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The Elephant meets Amisha
October 6, 2020 @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Hosted by The Alternative UK:
We’re really happy that our next speaker in our “The Elephant Meets…” series, aimed at showcasing those who are building the next system to come, is with Amisha Ghadiali, via Zoom at Tue, 6 Oct 2020 17:00 – 18:30 BST (click here to sign up for free).
Amisha is a broadcaster, meditation leader and activist, but she’s best known for her book, now a weekly podcast, titled The Future Is Beautiful. Here Amisha takes the simple but bold step of exploring what a desirable and attractive – rather than dystopian and negative – future might be, by means of extensive and intensive interviews.
Below is a short piece from Amisha laying out her vision and practice:
‘Search what is good and strong and beautiful in your society and elaborate from there. Push outward. Always create from what you already have. Then you will know what to do” — Michel Foucault
We are living in a time that calls for re-imagination, vision and resilience. We are experiencing the collapse, in some cases, and in others the epic shortcomings of the systems that create our societies.
When there is so much possibility to get lost in fear, isolation and hopelessness – we must choose something else. Systemic change happens hand in hand with inner transformation.
In 2010 I started a project called Think Act Vote (which is now The Future Is Beautiful). I started to ask people to share their visions of the world that they want to live in and to remember that they can create them. A simple question – What is the future you choose?
In a system where the political is failing us, it is so important that each of us as empowered citizens have a vision for what is possible, and that we are co-creating it each day in whatever small ways we can. Interestingly the vision part can be hard, as we have been conditioned to be cynical, to be powerless, to feel small.
Yet we should allow ourselves to connect to that part of us that knows what makes being alive beautiful and what makes our communities thrive. When we do so, we experience not just a shift in consciousness, but the inspiration to show up and do our part, as we weave our thread in the tapestry of a co-created beautiful future.
The inner transformation is what connects us to our resilience, to our souls, to our intuition. In a world of complexity, these are our superpowers, or to put it more plainly, the most needed life skills of this time.
Whether it is discerning what news is fake, keeping ourselves out of social media rabbit holes, understanding how to nurture our communities amongst the pandemic restrictions – these are the parts of us that allow us to see the bigger picture, find our role and know what to do next.
Through connecting to ourselves as souls – not consumers, statistics or employees, but souls – we are able to understand what is missing, to listen deeply, and to offer something alternative. We are able to connect to what is important to us, to the beauty that is our birthright, to the realms of what is possible.
Our resilience allows us to find inner resources, to stay connected to something bigger than the individual, so that we may continue to protect what is important, and keep finding ways to honour what is important to our communities.
The challenges of lockdowns, and the way this has threatened the social fabric of our communities, has been a test of that resilience. With domestic violence, suicide, anxiety and depression rising, the more we can nurture the resilience in ourselves and our communities, we can find ways to thrive, to lead and to co-create.
Our intuition allows us to see possibilities, to discern what is vital and to find the next steps. Through this intuition, we tap into an intelligence we all have that is beyond mind and concepts but where we understand more than we can verbalise. We can then live with this greater interconnected intelligence as a guiding force.
It’s both comforting and inspiring to know that we have many of the resources that we need within us, and in our communities, if we are able to see with this lens of possibility. It is from here that we can find ways to heal and change the complex systems that make our world.
Sometimes this change is softer, subtle and seemingly small, but never doubt the power of this. It starts with a vision, from believing in the future that you choose, and believing in your birthright to co-create it.
More on Amisha here. Come and chat about how to imagine a beautiful future, and then bring that about, on Tuesday, October 6th 2020, from 17.00-18.30 (Free admission).
