Our best way to transition is to sustain ourselves...

Lorenna and Shantree of The Living Centre with Sophy Banks

I was inspired to share the notes I took at the talk given by Sophy Banks from the Inner Transition group of Transition Totnes.  I had the pleasure of attending her talk last night at The Living Centre for a wonderfully inspiring dialogue.  Here are some of the most salient points, according to me:
There are four stories of how our future will unfold.
1. We will continue on with 'Business as usual'
2. We will experience a collapse of our culture as we know it
3. We will achieve some sort of 'green stability' where we rise to the challenge of inventing technologies to maintain things similarly to how we currently live
4. Transition will occur, and we will design our way down.

Some of these options are not viable...business cannot carry on as usual when oil reserves are dwindling.  Green sustainability is also not viable due to existing inequalities within our society.  We live in a psychologically confusing time, where we experience aspects of each of these stories at the same time within ourselves.  Inner Transition is all about how to sustain ourselves during this tumultuous time in history.

Sophy also discussed the how process of change that happens.  Although the following are numbered, they can occur in a different order or simultaneously:
1. Wake up call
2. Emotional Meltdown
3. Learning more and making meaning of it all
4. Identity shift
5. Renegotiating relationships
6. Be with others who have made the shift to Transition
7. Learn new skills and plan for change.

Transition is about VISIONING our future.  How do we see our future in 20 years time?  With that in mind, Transition gives us a framework to build something together, right now without having to wait for anyone else!  Transition is about looking for solutions rather than wallowing in the problems.   There is a lot of power at the community level of scale.

We operate best when we are open to give and receive information.  So how do we achieve and maintain this openness?  Sophy summed it up in 5 main categories:
1. Being connected
2. Having a sense of empowerment
3. Safety
4. Being valued
5. Being well resourced (eg. books, people, healthy diet)

She spoke about burnout...something which doesn't often get discussed in public forums.  Transition  is about seeing parallel proxesses across all levels of scale...and she sees what happens to individuals who burn out as a reflection of what is happening 'out there' on a global scale.  The world's problems find a way to 'come right in' so that we can learn about it.  The goal is to have the awareness to both notice ourselves being caught in a belief system and creating space around it in order to make positive changes.

She also brought brainstorming done by Inner Transition groups across the globe about what Inner Transition is all about.  The following is the condensed list from her surveys:
-Personal resilience
-Effective groups
-Difference (diversity and inclusion)
-Reconnecting to nature
-Happiness
-Supporting each other
-Celebrations
-Peace and conflict
-Change
-Psychology and the unconscious
-Spirituality

Her advice: Stay present, stay grounded in the changes...uncertainty is going to intensify.  When people shine a light in the face of change, others will flock to it.