3.2 Lesson-2: Shift Mindset: “Doing” to “Being”

We are going through a significant paradigm shift. We must consider our individual contributions to establishing an Extractive System in light of the degradation of the environment because this system does not guarantee a sustainable future.

The mindsets, or ways of thinking, that support the Extractive System must be transformed, and they must be replaced with mindsets that are in accord with a Regenerative System, for us to truly transition to a Regeneration System.

The need to reconcile the masculine and feminine energies is one of the mentality changes that are necessary. Reconciling the Overvaluation of Masculine Energy with Feminine Energy

The “doing” contains the Masculine Energy

The “being” contains the Feminine Energy.

We have been functioning in a system that overvalues “doing” as opposed to “being” for a much too long. We are essential to the Regenerative Economy. When we become less preoccupied with “doing,” we will have more space and time to engage to Mother Earth and the communities.

Hence, in order to be, we need to focus more on on and act from our Feminine Energy (being) rather than being centered on and responding from our Masculine Energy (doing). Through mindfulness, meditation, and somatic practices, this energy and manner of being are fed in spiritual or health circles, but they are not fed or elevated in the workplace. Why is that so?

On a systemic level: Businesses have benefited from encouraging their workers and customers to be located in doing since those who “do” produce, and those who “do” earn money so they can consume. In the context of the current economic system, this enables business to grow, regardless of the costs to people and the environment.

At the individual level: Because our society currently supports this and because we are mostly rooted in our egos, which base their value on external validation, it has been in both consumers’ and workers’ best interests to engage in the consume-and-produce cycle.

But, the issue is that because our culture is mostly based on doing, we have lost sight of the needs of other people and the environment as we spend more time working, creating, taking, making, and wasting. If we want to build a future that is socially and environmentally responsible, this method of doing things is no longer viable. With this “doing” mentality, we have overproduced at the cost of Mother Earth and have grown too bloated. In order to restore equilibrium with Mother Earth and her systems, it is now our responsibility to restore what is out of balance inside ourselves.

By placing oneself in being, we can reduce our Doing and create more room for awareness of our consumption and production. Hence, in order to be, we really have to act more from our feminine energy rather than our masculine energy. Yet the goal is to find balance between the two energies, not one or the other. It makes sense that we would focus more on the Feminine Energy for a period of time in order to rebalance as we have long overrated the Masculine Energy.