Making the invisible flows visible

The Butterfly School program began spreading its wings last April after 9 months of intensive co-creative work between AXA Climate , La Jolie Prod , LUMI? and Johan Cléman?on.

As co-creator of Butterfly, I want to honor with deep gratitude, the thought leaders who helped me progress on my personal regenerative path during the 9 months of gestation that preceded the period of collective work.

January 2022: The conscious shock!

Looking on the web for the definition of “Regeneration”, I came across Carol Sanford 's web page. Curious, I order "The Responsible Business". One of my biggest literary epiphanies! I realized that what generates my action is what I think, but that beyond thinking, there is... the way I think. I realized that I'd never asked myself about my way of thinking!

Thanks to Carol, I discovered the "living systems thinking": I'm a living being and yet, in 54 years, I'd never imagined that living systems had their own living principles! Everything is a continuum of living systems, there is no separation. No "object" acting on a "subject", everything is subject. Flows are dynamic, interconnected. I grow, you grow, we grow! The abundance, the potential is there, has always been there, but we don't have the way of thinking that allows us to go out and find it. I've never "seen" the world through this kind of lens. I realize that I have before me the greatest challenge of my life: to tackle the way I think.

In one weekend, I devour 4 more of Carol's books. Call with her. I have 1 billion questions to ask her: she tells me "I never answer questions, I only ask them!” I sign up for her training, meet Johan Cléman?on who is a resource in the workshops. I don't "understand" Carole's questions, but I hang in there, my mind doesn't understand, but my intuition knows this is the right way. Little by little, my "flat" way of thinking is beginning to change. The frameworks I learn give me a “3D “view, structured and ordered. My eyes become sharper, my discernment more refined.

Since that epiphany, a continuous path of co-development! Without Johan, his integrity in respecting the regenerative thinking, his unshakeable deep caring, and his unfailing resourcing, I wouldn't have been able to fulfill my role at Butterfly. The spark of an epiphany thanks to Carol Sanford has been key in Butterfly's manifestation in the world.

March 2022: Reconnection to living principes!

Eager to continue exploring other regenerative thinking, I discovered the website of Giles Hutchins . This way of thinking, intimately linked to the living, appealed to me. Within a week, I had devoured all his books.

I realized that our current fragmented, siloistic way of thinking is understandable, because it's the result of centuries of progressive separation from nature, from our deepest selves, from inner and outer. I realized that the science that has brought us all the progress we enjoy today, and that I love so much, has de facto cut up the living, connected "whole" into "little pieces" to be analyzed in expert mode. The view of the dynamic whole has been lost and our eyes have lost sight of the interconnections.

”Regenerative Leadership”, written by Giles with Laura Storm , particularly appeals to me. I was fascinated by the phenomenon of "Leadership dynamics": when self-awareness meets systemic awareness, it provokes emergence. New epiphany: I've always worked like this: it's at the intersection of my own feelings and the overall perception of the situation that my best ideas emerge. Putting words to this allowed me to sharpen this ability.

Another crucial understanding is that a creative process can be preceded by "chaos", and that this is normal. The new "order" we're looking for, is created by a period of "disorder". When you're in this "washing machine full of mess", it's hard, very hard, but knowing that this creative process is normal is a relief and helps you get through these periods better.

Thanks to all this, I'm discovering the power of living principles: from the micro of the cell to the macro of the universe, from our bodies to the forest, they've always been there for 3,8 billion years. It's the purest, most accurate root of any current of thought related to the living world, and this will become the foundation of Butterfly.

Since then, Giles Hutchins has always been there for support and I am so glad to have brought last week 15 AXA Climate team members in the woods where he lives!

April to September 2022: The deepening!

When I began to grasp the power of living-system thinking, I became bulimic and looked for anything that would quench my thirst for understanding!

I did Fritjof Capra Course on System View of Life. What a joy to see that scientists were corroborating everything I'd been learning for the past few months. What personally fascinated me most was understanding the phenomenon of autopoiesis: a living system is the product of itself interacting with its environment. I had never before grasped the porosity that has always existed between the internal and the external. Nothing in a living system is closed or isolated - Look at your skin and its pores!

I continued with?John Fullerton's training: Introduction to Regenerative Economics. I was struck by his courage to dare to think outside the box by proposing an alternative vision of the business world. N'RYTHME training on?Regenerative Leadership program?got deep in my mind that a leader creates the conditions?to unleash the vast potential that exists in people. Daniel Christian Wahl 's "Designing regenerative cultures" brought me a lot and specially this notion of "panarchy" with these multiple adaptive cycles of continuous creation in time and space. I spoke to Laura Storm twice. The intensity of her energy hit me hard and touched me deeply. Thanks to her, I learned that you can experience the 4 seasons: autumn, winter, spring and summer in a single day, in a few hours, in a few minutes. I discovered the fascinating “Story of Place” with “Regenerative design and development” from Regenesis Group . The potential of seeing territories like this is just incredible! How can we miss this? Brian Swimme touched me to the core with “A Journey in the Universe” and “Cosmogenesis”. The universe rests on relationships. It pierced me just right!

June 2023: Deep gratitude!

Butterfly project is a living project and it is the relations between the co-creators that gave it its vitality.

The more we deepened our relations, the more the project emerged and grew! The more we agreed to become channels for the flow that was passing through us, the more the project took shape and found its own flow.

But the energy did not come only from the cocreators over the last 9 months. The flow came as well from all the regenerative thought leaders who have inspired, each of them with their own singularity, the creation of Butterfly.

I am personally deeply grateful for all the work done over decades by all these pioneering regenerative thinkers. You have together created the field, the conditions for a caterpillar to become a Butterfly. Butterfly belongs to you and to everyone!

As a way to thank you for this “invisible” contribution on this flow and to give you back what you brought to Butterfly, we have created the Butterfly foundation, supported by the income of the Butterfly School , to disseminate regenerative practices. And the first projects decided are the translation in French of your books. French speaking countries deserve that your regenerative thoughts are made accessible to as many people as possible. A lovely butterfly-wing rustle effect!

If your own flow brought you to read this article until here, this probably means that you are ready to join other regenerative pioneers at the Butterfly School: https://butterfly-regen.com. Welcome on the “change of glasses” journey!