A Gentle Unfolding

Dear One,

Welcome to A Gentle Unfolding. This phrase has stayed with me for weeks now. It reminds me of the nature of my own journey of growth - it is gentle and happens at its own pace. I can create conditions for it, but I can not rush it. I find this term comforting because I am prone to forgetting this simple essence of life, that things bloom in their own time, and they rest and wilt in their own time. As someone who loves to learn and grow, I have spent many years of my life being impatient with the unhealed, unsolved parts of me. But I am learning to become more patient, to be in a state of receiving but also trusting that what is meant to come will come, and what is meant to go will go.

With my years of leadership work seeking to unlock agency in people, teams and communities in the social impact space, I have also seen this wisdom translate to systems. What would it mean to approach systems change from a lens of accepting and even loving the systems as they are (I know, radical!) and then seeing our work as that of earth tenders and farmers tilling the soil, bringing the water, allowing the light, for the right conditions to assemble for it to grow. I think it would mean admitting that we don’t even know what that growth would look like, but perhaps we can still feel it: its energy, its pull, its sense of wellness. Gandhi used to say and I paraphrase, ‘I do not hate the British man who colonizes us. I love the man and yet, I look at his policies and actions as a sickness that needs to be uprooted, for his own health’. I feel deeply moved every time I think of that. To find love for the oppressor, for the reasons and conditions that lead to the state of things as they are, and then turning inwards to listen and outwards to act is such a deep, rooted practice. I do not want to idealize it though, or make it seem like a way of being that was accessible only to the greats like the Mahatma. It is within us, all of us. I have felt and touched and lived this wisdom in my own life and work. There are times when I find it easier to be in this awareness and times when it’s harder to stop and listen inwards, but the wisdom, the practice is here and present, at all times.

In this new unfolding of my life, I feel called to practice this style of leadership and life more intentionally, and to be in community with others who want to do that. I am calling this dream, ‘Sahaj Collective’. Sahaj means easeful. I think sustained change - both inner and outer, is rooted in conditions for ease. Sahaj Collective is the possibility of a form of leadership in this world that is collective, born of humility and that trusts in emergence - a regenerative form of leadership that is rooted in questions like:

• What inner place is this need for change/creation coming from?
• How can I embody the change I seek to be an agent of?
• What conditions are needed for communities of people to embody and sustain new ways of being?
• What systems prevent the existence of the new state of things we wish to see and how can we be in community and harmony with existing systems while new ones are being born through us?
• How do we listen better to self, others and the systems around us?
• What would allow for ‘strategies’ that were truly life-giving and sustainable and not just effective in the short term? What ways of being enable that?

Sahaj is the dream of a community of leaders who can hold each other through the tensions that emerge when wanting to lead in emergent ways, who can learn different ways of being and leading together, and who can hold a point of pause for each other to ask key questions that are central to true, sustained processes of change. This community is one that I have needed for myself as I have held the tensions and inner conflicts between my own outer conditioning and deep inner knowings. I envision this global community of leaders from across sectors, writers, artists, farmers, creators sharing stories, holding space and being the inner circle from which other similar outer circles can emerge.

As I share this dream with you, I hope you will pause and let this dream stir within you and see if it takes shape. If it does, please write back. I would deeply appreciate hearing from you! I am also going to continue to share reflections on my Substack here if you would like to subscribe and stay in the know!

Love,

Tulika