Welcome to the September OGI!
I hope this finds you well amidst whatever is alive and unfolding for you.
Below are some themes and ideas I’ve been exploring these past weeks. Followed by content I’ve been pondering and some invitations to upcoming events.
Adapting in Liminal Times
We are living in liminal times. Maybe times have always been liminal, yet lately, it feels heightened. Change is a common theme in conversation, seen on the city streets, and felt in our homes around the world.
The past 19 months have invited many adaptations. From how we socialize and occupy public space to how we move between places, the world as we knew it has changed form. Along the way, we’ve adapted to these shifts. Often these adjustments go unnoticed, something in us will innately respond to find the path of least resistance.
Yet, what happens when we’re adapting to things we can’t fully comprehend?
While rapid adjustments can help us adapt to our immediate context, these may not fortify the larger substrate from which we grow. Months later, we may wake up to realize just how much we’ve adapted to fit or keep up with the changing world.
Here we are at a threshold, between what was, and what is emerging. Looking to the horizon ahead is there an opportunity to adapt to what is coming in ways that are regenerative?
As much as transitions are defined by movement they also offer space between one state and another. Perhaps inhabiting this space will give us a bit more agency for how we take the next steps.
Yesterday I learned that liminal comes from the Latin word “limen” meaning threshold. A threshold is both a way to track our capacity to know when we are full, as well as something that marks a space of entry, or a doorway that delineates one room and another.
In liminal space, the rules of consensual reality seem to shift, time bends, a single moment stretches out as we wait with uncertainty, days blur into a week. Perhaps the same rules we used to play by are no longer relevant. Liminal space may feel less certain yet it is also full of possibility. As we stand at this threshold, what is possible?
What is being invited to move to the foreground in this liminal time?
What I’m reading:
YOU ARE A DREAM - by Guillaume Wolf “Prof. G”
My dear friend Joanna Keane Lopez, recommended this book to me years ago. I just revisited it this month and found all kinds of insights throughout its pages.
Written as a mini workshop, You are a Dream explores principles and practices to infuse your life with meaning and hone your creative capacity. I enjoyed how Wolf weaves in concepts from systems thinking, Jungian Psychology, and ecology to outline a system for boosting creative thinking and action.
This book reminded me how the creative process in many ways mirrors the process of personal development or in Jungian terms individuation. Wolf explores themes such as alchemy, the persona, obstacles, and time hacking as areas we can work through to enhance our creativity and process.
What I’m listening to:
Your Undivided Attention Podcast: Do You Want To Become A Vampire?
In this episode, the nature of social media and tech is explored as a transformative experience. Together with Yale philosopher and cognitive scientist L.A. Paul, Tristan Harris, and Aza Raskin, dive into the question: How do we decide whether to undergo a transformative experience when we don’t know how that experience will change us?
Such experiences offer a radically new experience that cannot be assessed in advance. Examples include becoming a parent, fighting in a war, embarking on a new career, becoming a TikTok influencer, or choosing to alter one's physical or mental capabilities.
This podcast reminded me how we are in new uncharted territory and that we are transforming in ways we cannot even comprehend. In other words, we may not even be deciding to transform, yet are being shaped and transformed by many forces, including social media. Listen here
In October I’m looking forward to teaching two classes…
Finding Your Touchstone: Honing Inner Knowing and Sustaining Clarity in an Age of Noise
Friday, October 22nd, 4:00-6:00 pm PDT, on Zoom
In this 2 hour session, we’ll explore ways of cutting through the noise of the world, connecting with our inner clarity and knowing.
Together we’ll explore some frameworks and practices for connecting with our touchstone, to hone our sense-making, and resonance. In alchemy, the touchstone is used to strike the metal upon it to know whether or not it is gold. It is a surface that when struck reveals whether or not something is true.
Learn more and register here
Gaining Perspective When Things Lockdown
In this 2-hour session, we’ll explore ways of shifting our perspective, when we feel stuck, shut down, or when the world around us locks down.
Through reflection, a few frameworks, maps, and experiential exercises, we’ll explore perspective as a doorway, through which we can connect with our creativity, enhance our awareness, and discover new insights.
Learn more and register here