The Value of Conversations In Our Lives Now by Elektra Porzel
We are in a time of humanity’s consciousness expanding towards a future where unity is dominant while simultaneously the old stories from the reality of separation of what is the ‘truth’ are fighting to stay in power. We each must pay attention to what we are paying attention to…the old stories that keep us in historic patterns of beliefs and actions, or the new stories that offer us the life that we crave. One way to do that is through conversation.
What are conversations? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, they are informal talking together, an oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas. Is there a name for conversations where all participants are listening fully with no stances for judgments; where there is a mutual opening up to the others’ perceptions, ideas, wonderings, hopes? Let’s call it ‘Full-On Opening Up Into’ Conversations (FOOUI)! That’s my definition of conversation and the kind of conversations that I promote in my conversations on Zoom!
To open up to another’s perspective, another’s wonderings, another’s hopes for the future is to expand your own capacity to experience more, to see the world through another’s eyes. As you open up through this listening, you gain new perspectives. These new perspectives inform your choices and your actions. Those different choices and actions lead to different results in your life. Different results that help you create the life that you crave for yourself and for others.
In the present western society, there is a ‘talking at’ others from judgments or beliefs. We could call it a ‘not-listening’ to the thoughts of the others. There also exists a ‘belief’ mindset in which the individual hasn’t questioned their own thinking…are their thoughts what someone else told them or did they create these thoughts themselves? In this ‘belief’ mindset there is no examination of evidence pro and con or weighing of what others are saying relative to the ‘belief’. In ‘Full-On Opening Up Into’ FOOUI Conversations, we examine both our own thinking and seek evidence for our own thoughts as well as the thoughts/ideas of others. This form of internal/external dialogue is important to us now. Without those basic parameters of internal/external listening, how will we realize that there are other ways to view the world? How do we change how we behave or choose? How do we create new ways to be with each other? How do we create new ways of working together to create a more sustainable future for humanity?
The only way to get different results in our life is to open up to others’ perspectives. It’s like the five blind men around the elephant. If each blind man stays in just one position such as the leg or the trunk, they will never know the entirety of what an elephant is. If they listen and open up to what others are present to, they have the opportunity to move to the other’s position around the elephant and thus have a fuller comprehension of what an elephant is.
We each are a blind man about something in the world.
What better way to get a larger picture of the realities and the possibilities that are present in every situation, concept, experience than to participate in FOOUI conversations? Being in conversation does not force you to change your perception or opinion, it only serves to open you up to the more of what others are experiencing, thinking about, perceiving, wondering about, hoping for, dreaming about.
I hold conversations every week about the ideas of two different authors, Charles Eisenstein and Tyson Yunkaporta. They each have written books about the need for our present western society to shift our practices and policies, so that we can create a viable sustainable future for humankind. Eisenstein offered us his ideas in his books Sacred Economics and The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible as well as in his blog on Substack. In his book Sand Talk, Yunkaporta proposed that indigenous practices may offer us some practices, some concepts and some being states that we could use as templates for each of us to adapt in order to create a sustainable future for generations rising.
Each week I have two conversations on an Eisenstein Old Story-New Story proposition. Each conversation has different participants and therefore each conversation ends up focusing on different issues and evidence. It’s fascinating! Lucky me to be with these women who share from their history, from their wisdom, from their wonderings and from their hopes for creating a better future for our grandchildren and coming generations. Join me in April to be part of the conversation around Eisenstein’s Next Stories and Yunkaporta’s Sandtalk. The Eisenstein Next Stories conversations are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The conversations on Sand Talk are every other Wednesday and focus on one chapter of the book while looking for adaptability to our lives and possibilities for humanity’s future. Join me in FOOUI conversations and/or join others in FOOUI conversations where everyone listens without judgment, where everyone opens up to the possibilities of different perspectives, of different dreams and of different possibilities. Let’s open up to each other’s perspectives and discover the more of what there is to perceive in the world!
Exploring Charles Eisenstein’s Next Stories April
https://www.loc-institute.com/product/exploring-charles-eisensteins-next-stories-april/
Becoming the Modern Indigen using the ideas in Sand Talk