We are nature

The most productive thing I did in 2022 was this: I sat alone for several hours on a small islet in the Lofoten archipelago in my home country Norway. Surrounded by the pulse of swells and the rush of wind, I asked myself a question: Where do I end, and where does the world around me begin? Am I limited to a restless, verbalized consciousness and physical processes within this bag of skin? I closed my eyes and let my breath, not my words, search for the answer.

A call for something deeper

I have always considered myself an entrepreneur. I like to push forward, not pull back. For the first time in my life, I had set aside a week for a journey inward, within myself. I’d been feeling a numbness creeping up on me for quite a while. Several demanding life events had left their mark on the year; I was exhausted after multiple wave of complicated, at times dark, emotions.

Fortunately, life is full of surprising side doors. At a time when I desperately needed new perspectives, I met Jørgen Nøvik. This former professional snowboarder has spent a great deal of his life among sages in Tibet and Bhutan. A brief coffee was all it took to open up a new outlook on my life. He invited me to join a gathering on an island outside Svolvær in Arctic Norway - a week of immersion in tantric and Sami rituals and meditation techniques. Sound weird? Well, yes, but it was also a meeting of two cultural traditions that both have deep, deep historical roots.

And what I yearned for was to go deeper. In a world full of ephemeral trends, I was aiming for something universal and timeless, beyond the thin layer of modernity and brain-savvy rationality.

The internalized system failure

“Growth-based neoliberal capitalism is the ultimate manifestation of a worldview founded on separation; seeing individuals as separate from others around them and humans as separate from the rest of life on Earth,” writes Jeremy Lent in the introduction to the book Thrive.

You versus me. Them versus us. Economy versus ecology. We have become strangers to nature, to each other, and ourselves. It has been a long time since I recognized that the times we live in are far from normal. Consumption-driven growth, the notion that we can fill a spiritual void with material symbols, is a kind of collective insanity. It affects society, and it affects every one of us in unpleasant ways that can be difficult to grasp fully.

For a long time, I described reality in a mechanical way; the system was a function of technology and politics, a structure that worked outside of myself. My answer was to work with value chain dynamics and use technology to create innovative business models.

But what was the question?

Like most other well-functioning and well-intentioned citizens, I have internalized the problem I’m trying to fix. I have ignored that the system error is hard-coded into the culture and our thinking. We feel the failure, and we live the failure every day. A surprising number of people burn out. The relentless hard work that creates success for our professional characters makes our breath shallow and our sleep restless. We work for more sustainability in ways that exploit our humanity. When I myself have felt unease, I’ve put it down to my lack of coping and tell myself to become more structured, more competent and to work harder. But for whom?

A thought has grown stronger: Could this diffuse discomfort be an expression of health? Is this a voice of sanity, hidden somewhere deep inside me, protesting?

Everything is movement

It took some time to turn off all the background noise when I was in Lofoten. After a few days of interesting conversations, I came across a kayak and paddled out to the outermost islet for some alone time. After a couple of hours of solitary meditation, I experienced something so far from technocratic thinking that it feels difficult to describe in words.

I merged with everything around me. I was the skin that experienced the wind; I was the consciousness that named the experience. But I was also the wind itself, the heather, the sea. There was no clear boundary between me and the magnificent landscape. The breath, the waves, the beating of the seagulls’ wings, the clouds drifting in the sky above me and the other people on the island and the mainland were only different parts of the same thing - an eternal process of change, disappearings and re-appearings, little blips of life in a continuous current. You are me. We are nature. Everything is movement.

When I opened my eyes, the surroundings glowed. The colors and sounds were stronger. I felt free, like removing a filter or clearing the fog. Where I’d felt empty and powerless, I now felt empowered and ignited. I was an active substance in the alchemy of everything, 100% present here and now.

The water in the goldfish bowl 

I write about this because this experience still works within me. Unlike the varieties of leadership training I have been exposed to, this was not a lesson in tactically navigating external expectations. It was an experience of standing firmly and safely inside myself, just as I am. I tapped into a new source of energy; a knowledge of belonging.

In retrospect, this has grown into an insight: my goal is not to reach as high as possible, as fast as possible. Growth is about weaving into the world and establishing a more robust root system. It is to strengthen the ability to stand up for values with integrity. It is developing and nurturing supportive, honest, and empowering relationships. It is to contribute to structures and ideas that are bigger than myself.

The experience does not make me detached from reality. On the contrary, it has triggered an urge for action. The change we need will not manifest as a result of meditation. Transforming the world requires that we challenge power structures, business models, and incentives head-on. We must mobilize purposefully around essential ideas. But it is not sufficient to focus on the external framework. We must also challenge the structures that create our inner worlds, the narratives within us which govern all our choices and priorities. And we must make more diverse networks that can co-create and distribute the stories and strategies needed to inspire the transformation.

Reduction or repair

Introspection, looking inward with honesty, is necessary, not to survive a stressful lifestyle but to free ourselves from the operating system of modernity. The idea of separation, the individualized pursuit of happiness, is the water in the contemporary goldfish bowl. The premise encoded into modern man is increased productivity and exponential revenue growth into eternity. Right from childhood we link the experience of self-worth to the measurable results we create for the system within the framework of the system. We swim in a logic that makes many relationships instrumental, not least in working life. This way, we also weaken the fabric of value-based networks and communities.

We are all carrying this invisible head luggage on our life journeys. It legitimizes corporate irresponsibility and creates streamlined monocultures in many organizations. The value of diversity is emphasized in conference keynotes, but as soon as corporate reality kicks in, inclusion is still considered friction in the machinery. Much of so-called “personal development” is often the art of becoming even more productive within an environmentally hostile society, where complex humans long for deeper belonging and meaning.

Fortunately, many people see the broken picture. The alienation and increasing lack of faith in the system signify collapse. There needs to be more than just pressing on the brake pedal slightly harder. The damage to nature is already dramatic. Going forward, we must work with regenerative solutions where we don’t just reduce the negative impacts — but recreate the necessary conditions for life in all its forms.

Freedom from within

Our generational privilege is to break up with the mental models that have wreaked havoc with the planet and the soul for over 100 years. We have the opportunity to define new and wiser rules of the game. Luckily there’s a buzzing conversation starting to create a signal in the noise, a quest for a new narrative, a rational rationality. A way of thinking and being that makes sense for individuals, companies, and the interconnected global society in which we all operate. We must learn to raise our voices and get used to breaking expectations with relaxed shoulders. In other words, we need to create inner freedom.

The words I’ve written here open up on vulnerability and spiritual longing, and this process has been liberating. I want to say what I think, not what I anticipate someone wants to hear. I want to be measured by my ability to find new paths outside the mapped-out terrain. I have spent too much time and effort on external recognition, chasing the wind, and role-playing. Part of my project going forward is to become a more honest, outspoken, and braver version of myself.

Cudos to the many who work for profound change in business, research, cultural life, and politics, but they’re often poorly organized. Yes, we need to build and disrupt with great force. But this is the groundwork. We have to develop the right stuff the right way. “It’s not what you create that matters, but why and how you create it,” wrote the Norwegian artist Jannik Abel earlier this year.

In the future, my aim is to contribute to a greater extent to the establishment of new and more diverse communities rooted in shared values. We need to get better at bringing out the full potential in each other and creating networks that allow more people to participate. We must highlight the good people, the paradigm-shifting ideas, and the untold stories.

And not least, we must accommodate humanity and meet others with curiosity and allow ourselves to switch off, breathe, and marvel at the miraculous fact that we are alive in a bigger, richer, and more interconnected reality than a limited human consciousness can ever accommodate. Anders

Thank you for reading this far. 🌱 This is my very first ever newsletter in English. The Remaker Newsletter will, over time, be developed to become a community-driven publication about the people and ideas that will move the world. I am open to connecting with potential collaborators and co-writers. Email me at [email protected] if you have ideas or want to join the emerging collective. 2023 will be the experiment and development phase of the project. Sign up or share with a friend if this text resonates with you! 🔥