Rei of Light : Currents Rei Chou

It's easy to think of ourselves as individuals. We go about our day thinking about what "I'm" going to do. About what "I'm" going to eat or what "I" think.

But what if you understood that you're actually not just an individual — distinct, tidily separate, and siloed from the rest of the world? What if you understood yourself as a collective — an ecosystem within an ecosystem within a context and constellation far bigger than just you?

Our existence is inextricably connected with and interdependent upon all kinds of ecosystems: from our micro-biome to the environment we live in, to the plants, animals, and beings thousands of miles away who are a part of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food that sustains us. From a spiritual perspective, we hear all the time that "We are all connected. We are all one."

But what if we actually understood ourselves that way? What would it mean for how we create change? How we understand ourselves as the planet we are here to care for? How we design our businesses? How we connect with each other across spacial, personal, and ecological divides?

These are some of the inspiration, reflections, and questions sparked in this episode of Currents with Innovation Architect, Author, Keynote Speaker, and friend, Neil Redding of "The Ecosystem Paradigm." Neil has been working at the intersection of experience design, technology, and systems for decades now, so it was fun and fascinating to dive into this new way of looking at the world and what it means for how we think about business, what we create, and our place in it.

In it, we talk about everything from how higher consciousness leads to more holistic innovation, to how convergence of AR & the built environment could mean deeper human connection, to how psychedelics or spiritual practice could help business become less siloed and transform the climate movement as we know it by helping us understand that caring for the planet means caring for ourselves.

This is a jam-packed episode so take a listen and let me know what you feel.

* What is the benefit of ecosystem awareness for creating a more just and beautiful world?
* How might we make the shift from "Ego" to "Eco" — in our personal consciousness? Collectively? What practices/processes have been helpful for you in making this leap and what might support others?
* What are the implications/opportunities for business leaders and how might we invite them to the table?

Chime in. I'd love to hear your thoughts. We are, after all, in this together. 💛✨

Frustration has been one of my greatest teachers in life and I'm focusing this whole month on the topic. Why? Because there's a lot of fire in the air! Whether it's the summer heat, social justice roll-backs, or just personal stuckness, we can all use a little help engaging the parts of us that feel furious about not getting what we want for ourselves, our families, or our communities. Because there's a lot of energy in frustration! But what do we want to put that energy toward? And why is all that energy there to begin with? How do we let our feelings fuel more meaningful and fulfilling actions and awareness?

In this episode, I share some of my experience working with the energy of frustration and how and why I actually see frustration as a powerful tool, indicator, and information for loving and enlivening transformation and wholeness. Really curious about how the hell that could be? Listen on dear friend. Or read the transcript below - but this one kinda had me giggling even as I re-listened to it :).

I hope you enjoy it and leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts and how the practices come to life to support a more beautiful life for you and all those you love.

xo

Rei

Everyone is hopped up on AI these days. Love it, hate it, or so over hearing about it, it's here to stay and this podcast episode is all about how and why it's important we engage it.

Like anything, our relationship with AI is defined by our projections. Whether we think it will destroy the world or save it has a lot to say about our beliefs and our agency in directing its use, development and application.

That's why I was so thrilled to get to host this podcast episode with Rachel Azafrani, an AI ethicist who's been working at the heart of the debates, policy design, and decisions related to AI, Chat GPT and more.

What struck me about her perspective was:

A. Her perspective on technology as something that merely augments human behavior ( the potential for destruction or flourishing lying more in us than in something outside of us )

B. Her definition of this technology with respect to our relationship with it (and there-for authority and definition of it). That it's not some runaway train or "other" that we don't actually have any control over but something we get to set the parameters around.

In this conversation, Rachel put into perspective how we might think differently about AI, which is that it is an opportunity to define what we want from a values perspective and to see more of in our society and lives and to find our agency in designing AI and its uses accordingly.

Putting our agency back at the center of the discussion with AI feels so refreshing and important. Creating boundaries around how we want it to influence our lives is very much a mirror and invitation to understand and define how we want to engage technology (or anything really) in our lives vs. letting it be decided for us.

From an esoteric perspective, I couldn't help but feel AI during our conversation as this emerging "baby" of a consciousness! Along with that wast the feeling of us as potential stewards (parents even) to this new awareness. Which begs the questions:

What are we teaching it?

What do we want it to know about what it means to be human?

What would we like to see more of? What are the best parts of humanity that we like it to help augment and what are those that we would like its help curbing?

These conversations beg more of us, not less of us to get involved. If we leave AI to what's on the internet, we will see a technology and voice shaped by the dominant themes and trends exponentiating. But if we engage our agency, our desires, our hopes and make them known in shaping and defining this incredibly powerful technology, we can enable this new consciousness to join us side-by-side in creating a more generative and beautiful world.

What are your thoughts? Where do you see the possibilities? Pitfalls? What do you want to see more of in the world and where might you like another growing consciousness to help you realize that?

How would you like to shape how this technology is used?

Get in touch, leave a comment use your voice. As Rachel mentions in this episode, we have a powerful moment to define and shape how we grow and build AI and your opinion, thoughts and desires matter.

I'm excited to see where this conversation evolves and how we can inform how more light and awakening can more through this realm of technology. Thanks for listening!

We choose and are chosen by the ventures we are here to create in the world for a reason. More than just a thing to do (and try to make work or succeed), they invite us into our purpose, they teach us lessons about life and ourselves - if we let them.

Like everything in our lives, our ventures are mirrors for us - constantly showing us (through challenges and successes) what we value, what frustrates us, what we want most deeply.

But beyond just being a mirror, what if our ventures are actually their own beings? Entities with their own highest expression, wisdom, and desires? This would mean a deeper level of relationship - and as we know, relationship is one of life's biggest teachers.

I can't take credit for this idea, it's described in depth in Elizabeth Gilbert's "Big Magic", but it's an incredibly compelling idea that I've found to be super helpful in how I relate with (and continue to learn from) the ventures I've chosen to pursue in this lifetime.

This episode speaks a bit to the potential and power of seeing our ventures as our teachers - to realize genuine success, but also our own growth and transformation.

I hope it serves and that you find it helpful in navigating your own questions, struggles, and success with the endeavors you've chosen to be in relationship with and to bring into this world.

TLDR, if you want to know something about how to make your venture happen, ask it.

Enjoy!

I'm excited to welcome my first guest interview to the Currents podcast. Leah Siegel is one of the most talented artists, healers and relationship experts I know. Her capacity to tune into the truth of a situation is profound and her capacity to facilitate wholeness and acceptance of self (and other) even more remarkable.

Which is why it's such an inspiration that she's applied her art to a new process she's developed called Spar Cards. It's a way of connecting and communicating with those you love (in particular your partner) that allows you to really see and hear each other - even if you don't agree.

And that's the beauty of this work and this conversation - that we don't have to agree to love each other and that - in fact - that may be the key to deeper truer connection with another.

Not changing, not getting to yes, but accepting no, seeing and accepting someone else's truth and loving them in spite, and even because of it.

In this episode, Leah Siegel and I get at the heart of why relationship is so key to so much of our lives - everything really. And we dive into primary partner relationships and the experiences she's had taking through couples through some of the deepest work we can do in relationship: seeing each other's truth and letting it exist.

I'm so grateful to Leah and her work as a healer and a friend and I hope this episode offers you some tools and inspiration for more authentic and loving relationships in your life.

Also special thanks to Leah and her band Leisure Cruise [https://leisurecruise1.bandcamp.com/album/mind-eraser-ep] for the amazing music intro and outro to this episode.

If you feel inspired and/or are inviting some relationship support, please reach out to Leah at her website [https://leahsiegel.co/] or on Social @thesparmethod [https://www.instagram.com/thesparmethod/], you'll be grateful you did ❤️✨

Here's to more beautiful energy flowing through us and into our relationships of all kinds!

What do you do when the world around you is on fire? What issue do you tackle first?

Healthcare? The environment? Your job and/or the corporate capitalist system at large? It can be dizzying to try to "save the world" while at the same time trying to offer your gifts to the world in a meaningful way.

The trick is that everything is connected, so every action is connected and affects everything else.

So every solution you offer, and yes, even every shift of consciousness you achieve "changes the world".

But more than that, your experience of your unique existence is the point of all of this. Everything from your struggle to find your way, to the ahas you achieve are exactly the reason you're here.

So what if you start from a place of realizing that everything you do and are matters? That you're right on track and that your particular experience is part of a larger collective process that no one else could fill? And that any part of the "problem" that you tackle is exactly the one for you to take on.

And what if you then lived and worked, and acted as if your life and the lives of everyone depended on it? How might you pursue the work that is yours to do? And have the realizations you're here to have? With a furry and a fire that lights you up like nothing else could?

In this episode I offer some insight and reflection on how to find focus in times of uncertainty, change and when everything is calling for your attention. I hope it serves you in finding what you need as the world around us quivers - and that it guides you to focus on what is uniquely yours. Because we are here for it and can't wait to see you shine and own it like on one else can.