Final reflections: Life at the center

Individual level reflections

Self-care. We cannot give what we do not have. Very few times we pause to ask ourselves if we hold the spiritual, physical, and emotional capacity to do the work that we are doing. It is essential to ask ourselves how we can heal the wounds and traumas that are embedded in the processes and spaces we intervene. A Maya healer has said: “we cannot give what we do not have.” Our body and spirit are the first territory we must defend. 

Reflect on the following:

• What are the implications of this work for me personally?
• What are some of the healing and safety measures you can take for your own self-care?

Needs. Team up and delegate. We do not have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. We must remain self-critical and accept when we do not have the ability to undertake certain tasks or when we need help to achieve them. By adding team members, we build community.

Reflect on the following:

• What are your abilities and what are your limits?
• Where do you need support to keep doing your work?

Community level reflections

Relationships build the world we dream of. On one side, it is necessary to act in accordance with our political demands when we interact with others. Zapatistas say: “I do what I say and I say what I do.” On the other hand, a culture hack must be an opportunity to foster new ways of experiencing life and solidarity. Sometimes, the simple fact of asking someone to be part of a culture winds up being the change we are seeking: to find each other and to build community. 

Reflect on the following:

• What are the collective implications of this work for my community?
• How am I fostering and contributing to strong and resilient communities? 

Inclusive communication and the co-creation of infrastructures build communities. Narratives shape how we understand and act in the world, but infrastructures are what hold and contain these narratives. There are technological tools which allow us to organize in real time despite distance, and which allow us to build consensus and make decisions in a decentralised way. But, there are also non-digital infrastructures that have been used forever by communities in resistance. 

Reflect on the following:

• What type of organising and infrastructure am I proposing? 
• Who has access to it? Who does not? 
• What tools can I use that allow me to organise in critical moments, but also in stable times?
• In what way does our culture hack create new communities and foster solidarity?

System level reflections

Sustainability means defending and protecting life. Connect your local actions with international & global actions. Our actions and the narratives we seek to promote can help weave new relationships between communities and the home we share, the planet. It is fundamental to consider cultures that have defended life on earth for thousands of years; 80% of the world’s biodiversity is found on indigenous land. 

Reflect on the following:

• What are the implications of this work on the ecosystem?
• How do we learn from and join forms of resistance that have lasted for hundreds and thousands of years?
• How can my narrative interventions make it clear that forms of oppressions are connected as well as forms of resistance? 

Interdependence means we are part of a whole. The individual, the community and the territory hold a relationship, and they cannot be understood in silos. In other cultures, there exists other forms of being and existing. The human being and the white male human are not the centre of the universe. It is worth asking how we may be complicit in strengthening narratives, infrastructures, and actions that perpetuate the Anthropocene. We must always ask about our blindspots and wonder about other forms of being, thinking, and doing. 

Reflect on the following:

• How can we foster a culture that doesn’t place value on accumulation but rather encourages us to be in a mutual care relationship with the planet?
• How can we propose post-anthropocentric ethics and values?
• What are the implications of a syntropic interdependent view of the world for our thinking, infrastructure, and communication?