Who would have thought to be afraid that the commercial airline ticket you bought for your next holiday could hold the potential for you to disappear into thin air?
Now we can add mysterious commercial airline disappearances to the list of things to fear, along with tsunamis, tornados, food-borne illnesses, invasions & wars, random acts of violence and school shootings, unemployment and bankruptcy…the list goes on and on…and it grows.
Researcher Brene Brown, in her latest book Daring Greatly, gives us some insight into to how significant the growing frequency and intensity of these events are becoming when she states, “Over the past decade, I’ve witnessed major shifts in the zeitgeist of our country. I’ve seen it in the data, and honestly, I’ve seen it in the faces of the people I meet, interview and talk to. The world has never been an easy place, but the past decade has been so traumatic for so many people that it’s made changes to our culture…torn at our sense of security. Worrying about scarcity (having or being insufficient) is our culture’s version of post-traumatic stress.”
Brown goes on to suggest that the opposite of scarcity is not abundance, but rather “enough,” and that coming together is our road to healing. This coming together must be wholehearted in nature, not mere co-location. Therefore, it will require vulnerability. And vulnerability will require courage, for we seem to prefer (or default) to be scared and angry, and/or are bound up by shame and comparison – meanwhile we slowly disengage.
We are positioned geographically, sociologically, demographically, vocationally within the family, community and organizations where we live and work. We can live meaningfully and purposefully within our position, if we dare to live wholeheartedly.
An example of where I see people living purposefully within position is a client I have been working with in Calgary. As we worked together to assemble the components that would establish clarity of corporate direction, the expectations of employees and the foundation for their internal communications, it became apparent that the employees of this company truly desired to stand as partners for each other’s success. They were not simply there to use each other as a means to their own personal gain, but rather they carried a wholehearted compassion for each other and celebrated life in all their interactions.
It is logical to predict that the employees of this company are well positioned to be resilient and to overcome any growing fear that they will be challenged to face individually and collectively as they journey down the road together.
If this seems to you to be too good to be true, let me say that it would have seemed so to me as well if I hadn’t actually experienced their culture directly – but I am seeing wholehearted partnership being established more and more as a reality in the companies I work with.
What is your current experience? Do you feel that you are living wholeheartedly? If so, who might you be positioned to stand for/with? Do you see the employees at your work standing together as partners for each other’s success, or are you more likely to see them scared and angry, and/or bound up by shame and comparison and disengaged?
What steps can you take to be wholehearted in your journey with others?
