Wayfinder’s Guiding Stars

I’ve been leading groups for a lot of years now, 25 I guess. And over that time I’ve collected a handful of elements that inform my practice. I use them every time I lead; they are non-negotiables - or maybe better - they are the stars that guide my practice. I know that if I follow these five stars, I will find my way to a good experience for participants.

STAR 1 = Inquiry

This means that I don’t know just where we will end or how we will get there. I offer a question or a problem that the group then engages with to discover their own knowing and capacity for learning, creativity, and truth.

This means that I start with open-ended questions, in a place that is intentionally vague.

This invites co-creation.

And co-creation is where the magic is.

• I believe that only the people who are deciding can really know what is best for them.

• I believe that wisdom is best when it comes from us.

• I believe that a process of inquiry will lead us to the the answer we seek.

• I believe that we learn and discover by doing, by engaging in discovery.

Questions • Not knowing • Messing about • Deepening • Discovery

STAR 2 = Body

This means remembering that we have a body and that the body has intelligence.

It is important to do whatever it is we are trying to understand. We move around the room, we engage with one another, we create things.

I’m especially keen to express the body’s intelligence explicitly through somatic practices, to access the subtleties the body has acquired and understands, but the mind doesn’t know yet.

The sensations that arise in the body are intelligent information, and I invite these sensations into our experience.

The mind maxes out relatively easily.

The body knows things the mind does not.

• I believe that the body is an essential companion in any difficult or challenging experience.

• I believe that when we can each follow our inner knowing, the whole experience for everyone is better

• I believe that the body knows things before the mind, but the mind can masterfully interpret the signals of the body, if given the chance.

• I believe that experience in the real-world with real people and real situations is an essential component of learning.

 Sensations • Movement • Trauma informed • Comfort • Experiential

STAR 3 = Place

This means that everything that happens for your group, or for you in a session with me, will be specific to your situation. I am a place-based educator, which means that all of the conditions of a specific area dictate what we should do there.

Even universal truth has specific meaning in each place, situation, and individual

Place also refers to the earth, to the land, and to the inhabitants of the land. I am mindful of how what we do impacts the earth now and into the future. And I draw on aspects of nature to inform agendas.

• I believe that the land we are on influences how we feel, think, and behave

• I believe that context always matters. We do what is right in this moment, for this particular situation, today.

• I believe in cycles and waves of experience. We must go through all of the phases to enter into a new cycle. Where you on the cycle will inform what to do next.

• I believe that we are in constant communication with the Earth, it informs our essential selves, and provides ongoing grounding.

   Cycles • Local • Land • Ecology • History

STAR 4 = Voice

 This means that everyone will be heard. No one will need to advocate for their own voice because specific time will be given to them, to everyone.

Every single voice matters – we are only whole when everyone contributes

• I believe that voices of dissent are vital. We all have blind spots and dissent can help us see them, and strengthen our positions.

• I believe that those on the margins better see the system for what it is. We must listen to them.

• I believe that everyone has a place and belongs here.

• I believe that it is important to recognize power and at times, create structures to distributed it.

• I believe that when we listen with our hearts we generate better solutions.

  Power • Equity • Margins • Being seen • Listening

STAR 5 = Systems

This means that everything is connected - to other things in the current reality, but also to the past and to the future. Nothing stands alone.

 It also means that change isn’t linear, progressive, or predictable. We can’t use mechanistic mindsets to make sense of complex systems – such as nature, an economy, learning, or a group.

 When we start to see things this way, time horizons stretch, play becomes necessary, and learning is constant. We start to see our role in the system, and become aware of the whole and how we influence it.

 I see every group as a self-organizing system, which I can trust.

Something incredible always emerges, when we are open to it.

• I believe that individual behavior is powerfully influenced by forces outside of their control

• I believe in looking through different scales of space and time in order to see the whole

• I believe that together anything is possible

  Nested • Emergence • Feedback • Interconnected • Change

In a future post, I will zoom out a bit more to see how my work connects with the work of the groups I engage with. And may also elaborate on each, or some, of these more. There is a lot going on with each one.