Life is our greatest teacher.
How is life initiating you and/or your organization at this time?
Why Rites of Passage?
In a word: resiliency.
In times of eruption and crisis we need to learn how to bounce back in ways that nourish us and nourish our world.
As science reveals -all aspects of life are inter-related. What happens out in the world impacts the people we live and work with; it also affects what happens within our own bodies, minds and emotions. Because we live in a relational world, how we react, how we communicate and ultimately what choices we make affect the outcome between success and failure for many.
Life, the Great Initiator, moves faster than our ability to ever catch up to it, perpetually stimulating us to adapt, change and grow. When this becomes overwhelming however, such rapid and unexpected changes can muddy thinking and distort decisive action.
While social, technological and economic progress may superficially connect more of us, the resulting consumer-frenzied life-style often means less time to replenish ourselves and our ideas.
When we feel constantly taxed and tested we can become reactive and lose sight of our core values and beliefs.
Unceasing stress leads to boundary fatigue.
We become vulnerable to more of what we don't want in our lives which makes us even more susceptible to ever increasing levels of stress, overwhelm and exhaustion.
Individually and systemically, depleted boundaries can lead to illness, ‘bullying’ and even suicide.
Sociologically and psychologically, unless we stand up for what we believe in, we become defined by other's internalized and unhealthy forms of social conditioning: greed, physical, emotional or verbal violence, sexism, racism and homophobia to name but a few faces of oppression.
To fight off stressful, sickness-inducing social viruses we need strong, effective social immune systems.
Following the wisdom of our bodies, we sometimes need a good fever to fight off infections. Healthy conflict can provide a necessary fire to burn off unwanted attention.
Re-imagining the role of crisis
Unlike reacting or numbing out to a crisis, the time-honoured initiatory tradition of a Rite of Passage re-frames circumstances and events.
How can a Rites of Passage Program build the fire and passion we need to refocus our intention and actions in order to re-build and re-define ourselves and our organizations?
There are 3 main passages or themes vital to this work: separation, ordeal and re-incorporation.
The crisis sets us out on a path to discover more authentic power relationships and ultimately healthier expressions of leadership. Crisis necessarily leads us out of our comfort zone, separates us from what we know and challenges us to evolve our capacities.
Initiatory processes stimulate us to realize we need help and guidance to discover the more hidden parts of ourselves, and/or organizations. When successful, we grow in capacity: our skills, resources and confidence measurably evolve.
Reincorporation: the Path of Returning
The final step in the initiation is often the most difficult. Here is where many people and organizations falter. People imagine that just because the dilemma is ‘fixed’ life and business can return to normal. This fallacy leads to an even more trying relapse until the initiatory process is fully completed.
A Rite of Passage involves humility, wisdom, and grace. It also requires an expression of gratitude and generosity. The re-incorporation stage asks us to freely give away some of what we have learned, to be in and of service to the communities and organizations to which we belong.
It is by our peers and those who benefit from our efforts that we are authentically witnessed for our challenges and successes. By meeting our challenges head-on we prove we are worthy, valued and valuable members of our communities and society as a whole.
When we choose to face our demons and/or difficulties we embark on a Rite of Passage. We set out on a great quest, an adventure of our soul’s making.
The Now Generation
Like it or not, the whole world, is arguably under the greatest initiation of our collective history. Our global cultural is in a perpetual state of shock. Economically, environmentally, culturally we are all impacted by rapid change. Our choices, our family, our businesses and our organizations depend on us to be and offer much, much more of who we are.
History reveals every generation is defined by its conflicts and struggles. This has also and will always be true of individuals and organizational systems.
Separately and collectively we face challenges few in this generation have been prepared to take. Born of necessity, take them we will.
The axiom change or be changed compels us to act now.
Dramatic times require dramatic, well-rehearsed actions. If you need dramatically different results contact Robert Birch to see how he can be part of your successful team.
Rites of Passage Programs with Robert Birch will refresh, renew and revitalize your skills, values and visions and invite you to more joyfully, more resiliently, play your part in a world that wants and needs you to do so now.
