others, imagining new ways to be in the world, and striving to become a better person suggests that you’re not already on top of your game. It’s better to show confidence than curiosity. That’s how it works in the “real world”. By contrast, Nature’s Paradigm values curiosity, exploring and engaging with systems, and seeking synergies. Nature flourishes by continuously learning. Since you are a biological being, you are born with Nature’s Paradigm and the capacity for Wild Wisdom. You are operating from your Natural Paradigm when you experience wonder and awe, when your imagination runs wild, when you are inspired by others (including non-humans), when you are authentically listening, when you are humble. You can grow your Wild Wisdom by re-discovering, strengthening, and practicing living from your Natural Paradigm — especially when you’re engaging with the “real world”. In the process, you’ll flourish and contribute to a flourishing world. If you’d like to explore this further, 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. For the past several years, the Amani Institute has invited me to teach a course called BioEmpathy as part of their flagship program Social Innovation Management. They include this course in their program because they want their Fellows to be able to bring a deep connection and understanding of Nature to their social innovation work. And it has to go beyond inspiration — it has to be actionable.
Each time I’ve taught that course, I’ve gained new insights from the Amani staff, the Fellows, and from Nature. And each time, I gain a deeper sense of what BioEmpathy is all about, and why it is so important to all of us. Those of you who are familiar with Design Thinking and human-centered design know the importance of empathy. It's not enough to imagine how your potential user might, or should, engage with what you're designing. You have to try to sense and understand what your potential user is thinking, feeling, hearing, saying, doing, and experiencing. You have to have empathy. Those of you who are familiar with life-centered design, regenerative design, and biomimicry know the importance of respecting, including, and learning from Nature. It needs to go beyond inspiration. You have to try to sense and understand what Nature is thinking, feeling, hearing, saying, doing, and experiencing. You have to be able to sense sustainability. You have to have bio-empathy. We’re all born with empathy and bio-empathy; however, our current dominant cultural paradigm — what I’m calling the Conventional Paradigm — teaches us that we need to be selfish and exploitative of other people and Nature to succeed in the “real world.”. Luckily, when we are living from our own Natural Paradigm — such as when we’re out in Nature, spending time with loved ones, or being creative — we naturally experience and express empathy and bio-empathy. We might describe this as feeling whole and connected, open and expansive, generous and joyful. You have a deep understanding that you are you, you are us, and you are Nature, all at the same time, You know you can’t not be. I have come to believe that to make real change, we — individually and collectively — need to express and experience empathy and bio-empathy in the work we do. We need to recognize and let go of what I’m calling the Conventional Paradigm, and shift to living from our Natural Paradigm. If you’d like to explore this further, 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. |
Denise DeLuca
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