Back to Earth

By Simon Ticehurst Movements and Advocacy Lead, Wellbeing Economy Alliance

There are times when you get an invitation that was really meant for you. An invitation not just from anyone, but from Christiana Figueres, one of the inspirational architects of the Paris Agreement, adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris. 

It was not an invitation to discuss ongoing climate negotiations, instead to a retreat and a process of reflection and introspection aimed at fostering deep mindfulness and an inner transformation to enable those invited to be of better service to our ailing world: “The Way Out is In.” It was an invitation to slow down, stop, and for sometimes uncomfortably long periods of silence, turn your gaze inward. The retreat was hosted by the zen buddhist monks of Plum Village, a tradition inspired by the vision and practice of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, affectionately known as Thai (Teacher).

We expectantly gathered on the first evening of the retreat at the PachaMama Center in the tropical jungle of western Costa Rica. Christiana welcomed us and was with us throughout. Everyone, mainly from Latin America, had been involved in some way in climate and environmental issues. But this was not the agenda. We were asked to put aside our organizational and political affiliations, our last names, our titles, our achievements, our pronouns, and importantly our smartphones and computers. This was immediately liberating, an invitation to stop and disconnect from our noisy world in order to connect with oneself, with others in our humanity and with the exuberant and wondrous nature of one of Costa Rica’s famous biospheres. An invitation to connect back to Earth, on which our humanity itself depends. 

In our complex, uncertain world which bombards us with despairing news of gross inequality, environmental destruction and climate breakdown, violence and war, our minds race to react to the suffering and pain, the injustice and unfairness by believing we need to do more and more to fix the world. It is never enough, and in the way we react we can easily drive ourselves to burnout through overwork, back-to-back meetings, skipping meals, and multitasking for long hours (sound familiar?). 

To get through the stress and burnout of the fight, we can seek temporary relief through pleasure-seeking consumption, or worse, we can retreat into depression and despair. I have lived this weary story myself, flipping from flight to fight and back to despair, questioning the effectiveness of what we are doing. Many at the retreat shared this burn-out and weariness, some feeling guilty at being asked to slow down, stop and do nothing. This is a common story in our not-for-profit sector. It isn’t effective. It isn´t sustainable.  And it is not compassionate, least of all for ourselves. We were invited to let go of this story “which holds us prisoner”. There is another way, argues Christiana, that is more sustainable and resilient. 

There are some deep philosophical learnings that emerge from Thai´s teachings, which can be found in his prolific writing (not in this blog). He had endured so much suffering and pain as a result of the Vietnam war, yet was able to find happiness. How was this possible? Well the suggestion is in the way we react to pain and suffering, and trauma from the past. Suffering is a verifiable, observable reality, and yet if we focus only on that, we only trigger the emotions of anger, sadness, disgust, fear and anxiety. The world is full of it, and the media thrives off these emotions (so do populists and fascists). Climate change anxiety over our future is yet another addition to this overwhelming bag of emotions. 

The more benevolent flip side of joy and happiness, love and gratitude get crowded out. But we have more agency over how we react than we realize. We cannot control many things, but we  can change how we react, and we can recognize those emotions and put them back in their place and intentionally nourish more benevolent ones. It is not about suppressing or ignoring the pain. On the contrary, we recognize and embrace it as a reality, and understand the causes, because without it how would we value what we need differently? Without war we cannot value the true importance of peace. And without the murky muddy bottom of the pond, the lotus flower cannot bloom. “No Mud, no Lotus”. They are inseparable. It is possible to have pain and suffering and at the same time achieve wellbeing, joy and happiness. We don’t have to wait for the perfect society to exist to enjoy happiness. The future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life. Happiness is not a destination but a pathway.

There is a simpler, practical side to this as well. Only when we slow down and stop can we then look inwardly, reconnect with ourselves and begin recognizing how we react and what triggers which kinds of emotions. Meditation, breathing and deep relaxation techniques can all help. Being attentive to our breathing and what we eat, and eating slowly. Try smiling, it is contagiously warming. Walking meditations connecting with nature can raise your awareness and attention immediately. It sounds weird to say that, when we are inseparably connected to and part of nature. We cannot be without nature. Do we forget all this in our busy urban lives? It was significant that we were in one of the blue zones in Costa Rica, known for its extraordinary longevity and wellbeing due largely to the reality of deep connection with nature and community. The importance of nature and connection are central to the framing of wellbeing needs posited by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. 

There are important caveats from this experience too. We need to be wary that mindfulness is now a trending topic and is being successfully commodified by capitalism and sold back to us to help relieve or escape the anxiety it has created in the first place. Capitalism is great at appropriating, but this pursuit of mindfulness is not a fashion. These traditions are much older and deeper, going back through Asian traditions for more than 2,500 years.  

This was also a very special – but privileged – group. Not only because we could enjoy this opportunity, but because the majority of the world’s population in the daily struggle to survive, do not have the possibility of being able to slow down and stop.

You also can´t get to the bottom of this in a week´s retreat. And the biggest challenge for many undoubtedly is how to integrate the learnings in a way that enables us to adjust and avoid returning to previous patterns and the cycle of crisis and burnout. It is a journey and not a race, but we left with an invitation to explore further with ourselves and with each other. 

It requires diligence and hard work too, but it is becoming increasingly clear that this journey of inner exploration is now a necessary and complementary dimension to the external systems change that we seek to influence. This month, the Club of Rome and the Earth4All project launched a deep dive into the often overlooked inner dimension of systems change. The paper explores many of the ideas that we had reflected on at the Pachamama Center, and particularly how the inner conditions have played a central role in perpetuating our current crisis as an inseparable part of human-made systems. If we want to transform the world, it is not just a choice but a responsibility to transform how we react and how we are influenced by the external world, with its pain and suffering. We need systems change too. 

I return back to earth with a sense of enormous gratitude to the wonderful souls who also responded to the invitation, to the monastics of Plum Village for sharing their wisdom and joy, and to Christiana, an optimist who fights for our humanity and lives the truth of one of the maxims from her wonderful book, The Future we Choose – “when women lead, good things happen.”