| Hey all,
Three things this week exploring themselves as me—and now, as you 🧐.
Leadership for Conscious Capitalism — Barrett Brown’s Research 📄
I was recently reminded of just how inspiring I find Integral pioneer Barrett Brown’s application of developmental psychology to leadership and business. For example, check out this PDF on Leadership for Conscious Capitalism. He does a great job of taking the “woo” out of Integral Theory concepts and showing just why 'vertical development' is a necessity for certain kinds of challenges.
You’ll notice his 14 recommendations for “evidence-based and experimental practices you can do to accelerate your own and others’ deep development” are all woven into the fabric of our relateful culture and practices. You may also notice the leadership capacities he describes all align with the aim—and results—of Level Up ⬆!
Let’s Buy The Whole Rainforest, and Do Nothing With It 🥦
In a recent meditation I had a dream/fantasy about buying the Amazon rainforest from the various South American governments and making a gigantic International Park. Mostly my vision is that we’d do nothing with it. I suppose it’s a little counterintuitive to muster some many dollars (a trillion?), but it says something about how much I value non-doing.
Who’s the “we” here? How much would it take? How hard would it be to protect? Could you tie it to carbon credits, like Gabon is attempting to do with their rainforest? Flooding the countries with cash in a way that was actually beneficial would be its own complex problem to solve, but I think we can manage. I also like visions that expand our ethical scope far beyond our normal timeframes and beneficiary considerations. Eg: Who benefits from what we create? What are the effects of our actions in a hundred years, a thousand years, a billion years?
Consider this an invitation to dream big. Also, consider this the first seed planted. Let’s see what grows.
How Taxes Can Bring Gratitude 💵
In the USA, April 15 is the tax-day deadline. We’re in the season. A while back I used to dread taxes, parroting the understandable complaint that the government was “taking all of my hard-earned money to fund foreign wars." But anytime my well-being is determined by something outside of me, I know I’m projecting and have work to do to get to a more honest relationship with reality.
The result is that I can now appreciate paying taxes. It’s not just that there’s so much to love about America, despite our multitude of flaws. Nor even that for the quality of life we’re getting, taxes are a great deal. It’s that my old view requires me to reify much smaller self than I now know myself to be. I am the society that receives all of the benefit, and my little self gets so much from the whole being better off. I am utterly interdependent with the entire universe and all of its history, nearly all which is out of my control. From oxygen to another asteroid-free day, from the value of the dollar to legal rights, the impact of what “I earned” feels tiny in comparison to the gifts of Grace. Coming into an attitude of alignment with things I can't control is something I can control, and it makes the whole better off. Whether or not you're bothered by taxes, this is an invitation to see places you're forgetting that you can choose a different attitude, even when you can't change the circumstances.
I still feel tempted into seeing myself as a victim of an oppressive, corrupt and bloated government doing nothing to stop our civilizational doom, or take care of our homeless, or the environment, or so much more. There’s plenty of evidence to shore up this view, but its bias demands that I ignore so much contradictory data. We’re complex, good and bad. My gratitude seems to allow me to be more honest about both, more peaceful with what is, and more capable of moving towards a better future.
May your days be filled with love and wonder,
Jordan (and the Relateful Company, formerly CircleAnywhere)
Events to Connect and Evolve:
GiveFest in Austin TX on April 15th, 1p-6p. Open to the public.
Los Angeles, USA Immersion April 21-23 (Led by Valerie Daniel, Kedar Shashidhar, Lisa Lapan and Evan Shyer) $495
Level Up ⬆️ — Next Austin cohort w/ Michael Blas starts May 18-21 (or start online today)
Cascais, Portugal Relateful Immersion May 19 - 21 (Led by Lisa Rombach and Fabiola Romero) — €460, book here.
Apply to Join the Team:
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