Day 1 - A Framework

How do we think about and engage with the seemingly insurmountable problems of these times?

Welcome to Day One.  

Did you enjoy the video featuring Charles Eisenstein? (If you haven't watched it, please pause here and do so now)

When it comes to climate, we don't have time to waste.  But rather than think about how big this problem is, I'd like you to consider baby steps in the right direction. From this point, for the next 30 days, I will share with you a step you can take each day to develop your capacities to take positive action and exercise those positive action muscles.

The first of these baby steps is to help you orient your approach --to give you a framework for thinking about how to engage with the seemingly insurmountable problems of these times.

Framework for Positive Action

​What IS Positive Action exactly?  
To understand what it is, it is helpful to look at what it is not.

Positive Action is NOT:

• Contributing to or exacerbating negative energy flows in the world
• Social posts that share with others how you are feeling
• Shaming or blaming others for the current situation
• Watching videos (though I will share some good ones)
• About being "right"
• Based on denial about the reality of our situation

So what is it then?

For the purposes of our work, Positive Action:

• Can be small or large
• Creates movement--it takes you (us) in a direction 
• Creates an opening for further action
• Is often, as Charles Eisenstein says (in yesterday's video) "on the edge of your courage but not past it"
• Involves positive connection with yourself, with nature or others
• Is strategic and intentional

To get specific, positive action that can help reverse global warming falls into one of three categories:
​
1. It works to transform or dismantle the story, systems and structures that

• destroy living systems or
• perpetuate the release of carbon into the atmosphere   

2. It focuses on getting carbon out of the atmosphere and into life instead.
3. It activates others to do one or both of the above.
We will explore these possibilities in the days to come.

For now, keep this in mind: our positive action in the world works best when it both energizes us and thus has the potential to also energize others.

Over the next few days, we will focus on getting in touch with the part of ourself that knows what is ours to do. To do this, we will need some tools.

TODAYS ACTION:

1. ​Get a notebook and make it your own.  You'll use this notebook for the next 30 days of steps, so blank is best.
2. Find a pen you like and write down "Day One" and today's date on the first blank page.
3. Draw a simple picture of something you love as inspiration and intention for the days ahead. It could be anything you love: perhaps something from nature, or perhaps your children or grandchildren
4. Write down any ideas, thoughts or insights that come to mind thus far on the topic of "What One Person Can Do About Global Warming?" (it's okay if you don't have much to write yet) This notebook is for you and will signal your commitment to action and to your own well-being. Don't judge what you have done, just let it be.

That's it for today.

Tomorrow we will use that notebook, so have it handy

Thanks for your big heart,