A review of 'Active Hope'

A review of ‘Active Hope’

November 28, 2016 | Sister Ellen Cunningham | 3 Comments

The front cover of “Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy.”

The main title of this valuable resource, “Active Hope,” is cheerful, but gives little information about the contents. The subtitle, however, provides a succinct summary: “How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy.” Co-authors are Joanna Macy, a respected and prolific writer and activist in the areas of ecology and spirituality, and Chris Johnstone, a long-term collaborator of hers.

The book begins by laying out three “stories of our time,” i.e., ways we make sense of events. 

1. The first story is “Business as Usual,” and 
2. the second story, “The Great Unraveling,” is of course a consequence of the first. Readers can probably guess many details of both stories, but the authors provide a clear analysis and compelling statistics of consumerism and overconsumption on the one hand and climate change, species extinction and starvation on the other. 
3. The third story is “The Great Turning,” which recognizes a “multi-faceted transition to a life-sustaining civilization.”

“Active Hope,” say the authors, “involves identifying the outcomes we hope for and then playing an active part in bringing them about.” We can respond in various ways to world crises. We may rise to the occasion with wisdom, courage and care, or we may decide the situation is hopeless and try to look away. To help us to make our best response, the authors present a process for inspiration and empowerment to which we can return over and over. They name this process “The Spiral of the Work that Reconnects,” and proceed to elaborate on its various steps with practical and encouraging exercises and reflections.

Picture a spiral staircase with four steps: 

1. “Coming from Gratitude,” on the first level, and then on subsequent levels 
2. “Honoring our Pain,” 
3. “Seeing with New Eyes,” and 
4. “Going Forth.” 

We are invited to experience these four stations and then return to the spiral whenever we need it. (It is a spiral, not a cycle, since each time we go through the steps, we are starting in a new place).

Macy and Johnstone devote a chapter to each of the first two steps. Chapter 3 describes several simple exercises for cultivating gratitude, plus abundant evidence of its benefits. 

Chapter 4 discusses the various reasons why we tend to ignore painful situations or pretend that nothing is wrong, and the beneficial effects of acknowledging our pain for the world and realizing we are not alone with it. Various exercises to attain this acknowledgement and realization, involving such elements as breathing, writing, and ritual, are helpfully described.

The third and fourth steps on the spiral are developed at even greater length – four chapters on “Seeing with New Eyes,” and five on “Going Forth.” 

In the third step, the titles for Chapters 5 through 8 read like enticing promises:

1. A wider sense of self, 
2. a different kind of power, 
3. a richer experience of community,
4. a larger view of time.

 And indeed, by thoughtful discussions, stories and simple exercises, the authors do help us to see the realities of our interconnectedness, the resulting power-with, and the dire need for lengthening our view of time “to the seventh generation.”

In the final section of the book, Chapters 9 through 13 offer a realistic yet hopeful view of what we might experience if we take that fourth step on the spiral: Catching an inspiring vision, daring to believe it is possible, building support, maintaining energy and enthusiasm (certainly a challenge!), and – intriguingly – being strengthened by uncertainty. 

I will not reveal the mystery of that last chapter, but I can assure you that its lengthy contemplation/exercise, 

1. The Bodhisattva Perspective, as well as the one in Chapter 12, 
2. The Great Ball of Merit, 

offer a great deal of strength and encouragement to the faltering seeker of justice.

In summary, I highly recommend this book to anyone involved in work for justice and particularly eco-justice. It is useful as a reference (although the statistics will of course need updating), but its principal value is the believable context and practical steps toward becoming persons of active hope!

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https://www.ourhenhouse.org/2014/02/book-review-active-hope-how-to-face-the-mess-were-in-without-going-crazy-by-joanna-macy-and-chris-johnstone/

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Book Review: Active Hope by Macy and Johnstone
Resilient Futures Blog

https://www.naturalhappiness.net/book-review-active-hope-by-macy-and-johnstone/


An excellent guide to personal resilience

I have taken part in workshops led by both Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, and regard them as two of the best teachers on personal resilience in a full sense of the phrase. Working in depth with this book could be a good start to exploring super-resilience. This book is a clear, concise guide to their approach, and has the authority and richness that comes from their many years of teaching.


Their work is known by various names, including Deep Ecology, and the Work That Reconnects. It draws from a range of sources, including Buddhist teachings and general systems theory.


One of their key ideas is that there are three ‘stories of our time’, and it is empowering to name them, and choose the one we live by:
– Business as Usual: this is the story that governments and business would like us to trust in them. There’s nothing basically wrong, and a bit more economic growth and technology will sort things out soon.
– The Great Unravelling: worsening climate change is only one of several huge problems which show that the world is falling apart and it’s too late to save it.
– The Great Turning: whilst this story is less visible in mass media it is already happening in many ways across the globe: a turning to sustainability, fairness, and shared resources.


To some extent, all three stories are happening, but only the third one encourages us to act and believe we can make a difference. The book highlights three Dimensions of the Great Turning:


1. Holding actions: this means actions to reduce or stop the damage caused by Business as Usual to the climate, ecosystems and lots more. Whilst some of the big changes need to come from government and business, we can change our own lifestyle, and participate in campaigns, boycotts and more.
2. Life-sustaining systems and practices: in every sector, including banking, food and transport, sustainable approaches are already available. Individuals can choose to make such changes now. But it requires big changes to spending priorities and to the patterns of Business as Usual, which will require much wider popular pressure on governments.
3. Shift in Consciousness: this is a sense of belonging and connectedness with all life on Earth. As we deepen this, it brings a sense of urgency, and a passion for positive change.
Much of the book is about how to achieve this change in consciousness, and act upon it. Central to this is a four-stage process which Joanna and Chris have evolved over years: I have led it with several groups, and found it very effective. This process, the Work that Reconnects, recognises that many people feel pain and distress at the state of the world and the way things are going, but don’t know how to handle it, so deny it, stuff it down, which keeps them in tension and inertia.


Their four-stage process offers a safe, supportive way to help people face their pain, move through it, and find ways to engage actively with positive change. The process is described
in the book, but is best done in facilitated groups, since witnessing and support from others is a key element.


The book has a whole chapter on each of the four steps in this process, plus valuable chapters on such topics as Catching an Inspiring Vision, Building Support around you, and Maintaining energy and enthusiasm. 

 Unlike some books in this sector, this one is well written, and pretty concise at 238 pages. The passion, wisdom and huge experience of both authors shines through, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. It gracefully interweaves large perspectives, wisdom from great teachers, real-life examples, and self-help exercises.


Chris Johnstone and Alan Heeks were two of the session leaders in Building Wellbeing Together at Hawkwood College, Stroud, September 22-24 2017.

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In despair over climate change? Try ‘active hope’

Unthinkable: Less focus on outcomes can help to counter pessimism

Tue, Jan 8, 2019, 

Joe Humphreys

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/in-despair-over-climate-change-try-active-hope-1.3738187

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“Being able to identify yourself as part of nature without being laughed at... [is] a huge shift.” 

Photograph: AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert

 

Each week throws up a new report into the perilous state of the planet. Wildlife populations around the world have fallen by an average of 60 per cent over the last 40 years. The UN says we have just 12 years to avoid catastrophic climate change. A dead whale washes up in Indonesia with more than 1,000 pieces of plastic in its stomach.

It’s very easy to despair. However, Louise Michelle Fitzgerald, a researcher with UCD school of politics and international relations, believes one can learn to be hopeful even in dire circumstances.

Fitzgerald, an environmental campaigner and Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholar who is examining the merits of the EU carbon trading system for a PhD, says “burnout is a huge problem” among green activists.

She highlights the work of veteran ecologist Joanna Macy whose book Active Hope (jointly written with Chris Johnstone) “puts forward the idea that there are two types of hope. One is hope based on chances of outcome. The other is hope based on intention,” Fitzgerald explains.

If you require the former kind of hope before you commit yourself to an action your response gets “blocked” in areas where you don’t rate your chances too high, according to Macy’s thinking. Thus, she advocates the other type of hope: rather than acting only when you feel you’ll get a good outcome, “focus on intention” and let it be your guide.

The advice, says Fitzgerald – this week’s Unthinkable guest – is to “set our intention on what we want to see in the world, and direct everything we do in line with that intention”.

The news of environmental destruction is relentless. Do you ever despair?

Louise Fitzgerald: “I usually stay on top of emotional despair but one night I was just like, ‘Oh my god, we’re actually doomed!’, and I found myself searching variations of ‘What do we do?’ at 3am. That’s when I came across an essay written by Joanna Macy, Working Through Environmental Despair, in which she talked about the fact that we know what’s going on with the environment, and asked why we’re not doing anything about it. She put it down to fear – lots of different types of fear.

   

“There is fear of trying to do something and not seeing an effect; your ego is hurt because you seem too small to achieve anything. There is fear of upsetting other people; it’s taboo in our society to bring up upsetting topics.

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“Macy also told an anecdote about how she was really upset about deforestation and she went to a therapist who said, ‘Oh, it must be to do with your libido.’ You get a similar kind of response here if you tell someone you’re upset – they brush it off, pat you on the back or say, ‘Take some pills for that.’

“Of course, for some conditions medication can help. However, Macy says pain is an evolutionary response to something going wrong; it’s telling us we shouldn’t be living in a disconnected, isolated fashion but we need to connect as people and change the way we are treating our environment.”

So we need to get more in touch with our feelings?

“I think the beautiful thing emerging within some strands of the environmental movement is acknowledging that ‘we are nature’ – being able to identify yourself as part of nature without being laughed at. That’s a huge shift, and we need to create spaces to allow people express the upset in a held way.

“Things are going to get tough. We have signed up for climate change for several more decades, and we have to see that kind of commonality so that, when things go dark, we don’t go insular or become militant – which we can see with Trump and Brexit.”

There is a lot of research that says when you put a price on things rather than valuing it you actually devalue it

Governments are supporting market-based solutions to climate change, like carbon taxes and carbon trading. Is that the right approach to protecting the environment?

“Essentially these policies say the only way to value nature is to put a price on it, and that’s problematic if you believe nature has an intrinsic value.

“There is a lot of research that says when you put a price on things rather than valuing it you actually devalue it.

“There is the oft-cited case of the Israeli kindergarten where parents were failing to collect their kids on time. The kindergarten started fining parents who turned up late but instead of late collections declining they skyrocketed. Whereas before people were regulating themselves by a moral compass, and feeling guilty for not collecting on time, the ability to pay removed that moral guilt and people just saw this as a service they were paying for.

“Drawing on Jutta Kill’s work, and others, what worries me about carbon trading, paying for carbon sinks and other market solutions is that there’s an element in which they alienate us from the environment. They reinforce the idea that nature is ‘out there’ to be commodified, and alienate us from the idea that ‘we are nature’, that we are deeply interconnected with the environment.”

But you’re not going to get everyone to accept ‘we are nature’. Surely market-based solutions are better than nothing?

“The worry I have sometimes is that in trying to win the battle we will lose the war. A fundamental assumption behind the market approach is that the way the system functions is generally sound; we just have to tweak it at the edges and make it value these other things, and then it can keep going on the path it’s on. I don’t think that’s the right way to think.

“It’s not carbon in the atmosphere that’s causing global warming; it’s the system that put it there. I think we need to go back to basics and look at the fundamental assumptions of our system. That’s not necessarily just capitalism but any industrial, growth society that sees us as separate from nature, and sees nature as a sink for our rubbish or merely a source of resources that can be exploited.”

Might one argue that the Paris climate change agreement is a step backwards as it props up the existing system?

“I like to think people are good, I like to think the people signing these agreements care about the world, but theirs is a privileged point of view. They look to market-based solutions because the market has worked out well for them. But if you’re living in sub-Saharan Africa or low-lying islands, where a 2 degree temperature rise is effectively a death sentence, markets won’t save you.

“And the implementation of these policies such as biodiversity-offsets or carbon-offsets are associated with serious justice impacts on the ground, like forced displacement and loss of livelihoods, particularly for indigenous peoples.

“The Paris agreement and other international agreements are really important but it should also be said that it’s a very old way of thinking to believe people at the top are going to sort this out. All the successful environmental movements have been from the bottom up. We don’t have to wait for the politicians, or place our hopes in Paris, but we can use Paris as a hook on which to hang our demands.”

Topics:

Climate change

Chris Johnstone

Joanna Macy

Jutta Kill

Louise Fitzgerald

UCD

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적응 유연성 [ resilience, 適應柔軟性 ] 상담학 사전

요약 개인이 역경, 트라우마, 위협 등의 스트레스원을 만나게 되었을 때 적극적인 행동적응양식을 보여 주는 역동적인 과정

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분야: 가족치료 일반, 아동청소년상담

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‘다시 되돌아오는 경향’ ‘회복력’ ‘탄성’ 등으로 회복 탄력성(回復彈力性)이라고도 하는 적응 유연성은 스트레스나 역경에 적극적으로 대처하고 시련을 견뎌 낼 수 있는 능력을 의미한다. 또 역경이나 어려움 속에서 그 기능수행을 회복한다는 뜻을 가지고 있다.

예를 들면, 사람은 누구나 평생 하나 이상의 어려움이나 역경과 마주치게 된다. 하지만 이러한 스트레스적인 상황에 반응하는 방식은 사람마다 다르다. 어떤 사람은 스트레스를 극복하지 못하거나 아주 오랜 시간 극심한 어려움을 느낀다. 그리고 어떤 사람들은 같은 정도의 스트레스 상황에서도 그것에 덜 민감하게 반응하고 극복하는 데 더 짧은 시간이 걸린다. 또 예상하지 못한 건강상의 문제가 생기거나 행복한 삶을 지속하는 데 어려움을 느끼기도 하지만 대다수의 사람들은 일시적인 어려움이나 고통을 잘 이겨 내고, 자신의 삶과 다른 사람들과의 관계를 잘 유지한다. 이렇게 스트레스 상황을 겪은 후에 이전의 상태로 되돌아갈 수 있는 능력을 적응 유연성이라고 한다.

이러한 적응 유연성의 개념을 정의할 때 중요한 두 가지는 ‘스트레스적인 상황’과 그러한 상황에도 불구하고 나타나는 ‘유능감(competence)’이다. 여기서 말하는 유능감이란 특정한 영역에서 높은 수준의 성취를 이루는 것이 아니라, 주어진 환경에 효율적으로 적응할 수 있는 능력을 의미한다. 따라서 어린아이나 청소년의 적응 유연성은, 그들의 삶에서 어떤 어려움이나 두려움의 경험을 하고 있을 때 그것을 드러내어 표현할 수 있는가 하는 것을 보는 것이다. 적응 유연성이 확보된 어린아이나 청소년은 그러한 스트레스적인 상황에서도 자신의 어려움을 드러내어 언어 혹은 행동, 태도 등으로 이를 표현할 수 있다.

또한 적응 유연성은 두 가지 층위로 구성되어 있는데, 하나는 역경이 드러나는 것이고 또 하나는 그 역경에 대한 적극적인 적응결과에 관한 것이다. 적응 유연성은 사람이 자신의 안녕을 유지하기 위해서 심리적 · 사회적 · 문화적 · 신체적 자원으로 자신의 길을 잘 헤쳐 나가는 능력이며 개인적이면서도 협력적으로 그런 자원들을 문화적으로도 의미 있는 방식으로 타협해 나가는 능력이기도 하다. 한편, 적응 유연성은 회복(recovery)과 그 개념을 명확하게 구분해야 한다. 회복은 우울의 증상이나 심리적 외상 후 스트레스 장애와 같은 정신병리학적인, 혹은 신체적인 어려움을 겪은 후에 어느 정도의 시간이 지난 다음 완전히 이전의 상태로 되돌아가게 되는 일정한 패턴을 의미한다.

이와 달리, 적응 유연성은 안정적이고 건강한 수준의 심리적이고 신체적인 기능을 유지하려고 하는 능력을 말한다. 즉, 적응 유연성은 불변적인 성격, 행동, 특성이라기보다는 스트레스에 대한 대처과정의 변화무쌍한 역동적인 본질을 보인다. 그리고 적응 유연성의 개념은 전문적인 문헌과 실제에서 상담의 모든 현장을 통하여 증가하는 현저한 현상이다. 근래의 충격과 스트레스가 되는 사건에 대한 직접적인 반응에 조심스러움이 많이 나타난다. 이로 인해 많은 사람들이 손상을 입고, 희망이 없으며 도움을 받지 못하고 있어 적응 유연성을 경험적으로 정의하려는 많은 시도가 있어 왔다.

필수적으로 적응 유연성은, 첫째, 평형을 유지하려 하고, 둘째, 실망스럽거나 방해가 되는 환경을 조절하려 하고, 셋째, 환경을 거스르려 함에도 불구하고 능동적인 기능수준에 튀어 되돌아오려 하는 사람의 능력으로 인식되어 왔다. 적응 유연성은 모든 사람에게 자신의 환경이나 경험에 상관없이 적절하고 능력 있는 능동적이고 균형 잡힌 관점을 제공한다. 이 같은 적응 유연성의 행동을 구분하고 정의할 때 조심하고 문화적으로 예민해야 하는 것은 매우 중요하다. 역사적으로 적응 유연성의 행위는 백인과 서구적인 시각에서 정의되었고, 문화적 배경을 인식할 수 없고 외부에서의 적응 유연성 반응을 사용할 수도 있는 참가자의 인종, 민족, 문화적 주체성은 고려하지 않았다. 결과적으로 적응 유연성은 힘에 기초한 결과 또는 개발된 반응으로 볼 수 있다.

연구자들은 일반적으로 사람들이 다음의 세 가지 중요한 영역에 걸친 하나 또는 그 이상의 보호요인을 사용하여 적응 유연성을 개발하고 보여 준다고 말한다. 첫째, 사람의 능동적 태도와 철학, 둘째, 지원적인 가정 또는 확연한 친사회적 및 적임의 사람들, 셋째, 학교, 사회기관, 믿음을 기초로 한 기관 등을 포함하는 안전하고 지원적인 커뮤니티에 소속되는 것이다. 해결책에 초점을 맞춘 간단한 치료, 능동적인 심리학 등의 역량강화 접근의 개념을 사용하는 것은 적응 유연성을 현저하게 증가시킬 수 있다.

[네이버 지식백과] 적응 유연성 [resilience, 適應柔軟性] (상담학 사전, 2016. 01. 15., 김춘경, 이수연, 이윤주, 정종진, 최웅용)

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