Why I started Unconditional Men? (Part II)
This is part two of why I started Unconditional Men. You can read part one here.
When looking around at what’s happening in the world today, IMHO we are seeing the last outbursts of a limited patriarchal belief system and related fear-based controlling power and resource-driven wars.
I believe we are on the verge of moving from an industrial-technological economy and society toward a regenerative one. A regenerative economy means moving away from extractive business models and unlocking the potential for positive contributions to nature and society. Businesses have the potential to be climate positive, nature positive, socially positive and economically positive by moving beyond a solitary focus on limiting emissions into the environment.
It is only up to all of us to make that happen and move towards a life-affirming economy and society. In order to do that, men need to take responsibility to start looking beyond the limited belief systems we have been conditioned with for generations. Much of that thinking is based on a scarcity mindset (ex. limited resources, competition, power) instead of the abundant mindset we can learn by looking at nature and the principles of regeneration and illimited resources like the sun and the wind.
Unconditional Men gathering October 2021
The challenge of leaders today is how we are able to innovate and move from an extractive resource economy to the immersion of a relationship economy by designing life-affirming business models and systems.
In order to do this, as men, we need to be able to transform and pivot towards a new type of masculinity, able to let go of the belief systems and associated suffering from the past. In other words, we need to find and have the courage to reinvent ourselves. To connect to our core, our truth, connected to nature, to be grounded, and to be able to be vulnerable with each other.
Unconditional Men is created to empower the authentic transformation of men in service to the regeneration of our communities and the world.
While experimenting with holding circles physically and online, I met Sudhir late summer of 2021 and we immediately connected on the “men’s work” topic, something we both passionately shared. And Unconditional Men was born.
We decided to start holding circles during the autumn of the same year and resonated with a lot of men on the island. Shortly after that, we discovered a need for more regular programs (now called Journeys) with a dedicated group of men on specific topics (Deeper Purpose, Courage, Masculine/Feminine Balance, Fathers/Sons/Ancestors). After a couple of beautiful Open Circles and Journeys, we started creating online Journeys to reach out to a more international audience. We are now preparing more Circles, Journeys and launched our first Retreats (both online and in physical spaces) and created our first Training Programs to support other leaders in developing healthy, prosperous communities globally.
To understand where we are going, it’s important to understand what men have gone through during the transition from the agrarian to the industrial economy of the last century.
I’ll explain that soon in part three of this series.
