We don't need to acquire more or do more. We need to use what we have and step up. Your skills in restoring mental, emotional, & physical well-being are exactly what the world needs.
Strategic exercise on addressing needs + earning money, gifting needed services, and taking action in times of uncertainty
Encounter at a waterhole during my visit to Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa, 2022
Dear friends and colleagues,
The world is on fire. If it’s clear that waiting for authorities of any kind to prevent or solve humanity’s problems is no longer an option — and that even our most basic needs, let alone our highest aspirations, are being neglected — then it’s time to claim responsibility and take the next step.
We’re the adults — we need to act like it. While self-care is a non-negotiable, that, too, requires we take charge since no one is coming to save us and our own wellness is essential for all things.
We don’t need to acquire more or do more. We need to use what we already have with a greater sense of intention and purpose.
While we can always be growing and building our resources and support, we don’t need more skills, credentials, validation, or security to use our existing abilities to step into our next level.
Context
If shifting winds threatened to carry a wildfire toward our home, we would rise to the moment and do what’s needed. We’d set a plan and prioritize what truly matters. We’d take care of the children first. If they were distracted by the TV, we’d turn it off and help them focus. If they sensed the danger, we’d place a steady hand on their shoulder, look them in the eye, and reassure them that we need to move quickly, but we’re going to be alright — and then we’d guide them to safety.
Instead of a wildfire, we’re facing an onslaught of pressures on a population already operating in a heightened nervous system state due to long-term disconnection, fear, trauma, anxiety, stress, and illness — at a scale that’s hard to fully grasp or describe. People in such a state are unable to think clearly, regulate their responses, or prioritize effectively.
Those of us with years of authentic healing experience are uniquely positioned to lead and guide support efforts. Just as we know that with children in danger, the first priorities are helping them focus, know they’re not alone, and to sense safety in their bodies, the same holds true for anyone experiencing a dysregulated nervous system.
Do you recognize that your unique skills and experience in restoring mental, emotional, and physical well-being are exactly what the world needs? Please recognize that it’s time to bring your skills fully into your next phase of service.
The Foundation: Self-Care, Not Self-Abandonment
As you know, self-care is not indulgence or avoidance. It has been described here as:
A journey from self-abandonment to self-partnership
Being there for yourself and holding space for your experience
Assessing your individual needs through a holistic mind-body-spirit lens
Using the kosha model to support the different layers of your being
A Daily Need: “Five Pillars of Self-Care”
Movement. Our bodies are made to move. Every day.
Intention. Instead of trying to do more things faster, consider doing each task with intention.
Nourishment. Nourishment is pivotal to self-care.
Connection. Humans need connection but when things get busy, it’s even more critical.
Rest. Rest is about actively relaxing and doing nothing on purpose.
When You Step into Your Role, it’s Stunning What Can Happen
In 2016, I witnessed firsthand how individuals can step in and build community on a moment’s notice. While this was an extreme situation, it demonstrates the remarkable things than can happen when people take simple actions and show initiative.
I had flown to North Dakota, rented a car, and drove unannounced to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. I was there to support Native American residents who had exhausted legal avenues in their years-long effort to protect their water source from potential pollution driven by powerful corporate interests.
As it turned out, people from all over the world showed up and an empty, wind-swept plain became the site of a new community. We needed shelter, parking, food storage and preparation, gathering spaces, ways to communicate to the group as a whole, and a way to address health needs. As these systems were established, there would be a need to explain how things worked to every new arrival.
So everyone pitched in. Local residents and members of other tribes brought sturdy teepees and other shelter materials. Experienced health care providers staffed a make-shift medical center, while a volunteer sign-up board outside the kitchen tent organized the food effort. A volunteer chef planned daily meals, and rotating volunteers sorted through donations, managed food prep, and set up a meal service for more than a hundred people. In addition to working in food service, I appointed myself as trash patrol, walking through camp with a bag — either supplied from the donations tent or, when none were available, purchased from the local gas station. The campfire was watched over with care and respect for traditions upheld. Elders, leaders and community members led meetings, prayers, drum circles, and water ceremonies. I can’t fully put into words the life-changing experience of seeing what humans can achieve together.
While most of us will not be engaging in this level of insta-community, it’s remarkable to know it’s possible and stands as a testament to the power of human initiative and collaboration.
Clarifying a Need & Offering a Solution
Bigger Picture Opportunity
In this post, I proposed that the bigger picture opportunity we face is embedded in how we answer these questions:
With old systems losing their grip, how do we step up as architects of what comes next?
As resistance to authentic healing wanes, how do we most effectively advance practices that are humane and evidence-based?
As more and more people recognize that what they once relied upon is unstable, unreliable, and untrustworthy, how do we help them reorient and root themselves in authentic resourcing?
Getting Clear and Specific
To lead the development of more humane ways of working and relating, it’s advisable to speak clearly about the specific need we feel called to address — why it matters to us and how we’re prepared to address it. In that same post, I suggested that we regularly revisit the following seed questions — and that we keep clear, current answers top of mind:
What is a need* you feel genuinely drawn to help address?
Why are you drawn to this particular need?
What do you provide that contributes to addressing it — and what is uniquely yours in that contribution? (Don’t get overly competitive here. This is pointing more to your personal experience, which is always unique.)
What key challenges are faced by those experiencing this need?
What key challenges do you face in helping to address it?
What key opportunities are there for overcoming those challenges — for them and for you?
What is one concrete action you can take right now to increase your potential impact?
Who are at least two other people with whom you already have — or could build — a community for reflection and collaboration around solving this problem?
*The more descriptive we can be in defining how people experience a need, issue, or problem, the more effectively we can align our energy toward meaningful and sustainable action.
What follows is an example of how I applied the process. This is a fairly detailed example; a more pared down version could work just as well for you.
My Calling
My calling centers on empowering others.
A Need
Since I was a child in the 1970s, I’ve witnessed a devastating erosion of health and wellness.
Why it Matters to Me
I wish to help individuals regain their health and continually deepen their sense of wholeness. I care so much because I see wellness (physically, mentally, and spiritually) as the foundation from which all action emerges. When we’re unwell or disconnected from our deeper Self, we’re in a form of survival mode and the consequences ripple out everywhere:
Our energy contracts.
Our perspective narrows and may become negatively skewed.
The basic demands of daily life can feel overwhelming.
When we’re simply getting by, we have less capacity to create, to love, to guide, and to uplift others.
When a person experiences a sense of well-being and wholeness, they’re better able to help our world, appreciate its beauty, and respond to what arises with steadiness and kindness.
One Piece of the Need, Clearly Defined
Effective health and wellness solutions are available, but many people do not utilize them. I’ve observed quite a number of barriers that keep people from making choices that truly serve them in achieving wellness.
While it’s not the only problem, a central challenge stems from diminished personal empowerment, exhibited in various ways such as deferring power to authority figures and lacking confidence in certain abilities.
Framing the Need
Our sense of personal power grows through personal development. Growth happens from taking small, actionable steps that produce tangible results. Techniques that support growth generally fall into two categories:
Engagement / Experiential Learning: Direct engagement with life
Knowledge: Acquiring practical and inspiring insights
Distinguishing between engagement and knowledge matters because each unfolds differently.
Engagement (or practice) can be structured, but life is inherently non-linear, and growth from direct experience often occurs in circular, iterative ways.
Knowledge, by contrast, is most effective when contextualized and organized within linear and multi-dimensional frameworks. Unlike experiential learning, knowledge can be studied methodically, enabling deliberate leaps in understanding and meaningful insights.
When working with trainees, I suggest emphasizing this distinction:
A teacher or guide without sufficient practice may deliver teachings that feel hollow or superficial. Practice cultivates the depth of experience and heightened consciousness necessary to convey subtle insights and transmit the unsayable — the groundwork of transformation.
A teacher or guide without sufficient knowledge will be unprepared to present the full breadth and depth of the material, limiting their ability to adapt the teachings effectively to meet the diverse needs of students and clients.
Addressing the Need
I inspire service providers to develop strategies that optimize both practice and knowledge — for themselves and their clients — recognizing that while both are essential, each is cultivated in fundamentally different ways.
I support providers in effective knowledge acquisition, focusing on integration and application, and in sharing practical and inspiring knowledge with their clients.
Developing Effective Mind-Maps — It makes sense to know how to effectively integrate new information. Otherwise, you’re likely to waste time gathering endless bits of information that you never use, or feeling confused, anxious or overwhelmed. I help providers to build mind-maps so that when new information comes in, they know where it fits in a big picture.
Real-World Application — The key question is how to learn information in a way that you can practically and effectively apply it. The answer is to be deliberate in how you study and integrate new information with your current understanding. I help providers avoid distracting noise from knowledge that can be clearly connected to real-world teaching and application.
Contextualized Adaptation — Excellent teachers and providers are distinguished by their ability to draw from the limitless well of knowledge and wisely apply what is useful in each moment. To do this requires not only an effective “bag of tricks” but also the ability to see things holistically rather than in disconnected fragments. An essential strategy is to contextualize knowledge. That is, consider how the particular piece of information relates to other pieces and how it fits into a bigger picture.
Challenges
Information overload
Mixed perspectives on what constitutes “authorized” information and misinformation
It’s been normalized to operate with incomplete or inaccurate understandings of evidence, options, and opportunities available
Overcoming the Challenges
Clarity and confidence is essential to helping people move forward
Building new communities not centered on old systems seems critical
Evidence plays a crucial role in inspiring commitment among both clients and providers
Life-changing knowledge is more likely to be shared when it’s not only organized and verifiable, but also visually engaging and punchy
One Concrete, Immediate Action
Review notes from 1:1s and Health Collective Roundtables to glean insights
Community
Evolve working group plans for Health Collective
Attend Tuesday meeting regarding private group’s community project and to move ahead Health Collective project
Earning Money and Gifting Needed Services
I wanted to highlight some key considerations that I know we need to explore:
With financial pressures rising, how can we deliver services to clients who can pay?
How can we prioritize and provide services to those in need who cannot pay?
What’s one step we can take to establish a bartering, voluntary, or alternative exchange relationship?
I look forward to your thoughts.
In closing, a saying came to mind for responding in times of uncertainty:
“Shake the tree — you might not get what you expect, but something will fall.”
Sincerely,
Shelly Thorn
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