Malcolm Dunn:
Sarah, I’m kind of wondering how do we make sense of what’s happening on a global scale because it just seems to be so much change and it’s quite overwhelming. How would you think about this from a systemic intelligence perspective?
Sarah Cornally:
Well, it’s interesting. I was talking with my colleagues, around the world about this last week. And one of the things that we talked about which really struck my attention is that as the human race, we have been very outward focused. And, we’re pushing our energy and our ideas and our agitation and everything outward. And if we look at what is happening now is there’s a deep return to inward and it’s forcing a deep thought about virtually everything. Everything that really matters to us. Everything that we really care about. It’s an existential moment for human beings really. And so this idea of how do I find the rhythm between what needs to be inward and then what needs to be outward and how can I actually stay in this awareness of the need for the outward and the inward and the inward actually informs the outward.
Sarah Cornally:
So that it actually has some sort of integrity, and health to it. So it, so that’s something that I’m working with personally, moment by moment, day by day, what’s being called for? Is this an inward moment so that I can harvest something that’s available for the outward moment, and staying with this. And I think, when I think about people have asked me, what do you make of this whole Covid situation? And for me, we’ve been watching systems collapse or show their degradation, our financial systems, our health systems. That might be a bit controversial to say at the moment, but, we have seen inequities in our health systems and, an imbalance of what we’re investing in our health systems. And it, and it shows in our society, our education systems, our religious, so many of our systems are failing. Our ability to grapple with the environment, our ability to grapple with water, our ability to even grapple with hygiene, the big vaccination questions, etc etc.
Sarah Cornally:
We’ve actually become quite arrogant. I know the answer and I disagree with you and you’re wrong. And there’s something very unhealthy about that. And Covid has thrown us into existential questions, big existential questions for us as a global society. We’ve tried to address this. Great minds have tried to address this. There are groups who are mobilized to address this, but the counterforce to it, is equally as strong. And so we’re not making progress. And so I suspect there’s a bigger universal force at play. I don’t understand that because it’s bigger than me, so I can’t control it. But I can observe its effect. And, I wonder if we’re being brought to our knees to be brought to our senses.
Malcolm Dunn:
So Sarah, I think you said earlier the two different mindsets, the one around the survival and that’s really, okay, well reduce my anxiety, here’s some things we could do and you call it the fire hose and the other one, let’s call it around the thrival and how do we make sure that in the future there is addressing those fundamental faults. How can we sit with those two tensions and say, look, they’re both good, which is what I think the point you were trying to make and to inform each other to recognize each other. Otherwise, we’ll end up in this stalemate?
Sarah Cornally:
Yeah. Well I think, I think it goes back to what I was saying inward and outward. That’s the beauty of contemplation. You know, when you go into contemplation, thoughts arise, feelings arise, all sorts of things arise and you let them rise and fall. And in the process then once they’ve fallen away, you can harvest something and now you’re in a position to make a contribution or to do something. But this, so it is how do we bring back this kind of recognition for the need for us to be in balance and in integrity that we actually and it’s necessary for wisdom, it’s actually necessary for wisdom. So yes, I think for people who are caught in the fear and anxiety and we all have it and it all rises and falls in all of us. So, nobody’s immune to that.
Sarah Cornally:
But some people are, practiced at managing it and, and getting the balance right and other people are not practice data’s and their fear and anxiety, leads to actions and behaviors that are simply designed to address their fear and anxiety, which by the way is somewhat uninformed and somewhat irrational. Even though one could legitimize it. But without that, how do we actually connect with each other to help calm, to help manage the fear and anxiety? Not that we should have none because having some is helpful and useful. It guides us, but that we can manage it is so important. And sometimes with something this big and this serious and this in your face, you can’t do it on your own. You actually need each other to do that. So, that’s in the way that I feel that it’s, we’re being forced to really, really, really become aware of what we need to become aware of.
Malcolm Dunn:
So great perspectives there from Sarah Cornally, one of the faculty of LeadWell Global, a world expert on systems intelligence and really looking at how do we embrace the diversity to come up with some better lasting solutions to futures. Thank you for that. Sarah.
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