The cost of buying certainty.

It is often said that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

While I’ve abandoned the exercise of solving problems (decolonizing my engineering training here), there IS the fact that we have global chaos to navigate. My system prefers optimism to dread… how about yours?

If we agree that we would prefer to move through our current global metacrisis with optimism, then we can proceed to a different thinking / worldview that will create different circumstances.

The Story of Separation (SOS) / Material Consciousness

Charles Eisenstein coined the term “The Story of Separation” and the mantra of this story is: “we’re on our own, and if you can’t see it, touch it and measure it, it doesn’t exist.”

The Story of Interbeing (SOI) / Planetary Consciousness

Also coined by Charles Eisenstein, this story / way of thinking acknowledges that we are all interconnected, and that the choices we make not only matter, but influence others in immeasurable and intangible ways that cannot be neatly mapped in a linear way.

I will contrast just three ‘business as usual’ modern teachings based in the SOS with a few emerging teachings rooted in the SOI, and let you be the judge of what feels more supportive of life.

SOS: “Set healthy boundaries, and enforce them.”

Challenge: Boundaries are limitations. Setting them thus becomes restrictive to both parties. Further, en-force-ing them requires some level of psychological (or even physical) violence.

SOI: Honor your natural boundaries, by listening to your body’s ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ responses, and then communicate from that centered space in a way that is respectful of all involved. When I started doing this, entire conversations shifted – from resentment to clarity. Fewer decisions required recovery afterward.

SOS: “Instead of restricting your spending, make more money.”

Challenge: Restricting your spending maintains a scarcity mindset, true. Making more money for the ungrounded purpose of being able to spend more creates a way of being that is disconnected from the way that money is made, and who had to pay for that.

SOI: You are supported. There is always more than enough. Living from the space of abundance does not measure saving or spending, but sources wealth from a grounded clarity of what is truly important. This makes money earning secondary, in service of life, rather than the other way around. Living this way has brought me so much relief, as I understand that whatever capital flows in, financial or otherwise, is here to support me in this moment.

SOS: “Your network is your net worth.”

Challenge: While we all know it’s not aligned with life to quantify humans as dollar signs, it becomes quite challenging in the profit-driven world to avoid this. Occasional ‘philanthropic’ giving may temporarily fill the void, but in long term, the void remains, because extracting to ‘give back’ does not add up in universal math.

SOI: What is yours to do? What is yours to steward? Aligning your life’s goals and activities with the answers to these questions creates the most joyful, generous and fulfilling way of ‘doing business’ possible. It centers purpose rather than profit, and restores dignity and humanity to us and to our connections. I am honored to be surrounded by people who value my unique inputs as much as I value theirs.

Ok, I’ll stop here. I’m curious: what are you feeling in your body at this moment? What did this short discussion bring up for you?

Global villagers, the purpose-driven leaders who are successfully operating knowing what time it is, would rather sit with the uncertainty that comes with global transition than pay the expensive costs that certainty in the dying era of the SOS requires.

If you feel the call to explore what it means to be a global villager, there is a space here for you.

In gratitude,

Deborah.

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