Regenerative Living in a Degenerative Culture
There is vast potential in working with decay.
We are all living in a degenerative culture. Today, waking up to the prospect of another Trump administration is, frankly, degenerating my will, my being, and my function right now. I want to be honest about that. I began writing this last week, and am returning to it now as an exercise in regenerating my will, being, and function in devotion to all that I love in this world.
This culture degenerates both ecological integrity and human dignity in countless ways every day. This is the water we’re all swimming in, so we’re all wet. We belong to this culture. It is a system we are embedded within. There is no opting out. There is no sitting on the sidelines. There is only the degree of agency and consciousness with which we participate in transforming it from within.
I won’t go into the ways that this culture degenerates our water systems, our soil systems, our air quality, and the biodiversity that both depends upon and upholds the remaining integrity of all of those systems. I won’t go into that because I want to talk about us. I want to talk about you, and I want to talk about me. I want to talk about what we can do, who we can be, to be agents of regeneration from the inside out.
What I do want to focus on is the ways that our culture degenerates our self-trust, and therefore our trust in one another, and therefore our trust in our ability to effect meaningful transformation in our world. This is a much longer conversation that my writing will continue to explore.
Dignity, Belonging, and Unconditional Love
There are two core needs that I am always attuned to in my toddler, and in myself, and in the people I work with: dignity and belonging.
If we look at ourselves and one another throughout the course of a day or a lifetime, we can attribute most of our actions and choices to pursuing one or both of those core needs, dignity and belonging.
Early on in childhood, most of us get the message that there are things that are wrong with us, and we must adapt in order to secure our sense of belonging. From that moment onward, there is an internal struggle as we develop into ourselves, a struggle in which we are continuously hitting the gas and the breaks on our authentic desires, our authentic self-expression, our authentic interests.
We sacrifice our authenticity in order to secure a superficial sense of dignity and belonging, and therefore we sacrifice the potential for true dignity and true belonging.
This continues until and unless we are fortunate enough to find ourselves in a field of unconditional love, which can feel rare to those who are unfamiliar with it, but which is profoundly abundant where it has taken root.
There is much that I have to say about unconditional love, and to be frank in this moment, it’s something I am struggling with today. But I do believe that unconditional love creates the most supportive conditions for true regeneration to emerge, and is worth investigating and cultivating. Even, and perhaps most especially, when it’s hard.
When I am within a field of unconditional love, I feel my own dignity and belonging deeply, and those I come in contact with rise into their own dignity, and settle into a deep sense of their own belonging as well. We would do well to nurture this as much as we are able.
Reclaiming Self-Trust
Regenerative living involves regenerating the self-trust that has degraded in our messy journeys toward finding dignity and belonging.
When we talk about regeneration, we’re talking about more than personal change. Regenerative living is about adding value to the larger systems we are part of. To do this, we need to see those systems–as well as our place within them–as whole and capable of evolution and healing. We need to identify our place within them not from a place of ego or control but from a place of essence—an understanding of our unique life’s contribution.
The way I approach this begins with a process of remembrance—a deep dive into who we are, where we come from, and the experiences that have shaped us. Remembrance leads us to reconnect with parts of ourselves that we’ve neglected or hidden away. The seeds of our regenerative potential are found in these parts—in childhood passions we set aside, in stories we inherited but never claimed, in moments of wonder we didn’t fully understand.
It is easy for those of us who have a deep drive to contribute to collective healing to put all of the focus on the systems outside of us that need changing. It’s particularly easy when looking backward on our past, our childhoods, our early conditioning (and often early trauma) is painful. But it is only from deep self-discovery and a willingness to recognize our true, unique place that we can begin to really know our true service within the world.
What parts of my story might hold seeds of potential for a regenerative life?
What forgotten or neglected pieces of myself are ready to be rediscovered and nurtured?
Regeneration and the Life-Death-Life Cycle
Regeneration is unfolding in all systems, all the time: internal, cultural, ecological, communal, cosmological. In simplest terms, regeneration is the cycle of life, death, and rebirth—the life-death-life cycle. In nature, nothing regenerates without decomposition. This means we must ask ourselves: What is ready to be decomposed here?
In our culture, there are countless beliefs, systems, and practices ready for decomposition. But true decomposition is different from destructive, violent erasure. It’s not about burning everything down but creating the conditions for healthy decay—conditions that honor the value of what is passing while nourishing what is to come.
This is an approach that is explored with depth in the field of Integral Theory, where we practice “transcend and include“ rather than “transcend and abandon.“ This core distinction makes a world of difference, and helps us to examine the relics of our own past and the past of the collective with more curiosity, compassion, and creativity.
How might I compost old patterns within my life and within the larger world in a way that honors their contributions while making space for new growth?
Contributions to the Larger Wholes
For something to be regenerative, it must be value-adding to the larger wholes to which it belongs. Regenerative living is not just about personal growth but about contributing to the ecosystems—human, ecological, cultural—that we are part of. We need to see ourselves as integral parts of these systems, capable of both drawing from and contributing to their health and evolution.
This is why regeneration calls for understanding our essence, our unique contribution. It’s not about mimicking someone else’s path but finding our own ecosystem service—the niche where we can thrive and help others thrive. There’s no checklist. And to do that, we must bring all of who we are. The experiences we thought were too disconnected or unimportant may hold the key to our most impactful work.
What gifts or perspectives have I overlooked within myself that might add value to the systems I belong to?
How can I shift from viewing myself in isolation to seeing myself as part of an interconnected, evolving whole?
An Invitation to Regenerate
Regenerative living is about embracing our potential, discovering our essence, and living in a way that adds to the world around us. It requires the process of death and decay of old patterns, old systems, old ways of being. It’s about trusting that, no matter where we’ve come from—even if it’s from the very heart of the “degenerative machine”—we have something essential to contribute. It’s about working with all that we have been to create the fertile soil for new life to emerge.
There is so much more I’d like to say about this, but to be frank my energy is very subdued right now as I move through many layers of feeling in response to this election result. But I know, deep in my bones, that this work is now more essential than ever. The future needs all of us, and we need to be coming from our true essence, our true gifts, a deep place of authentic self-trust.
So, I invite you to live the questions, to find your place within this complex, beautiful, often chaotic, interconnected system. To remember who you are, compost what no longer serves, and allow your unique gifts to regenerate the world around you. If you would like personal support with your own journey of regenerative development, please feel welcome to reach out to me, or book a consultation with me here.
Let’s move into the future together, as our whole selves.
