Practices for transitioning

Besides keeping up the practice of regular dialogue we will mention here the practices that you will need if you want to transition to a life-affirming working culture; be it at work, or in your church group, or… We hear all around that everyone – all groups and teams – need an ecosystem of practices to be able to come to collective wisdom. Becoming fluent in dialogue is one of the essentials. Here is a short list as we have seen is needed.

Personal: Be a first mover and invite your Wisdom Councils

We talked before about taking agency as a needed capacity. When this agency is rooted in your soul, it is a participating-first-mover (participating in the fullness of life), which is different than when it is ego-rooted, then it is a see-me-first-mover. We point here to an acting that comes from the middle – felt as a spark in us – just like our sharing into the dialogue circle. This spark has the quality of awe and wondering, although our conditioning might shy away from it.

Bonnie Roy says that in our Western world – based on centuries of living in hierarchies – there is resistance or even refusal of or a holding back regarding the obligation of taking leadership and the character shaping process that cannot be avoided when doing that. This is a big part of the practice!! The transition we find ourselves in in the world will not be designed, or led by the people currently in hierarchical positions; most likely they feel they have too much to lose. So, it is up to all of us to become a first mover, whatever form that takes in your own specific situation.

I have noticed, again and again, that in finding your soul’s calling, there is a deep need for most of us to first rest; deeply. We need to fall out of the fast pace of the current society, and into the wisdom of rest or pause to follow the creative force, or to be able to hear the whispers of the soul. With honoring your own natural rhythm, and the rhythm of the unfolding process, only then are we ready to face outwards.

Here is Cheryl again, a part taken out of one of her blog posts:

Be a first mover, by Cheryl Hsu

It no longer feels selfish for me to slow down in these times of urgency (as Bayo Akomolafe would describe: Slowing down is not a function of speed, it’s a function of awareness): to meditate, to move my body, be openly curious without seeking to know, to go to therapy, to be moved by music (A change is gonna come – Sam Cooke), to laugh and cry, journal and draw, dance and make art. Ria read the following quote three times during one of our sessions, and I could read it every day, again and again:

We can have the highest degree of authentic self-esteem just by being completely ordinary and average. Then we say to ourselves as to our beloved: That you are, is enough. What you are is a gift. How you are is a delight. Who you are is ‘a mystery’. – Yasuhiko Genku Kimura

I am a mystery. I am a constellation of relationships. I dance with others on groundless ground. I break old patterns and birth new ones. I am a shaman summoning the sacred, and a shapeshifting Loki poking fun at it at the same time. I choose to make meaning in the void, and trust that the universe is conspiring to help me. (blog: https://cherylhsu.ca/post/2020-11-11-first-mover/)

Wisdom Councils

And… this is all about collective intelligence and collective wisdom! Even when your authentic voice and project is needed to create the world our hearts know is possible, you don’t need to do it alone! The individual spark is not enough, it needs to be held in a generative collective. Remember: asking for help is a crucial element in our new capacities.

We name them Wisdom Councils: you gather some people well versed in this style of dialogue (or use a strict protocol like the Coaching Circle from Presencing Institute when people are not used to this), the guiding question is now a personal situation, problem or lack of clarity, and with the same quality of attention as in any dialogue session, you receive what your friends can offer you, offering you a rich meal of wisdom. You will receive, without a doubt, deep wisdom about right alignment (inside or outside), or next natural steps to take. Imagine a working culture where asking for help will be the norm, how much that goes against the Western ingrained habit of doing things on your own; or waiting for others to do it.