Is this the Coeur-age?

The bravery to show up from the heart and normalise it everywhere.

Edvard Munch's The Heart (1898–1899

Last night I attended a really enriching workshop with Jamie Bristow, an expert on inner development and contemplative practices in public life. He’s working with the Inner Development Goals project to bring inner transformation and mindfulness into the public, political, corporate and cultural spheres as a foundation for outer transformation.

He’s done work with lots of high-level institutions. One such project was to help set up the UK Parliament’s Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group. A cross-party initiative to bring inner practices and the foundational capacity of mindfulness right into the heart of political power.

Imagine that for a moment. Politicians dropping beneath their tribalised identities to ground into something deeper, more connective, more open, more caring. A politics of presence.

Of course, it’s tiny, but it exists.

Jamie was leading last night’s workshop in a very different setting. It was part of the Alef Trust’s Nurturing the Fields of Change programme. This programme is designed to support those who are already engaged in exactly this marriage of inner and outer work around the world. There are teachers, coaches, therapists, NGO workers, those working in ecological and social regeneration and others working with prisoner rehabilitation and in conflict resolution situations and the list goes on. People showing up from the heart daily around the world.

Jamie asked: “if mindfulness is the answer then what is the question?” My suggestion was “Who or what are we really?”.

This points to something beyond the basic understanding most people have about mindfulness; that it is a way to calm down. He responded to my suggestion by agreeing that the pathway of mindfulness, while initially a process of self-regulation (nervous system regulation/emotional reactivity reduction etc.) eventually leads to a process of self-exploration (to experientially discover answers to existential questions about self, relationship, life etc). But he felt that my question probably wouldn’t go down too well in places like the Houses of Parliament where the emphasis is always on action, doing and externality.

My feeling this morning though is, why not? Why do we feel unable to bring the full depth of human experience and possibility into our workplaces and our decision making processes?

Perhaps the assumption is that we will be dismissed as hippies or new-agers or “not serious” and therefore be rejected. But is that actually true?

When we begin to connect with the deeper currents of ourselves we tend to notice that we can be more easily with others and that life seems to happen with less friction. We discover more peace, flow and belonging and that energises us in a way that previously seemed out of reach. Perhaps we start to notice that we are naturally living what feels like our purpose and that good things emerge from that. Things that benefit more than just us. Regenerative, revolutionary things.

Who doesn’t want more peace, flow and belonging in their life?

So why not start at depth rather than tiptoeing in the shallows afraid of an adverse reaction?

Part of the work we are doing together at the moment on the Embodied Permaculture Project is to practice showing up in our workplaces from embodied presence. The practice of showing up regularly from the heart and noticing how that shifts the culture around us. The signs are very encouraging. Rather than ridicule, people are noticing a receptivity and even a thirst for the opportunity to connect to themselves and each other from a much deeper place.

One participant noticed how showing up this way at work is leading to positive and effective outcomes.

”I’m feeling more confident in my ability to hold a positive space in a business meeting and encourage other directors of the business to practice a short breathing exercise together before the meeting starts, even if this isn’t their natural tendency. This has led to better listening and co-working and that’s starting to lead to better outcomes. Particularly the sense of a team working together. People are feeling more able to share their feelings it seems and we’re more aligned with our purpose which is so important…”

There are always more or less appropriate ways of showing up from the heart. This doesn’t mean naively bearing our soul to a hostile crowd to be shot down in flames. That would be unhelpful and unwise. It means developing a strong, deeply rooted inner connection to ourselves that extends over time to include a wider and wider circle of influence. That’s what we are learning on this 18-month Embodied Permaculture journey together.

You’ve met those people who practise this in their lives. You feel safe with them, and you feel more open and responsive as a result. That feels like a place from which good things emerge.

Now imagine this at scale.

It is crucial in this age that robust inner practice not be just private, personal practice. If we want to be connected to the world in ways that share that sense of peace, productive, life-enhancing flow and inclusive belonging then it needs to be practised everywhere we show up, not just at home sat on a meditation cushion.

We need to rekindle our inner light and then share and kindle that light together with others.

The world needs more lantern-bearers.

We need to bring the sacred back into the heart of culture.

We need to normalise depth.

And that requires courage. Coeur, the French word meaning heart is the source of the English word courage. Is this now the time for the deep heart to lead? Is this the age of the heart?

Is this the Coeur-age?

We’d love to hear ways in which you are noticing this in your own lives and circles of influence so please do leave a comment below!