As we head into the holiday season, we focus on spending time with the people who are most important to us. In our professional lives, the last month of the year is often spent with our teams reviewing the past year’s performance and planning for the next. A core concept in regenerative systems and mindsets is that all relationships are sacred.
We often use the religious definition when it comes to the word “sacred.” Outside of a religious framework, however, we use the term to describe anything that is entitled to reverence and respect. Our relationships with each other, our communities, other people, species, plant life, and the Earth all fall into this category. These relationships are sacred and deserving of reverence and respect.
When we embrace the idea that these relationships are sacred, we must assess whether we behave in a way that reflects that venerance, including our relationship with the Earth. For example, if we extract resources from our environment in a way that depletes them for future generations, destroying ecosystems and the species that live there, then we aren’t holding our relationships as sacred.
Connecting caring to sacred relationships
How do we express our sacredness for our relationships? Demonstrating care shows concern for and kindness to others and the Earth. Caring puts these relationships above expediency, profit, or efficiency.
Caring invites us to nourish the sacredness of our relationships.
When caring is present, there are often three apparent conditions:
- We nurture, tend, and support the creation and sustainment of relationships.
- The impact on our relationships and the environment is part of the organizational decision criteria.
- We are thoughtful about the quality of our relationships within and between our organization and the external world.
Questions to use when assessing relationships
I invite you to reflect on the following questions to help assess the quality and care you express in your relationships:
1. Who do you consider yourself in a relationship with presently?
2. Who counts and who doesn’t count in your relationships?
3. How do you express sacredness and caring in your current relationships?
4. What would you like to strengthen or become more attentive to in your relationships?
5. What is your current relationship with Nature and the Earth?
6. Where would you like to expand, deepen, and strengthen your relationships?
These reflective questions can start us on a journey to uncover what we truly value – sacred relationships – and our current behavior – caring, thoughtfulness, and attentiveness- in our individual and organizational lives.
Wonder how this mindset delivers value to the organization? Read about the importance of relationships to the bottom line here.
Living systems are filled with sacred relationships
Unfortunately, our prevailing worldview sees separation instead of connection. And yet, a regenerative mindset requires a worldview of connection, care, and sacredness within all our relationships. This mindset focuses on the whole system, defined as large as you can imagine. Relationships are sacred in that they connect us with the wholeness of the system, helping us to see and understand it in its entirety. With relationships in mind, the decisions we make are transformed as well.
Moving closer to the knowledge that all relationships are sacred is a journey, not a destination. It involves expanding our understanding of the quality and value of each relationship in our lives.
A hallmark of sacred relationships is a connectedness that transcends time. They don’t turn on and off like a spigot. Once we see this transcendence, our relationships with the environment, neighbors, families, work colleagues -and even our pets – create a richer, deeper, more anchored, and more meaningful world. A world where conditions are conducive to the life of future generations.
