Episode 12: What Stops Transformation? (yes this is a trick question!)

In this episode, Dr. Sally Adnams Jones and Dr. Jen Peer Rich explore what hinders or oppresses transformation.
0:19 Sally welcomes everyone, Episode 12, Blockages to Transformation. She recaps the purpose of the podcast. She uses the metaphor of a cross section of a tree to illustrate expansion and flow within a transformative field. We are held by this creative force of flow, psychologically, ecologically, cosmologically. If we understand what blocks flow, or transformation, we can work with it. She uses the metaphor of a hose pipe to describe flow. This episode will describe the bio, psycho social and political blockages to flow, using different scaled lenses to digest this information.
10:10 Jen asks “does transformation want to participate with us, as much as we want to participate with it”? Is there something sentient and intelligent about transformation that is participatory? The paradox is that nothing can ultimately stop transformation. It is an unstoppable train, on all levels of reality, psychological, social, cultural, ecological, cosmological. We are nested fields of transformation. And we are being informed by, and informing, our environment all the time. But sometimes things hinder transformation, such as attachment to things, and getting stuck in a particular pattern. So we pay attention to those places we get hooked, using inner awareness. If we are not aware on the inside, we can't leverage those moments for maximum healing and growth. She then cites James Baldwin and describes how naming her own PTSD and her negative inner voice helped her become conscious. Fear of change is another major blockage. It's a lot easier when we're in environments with supportive people. Procrastination, seeking short term solutions, and unresolved trauma are blockages on the personal level, and not having the family, friends and mentors to support our growth. Yet those who have experienced complex trauma also have the capacity to move more dynamically with transformation.
21:08 Sally points out that upcoming episodes will look at trauma specifically. Some transformation teachers tend to bypass trauma, and head straight for enlightenment. It's actually not possible and results in distortion. We have to look at the nervous system, how we become hyper vigilant, how we can no longer be present to our lives. We can not flow in fight and flight. Coming fully into the present moment requires we heal the past, and the nervous system. And looking at our adverse early childhood experiences, or ACES, which affect what we fear and doubt about ourselves, and our possibilities. Healing our trauma takes energetic resources. Once we've dealt with our story, we can liberate some of that energy, and undo some of the kinks in the hose pipe, and become fully present in our own lives.
26:05 Jen agrees that bringing our past into presence is the first step. Parts of us act out in bizarre behaviors, because those parts want to be integrated into the present. In the same way that personal transformation is complex, cultural transformation is also deeply complex. Social Transformation is hampered by political, cultural, institutional, military, economic, educational, religious factors. These power structures can be unjust, in an unequal patriarchal, white supremacy. These factors are upheld by laws, regulations, policies, standards, norms, and people who are resistant to change. So when we talk about what hinders transformation socially, we have to look at all of these lenses. Change often means changing power structures, which can lead to a tightening of conformity demands. It's easy to regress, become overwhelmed or apathetic. Intentional small changes can have big impact with that - diet, the products we consume, our environmental footprint - and noticing the fractal relationships between each of these levels of reality.
Find the rest of the show notes at:
radicalemergen...