Inner work frameworks, practices, and questions – all in a five-minute read. Delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning before you even wake up. Written and curated by Andrew Lang.
Are you a transitional character in your community? (The Wednesday 1-2-3)
|
Hey Reader, A quick reminder to start us off 👇 Tomorrow night, Kimberly Novosel and I will be hosting our first “sweatshirt session!” If you’re feeling a bit exhausted by the world and want a few new practices for self-connection and staying soft, yet fierce, I hope you’ll consider joining us. Today's focus is on a concept used in family systems therapy known as the “transitional character.” This is someone who becomes a change-maker in their family lineage by refusing to pass down intergenerational trauma that was handed to them. Their presence and actions mark a transition as formerly operating cycles of violence or abuse come to an end. A transitional character is someone who is handed a script, but through their own process of healing and ways of moving in the world, creates the conditions for themselves and future generations to move beyond it. Prentis Hemphill writes: We become who we are in part because of the family system that shaped us, but we can become even more of who we are when we resist, when we take a look at where we’re from, where we want to go, and then begin to transform our future. In their beautiful book What It Takes to Heal, Hemphill shares we can all be transitional characters in our communities. A few months back, I shared a framework known as sites of shaping/sites of change that emphasizes six areas of our life:
In each of these areas, not just in our families, we have the opportunity to become transitional characters. Through our own commitment to healing and justice and our active participation with those around us, we are invited to take a long, honest look at the status quo and declare: What has been does not have to continue to be. In our workplaces, this might look like challenging "norms" that have harmed employees and former employees over time. In our faith communities, this might mean questioning how power has been used and working to co-create a new way forward. In our broader context, this might take the form of working alongside others to change how our cities and states are approaching the threat of climate change. But it always begins with our own processing, noticing, and reflecting. So this week, I invite you to think about the different areas of your life and how you might become, or continue to be, a transitional character within the spaces and communities you move. ❓ QuestionsFor the following questions, please use the sites of shaping/sites of change framework. Pick one site and name a specific space within that site, based on your unique story and context. (For example, I might pick “Institution,” and focus specifically on the Educational System because that’s an institutional space I consistently operate within.)
🧰 Resources
Hope you are well or well-enough, P.S. Our October Inner Work Cohort is coming up and I’m really excited! Given our current context and political realities, I truly believe building practices of resilience and presence is one of the most impactful things we can be doing. I’ll be sending out a special email with more details in the coming days! |
The Wednesday 1-2-3
Inner work frameworks, practices, and questions – all in a five-minute read. Delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning before you even wake up. Written and curated by Andrew Lang.
Hey Reader, This week, I’m passing along a practice from one of my colleagues, Taj M. Smith. Taj shared this in a recent newsletter and I love how he speaks about time. I often find myself going way too fast, so while practices like this can sometimes seem silly, they can also be really helpful in re-setting myself. If you feel yourself tempted to skim it, hit “archive,” and move on – especially if you’re reading this early in the morning – I invite you to try it literally right now with...
Hey Reader, I recently received an email from one of our Wednesday 1-2-3 readers sharing this super relatable challenge: “setting goals I can stay with over time.” Woof – me too! In my day job, I train teachers in a style of education known as project-based learning. And one of the things I talk most with teachers about is how we can emphasize “process over product” in our classrooms. (You can probably guess: I have a lot of critical things to say about standardized testing.) In other words,...
Hey Reader, Every minute of every day, we’re making decisions. (I know, I know – I wrote about decision making last week too.) Sometimes the decisions we make are fully grounded, well thought-out, and exude the energy we want to embody in the world. And sometimes…they aren’t. Instead, they can be reactive to what’s going on around us and unconsciously (and uncritically) informed by the under-the-surface movements going on within us. This week has been busy in my life (a new position at work,...