This past Friday was one of our every-other-month Virtual Retreats for our Community, and on one of the calls, a retreatant asked me, “I love that you are taking on healing in business, and, with all that’s going on in the world, I’m wondering how you think it’s going?”
Whoooosh…. I just paused and sat in that question. She laughed, quietly, kindly, in the silence, realizing how big a question it was. In that pause, I checked in with my heart, and what poured out is a wake-up call for me, for you, for us all.
Because part of the answer is: it’s not going well at all.
The large, and cancerous, ecosystem of global corporations don’t seem to be slowing down at all. They are continuing on apace, using up resources at a frightful rate, continuing every effort to exploit resources and people, with seemingly no thought given to how we’re about to fling ourselves over a cliff edge environmentally.
My wife Holly asked me, “Don’t these people have kids? Don’t they realize what they are dooming their own families to, as well?”
The level of ignorance, denial and blind speed barely notices the attempts at sustainability, or corporate mindfulness, which often turn into how to do slightly less damage, not how to reverse what’s been done. And corporate mindfulness, despite good intentions from executives and consultants, often gets turned into how to help employees cope with the soul-killing conditions they are confronting and the resulting depression and apathy that arises.
I know I’m painting with broad strokes. I know that diligent people can find individual examples contradicting what I’m asserting here.
However, if these individual examples were truly enough, maybe the vast income inequality evident in the western world, especially the United States, wouldn’t be what it is, with small towns burnt out and unemployment at despair-inducing highs. Townships wouldn’t have to bid against, and lose to, global corporations for control over local water supplies.
Sobering. Have we then, failed?
Not yet, I say. Not yet.
For one, there are those stories of heart-centered awareness, many, many of them. Stories I rarely, if ever, heard some 15 years ago, and now becoming much more common. Businesses with deeper intentions are making in-roads.
And, there’s you.
Not just you. Because if it were just you, or just you and I, then we couldn’t do it. But there are actually very, very many of us. I just received *another* email, this time from a lawyer who is also a spiritual teacher/healer.
Really?
And this is just Heart of Business. There are so many others doing this work, in various corners of the business world, and beyond.
The Transitions Movement
The Transition Town Movement is much of what living in an ecovillage is about. A part of it is the recognition that, for the most part, what we’re doing as a culture isn’t working, and another part is a recognition that we don’t yet have a replacement.
So we build up replacements, local and regional networks that are resilient and strong, so that when (not if) the wheels start to come off, there’s something else here already in place.
This may sound survivalist, but it’s not. It’s just what we used to have. More than a hundred years ago, half of the population was self-employed… as farmers. And even if you weren’t a farmer, so many people had gardens and knew how to preserve food, etc. It wasn’t extremism, it was just what you did.
This is akin to what I’ve been saying for a long time, that the economy and the marketplace are not life-affirming at all, and yet we still need to earn our living within it.
Small scale, human-sized businesses have been around for thousands of years, and good numbers of them are what resilient local and regional economies are woven from.
Your tiny business is part of making for a resilient economy. It’s part of what’s moving us toward a heart-centered world. It’s part of expressing your joy and service in the world, and it’s part of what will support all of us in the coming years.
Especially if you have company.
Don’t lose heart, because you are part of the answer. Business healing is needed as much as it ever was, perhaps more. We also need to continue to weave the bones, muscles and sinews of a resilient local economy.
And you’re doing it. We’re all doing it together.
p.s. Ithaca and the World
Speaking of Local: Close to Ithaca, NY? Join me October 30.
I’m leading a half-day in-person workshop. We’re about half full at this point, and I’d love to meet you.
Click: October 30 half-day with Mark
For everyone, starting the first Monday in November
If you want to start with one of our acclaimed Foundations programs in November, the deadline is November 2 this month. Check out our two core programs, for the first two stages of business:
-> Start up? Nearly so?
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-> Unsure what you need?
Get a Readiness Assessment.
Questions? As usual, we’re here!
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Heart of Business Community Update
As a community member, here’s quick access to resources and conversation!
How do you receive guidance in business? Is guidance the same as knowing what to do? Mark answers these questions and more in this month’s Spiritual Q&A Recordings.
In our Facebook group yet?
In our Facebook group, here are some discussions happening right now:
- What marketing strategies have you used? One-to-one messaging? In-person networking? Should I invest in ‘marketing funnel’ training? Join the on-going discussion with your fellow Community members now!
- Needing spiritual connection? Every Monday at noon pacific join your fellow Community members as we gather together for Remembrance. Jump on over and check out what is being shared!
These are just 2 of the many discussions happening every day in our active, compassionate group! Don’t yet have access? Click here.
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4 Responses
I love the idea of the Transition Town movement–getting something in place as a bridge between two ways of living/working. As one system starts to crumble it’s great to have a new and viable option being modeled.
Transition Initiatives make no claim to have all the answers, but by building on the wisdom of the past and unlocking the creative genius, skills and determination in our communities, the solutions can emerge.
still think positively and do best. All the past is the best lesson for us.
Transformations are inevitable;
Both from a moral and intellectual point of view. Little by little the new is joining the process and the old one gives way to his place.
Many human beings are engaged in building a better and more collaborative world and this is already a reality.