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Lessons from community sessions 🌱💫🍂
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Dear amazing community Across coaching conversations, men's work, community leadership and mobilisation spaces, I'm noticing similar themes emerge. Whether we're talking about personal challenges, leadership, belonging or social change, people are asking many of the same questions: 🌱 How do I find agency? 🌱 How do I navigate uncertainty? 🌱 How do I stay open-hearted in difficult times? 🌱 How do I cultivate community when the world feels fragmented? One-to-one sessionsUncertainty can leave us in fight, flight or freeze. It takes just a moment to breathe, ground ourselves, and reconnect with the present. From there, even the simplest step can restore a sense of agency. What's one simple step you can take today to cultivate your own agency? The disruption of so many sectors leaves many of us feeling lost or without purpose, especially when our work is deeply connected to who we are. Starting something new is like tearing a muscle. It requires more rest, care and recovery than before. The solutions of the past are not necessarily the solutions of the future. Sitting in that uncertainty is difficult, but it is not an excuse for anger or frustration towards ourselves or others. If in doubt, get back to the Life Triangle. Wins and losses both deserve celebration. There are gifts hidden in all experiences if we create enough space to receive them. And play! Don't forget the importance of play. If we speak, let's play the powerful energy-shifting game: The Penguin Game. A recurring theme has been creating a simple three-point plan each day:
What is your three-point plan for self, community and the wider system today? Men's CircleMuch of our frustration is linked to the Buddhist understanding of dissatisfaction, the sense that life, relationships and service never quite meet our expectations. The antidote we explored was listening to truly understand, not to win. Whether that is listening to the experiences of women, colleagues who disagree with us, or our children. It doesn't mean accepting the mis-match of expectations, it means understanding it. And we can't do this, without coming from a place of groundedness. To support this, we spent around forty minutes in meditation, fostering the light within us, strengthening our hearts to be both open and strong, and becoming role models for others through our presence. What frustration, perhaps a six or seven out of ten rather than a nine or ten, could you explore with curiosity instead of judgement? Community Mobilisation and Civil ActionOne missing piece right now is making space for grief. The losses of the past, the hopes that never materialised, and the sorrows of the world all live within us. As we seek to take meaningful action, releasing some of this grief create more space for loving action. Many of us can spiral into existential questions: What is the point when there is so much pain in the world? Are we losing our ability to think with 'and' and then turn up with 'but' as a response? Are we creating micro-divisions in our relating with others, that the global divisions are projecting? Connecting around these questions collectively can be deeply healing. It reminds us that we are not alone. Deep, powerful and confronting conversations. Who are the people you can spend time with who genuinely create a positive shift in your thinking and energy? Rise in Our RootsOur worries are often far more similar than we realise. Sharing them can feel deeply vulnerable, yet when we do so in a space where we are truly listened to, something shifts. The worries often soften, dissolve, or become easier to carry. There are not enough spaces where our masks can truly drop. Spaces where we can be silly, playful, honest, and fully heard. What is one step you can take this week to reclaim a little more agency over your worries? Events June 17, Grief Tending for Social Impact Communities - https://griefandliberation.carrd.co/ June 18, Rise in Our Roots continues with purpose and agency, serving the wider system and reducing division - https://riseinourroots.carrd.co/ July 9, Men is Social Impact, what role model do we want to be in this season? https://menscircle.carrd.co/ An ask I'm taking Project 10^9 around the UK, aiming to facilitate it for 500 people, all for free. I'd like some help with petrol money! If you'd like to make a donation email me, and I'll send a link. Music Off to pretend to be a child and do this.. |
Mohammed Ali (The Innovation)
If you are working on social impact and social justice this is a newsletter to energise your journey - sign up by adding your email below
Dear community I'm looking to meet more men working in social impact and justice. Not for dating. 😄 I'm looking for men who are: • Step into their tender masculinity• Become better role models for their families, communities and workplaces• Apologise and repair when they get it wrong• Unlearn behaviours that no longer serve them• Keep learning, laughing and growing I believe changing our living systems starts with changing ourselves. That's why I'm bringing together another cohort of Men in...
Dear community There's a song at the end of this prompt that felt deeply true for me this weekend. We are nature.🌵🐝🌋 It reminded me that if we're going to change our world, for ourselves and future generations, perhaps we need to move more like nature itself. Nature doesn't seem to require central control. Nature relies on relationships, communication, feedback and adaptation. Nature also holds love and rage, and expresses both when it is under threat. I'm becoming less convinced that the...
Dear amazing community After an impromptu night wild camping with Eli and some friends, I realised a few things. South Asians don't traditionally camp. 🤣 Or perhaps more accurately, many of us don't.! And there is a deeper story behind that. A few years ago, I invited some South Asian parents to go camping with me. One replied: "We spent generations moving out of tents." That stayed with me. My parents and grandparents would have lived through the upheaval of Partition and would have started...