By Tom & Carol Braford
Say thank you and make lemonade!
It is the nature of mice and men to want and expect things to go our way and to get frightened when they do not.
Some psychologists refer to this as an ‘amygdala hijack’. The lizard part of our brain, which is designed to have us survive when there is an actual threat to life and limb, triggers a freeze, fight or flight response. Without a lot of training and discipline, this can shut down our higher brain’s problem solving and creative new opportunity recognition functions.
We can actually train ourselves, however, to have these periodic jolts trigger a higher order sense of compassion and creativity instead. Another way of saying it is that when one door closes, multiple windows always open. But how do we distinguish between a closing door and an opening window?
Well, you have to make like a tree and follow the light that always opens up to multiple pathways, whenever the closing door shuts us off from the light and lightness in our lives. We find that this is much easier to accomplish in community and in communication with others who are committed to training their brains to work for them.
I know because I just went through this kind of experience. We recently received an Urban Agriculture grant to build a year-round rooftop Agrivoltaic grow room. We discovered that the solar collectors we needed were not going to be available in time, neither from the first supplier, nor from our backup alternative.
Initially, I was panic-struck, but other team members and I have had enough transformational training to recognize this as an amygdala hijack and, after a short meltdown, we got in conversation together and then with the grant administrator. The result is a larger, longer timeframe project plan with a bigger, more diverse team that next time around will be able to better respond to unexpected breakdowns.
So, we invite you to join us in creating transformational communities where no breakdown, including global warming or pending cultural, environmental and economic collapse, is too big for Beloved Community.
Contact: braford@sbcglobal.net
www.ArizmendiEcovillage.com