Context
Reflect on your intention: what do you want to gain from your self-development practices, and how does your relationship with your surroundings contribute to or hinder your ability to get there?
Principles for Choosing Practices
Expand your Context
Reflect on what context(s) your sense of self is based on, and enhance or nurture environments that are supportive and expansive. Find relational situations where meaningful interchanges arise to validate and expand your experience, promoting your capacity to grow.
Search for Coherence
Look for spaces that facilitates genuine attunement and coherence, a sense of safety where people can be present and express themselves exactly how they feel and think. Ensure you feel mirrored and seen and are able to mirror and see other people.
Practice Deep Listening
Engage with others through deep listening, a level of attention that goes beyond hearing words. Communicate with embodiment, attuning to a relational presence that enables co-regulation and develops that sense of interconnection that goes beyond individual needs.
A bit of Inspiration
There is a lot of emphasis on personal accountability and commitment in a programme of integral growth, but we cannot overlook the importance of context for the transformative process as a whole. We are working on the bases of the self as an open system, and that definition emphasises the input of the environment as key for self-evolution. Our commitment to personal growth will be very difficult to sustain without a context that mirrors our individual needs. So, it is important to have a look at your current community and if you think it is not enough to enable your transformation, maybe it is time to find ways to change it or expand it so it can better work for you.
Practices: Create or nurture supportive context that provides relational situations where coherent conversation arises to validate and expand experiences. Look for communities of practice such as themed courses, spiritual groups, retreats, or simply groups of friends that genuinely mirror one another.
