This project came about from conversations we had about the state of the world!
We felt that there was a lot of 'noise' going on…a lot of actions, thoughts, ideas, behaviours and beliefs that were in many ways hugely ineffective and an addiction to the adrenaline of doing and action.
Coupled with that was a tendency to try and solve everything with rational thinking and approach problems in an overly linear way.
And this was also happening on the INSIDE! We were noticing huge amounts of struggle and psychological suffering within others and ourselves.
The issue wasn't that 'doing' was wrong or bad and 'being' was good but rather that there was an imbalance. It's the way we are doing that is not quite right. And just overly focusing on being isn't the solution either, as there is a lot that needs doing!
There seemed to be an accepted paradigm of 'more is better' over 'more than enough'.
We felt that it was important to redefine what we mean by success, by adding sustainability, health and well-being to all the usual criteria we associate with success.
We also saw that there can be a danger of falling into a pattern of pathologising the world's problems, permaculture and much more.
We saw LOTS going on that was amazing and recognized that there WERE other ways of looking at the world and other paradigms, such as embracing gratitude, joy and love! Or the Slow movement, purpose driven companies, conscious capitalism, permaculture etc.
One thing that we were more and more aware of was the need to accept (not passively submit to) how things ARE, rather than always automatically trying to change them. This is a paradox of course. Especially for us in the world of self-development, which itself implies NOT accepting things as they are, and therefore having to change!
And yet, despite the paradox, development is helpful and does make a positive difference when done with awareness and positive intent. Going in and deep has allowed us to branch out further and serve better.
Well, we were always good at creating the right conditions of time, energy and space for development as well as inspiring people with ideas. And this we want to continue. And go further.
So we have added four guiding principles, that are interwoven and cyclical, through which a much deeper exploration of all this would be possible.
Starting with taking Time Out to pause and reflect, then finding the Enquiry Question that will guide us, to examining where our lives need more Dynamic Balance, and then creating the Embodied Practices to sustain the next steps on our development journey.
To find out more about these principles, take a look here.
So Time out for Time in is about working and playing with these principles. Sometimes all at once, as on our Time out for Time in retreats; sometimes looking at one specifically, such as in the Immersions, where the focus will be more on Enquiry Questions and Embodied Practice.