Gina Lazenby with Barbara Marx Hubbard talking on Brexit morning about the bigger picture of what this all means
A small group of women had gathered to listen to Barbara Marx Hubbard, considered the original futurist and a woman who has written many books about conscious evolution. We were brought together on Friday, June 24 by Mirella Sula of Global Woman Magazine. The kind of women who showed up were all passionate about aligning their business interests with their deep commitment to creating change in the world. Barbara Marx Hubbard is definitely a poster girl for understanding how to ride waves of change, and at age 86 she been a leader in this field for over half a century.
I travelled down to the gathering from the north of England especially to meet Barbara. What started out as an interesting and exciting encounter became something a little more urgent as we were all trying to grapple with the surprising news about Brexit … the UK’s unexpected departure from the EU was just announced a couple of hours before we met. Barbara was a perfect mentor for putting all this real and potential chaos into perspective. Barbara was with us for just over an hour and half of that time was for questions. I was very keen to have time for an interview so when I heard that she was leaving immediately for the House of Lords, I asked to join her and ended up doing my video and audio interview in the back of a London taxi cab .. as you do !!
Here is the interview to watch. It’s very insightful and couldn’t be more perfect in its timing to begin to give us a roadmap. We are used to living in uncertain times but the political structures that we have become accustomed to, and we know no longer serve us, are actually dismantling hour by hour. There really is no map for what is ahead and it is crying out for a new kind of leadership, something we have not seen before but have to do envision afresh. I have also Transcript BMH Interview so that you can read it here … there is much to digest.
A few key insights:
This is all meant to happen as part of evolution
In order to have transformation happen, which is what we are seeking in order to fix our systems that no longer work, breakthroughs have to be created but breakthroughs can only come once we’ve had breakdown. This is exactly the space were are in now with our political system and democracy.
It looks fearful because that is all we are focusing on
The media we have is operating in the old paradigm and is only reporting everything that is bad news. The total focus is on what’s not working and we are in such an overload with that this weekend, it puts people in a state of fear, and against each other. There are plenty of initiatives around the world of things being done differently and successfully that would give us hope but they are not being included in this one-sided news story. It is hard to have a vision for new possibilities when you are ignorant of all the good things that are already being instigated through other people’s creativity. Hope over fear will be a guiding light.
Why there is a big opportunity here for women
New leadership is needed and this is likely to come from the women. It by no means indicates that women would take over, it simply means that the men who created the systems that have now broken are trapped in an old way of working. It’s hard for them to see alternatives. Men are structured into a success syndrome culture but that’s not a natural way for women to work. This is where our creativity will come in and our feminine style of leadership with different values. Compassion, tolerance, intuition, listening, community building .. these are all highly feminine capacities which are being called for at this time.
Connection and community is key
Around the world people are already gathering in small groups, like we did in London on Friday, to discuss new ways forward. We don’t know what we are each doing … there is an urgency for us to connect. As Barbara said, everything that rises has to mobilise. Creating communities of common purpose that can connect to each other will be the way forward. As the big power systems start to collapse, which is quite terrifying to most people, the potential void creates space for the new initiatives to come through. The gaps are always frightening but they give us a chance so we need courage.
Men need our help
This is the time where the evolving woman needs to nurture the evolving man. We have to give men love, support and guidance to enable them to step into different ways of being that they are not familiar with. While stepping forward we also need to step back and provide a space of holding, to enable men to take on the inner exploration that they need to find their own creativity in a way that they have not done before. It is a beautiful and scary journey for all but at the end of it we will be creating different kinds of relationships where both the man and woman will be aligned by the passion that comes from the jointly supporting each others’ purpose.
The Dalai Lama is right about women saving the world …
He has said that the world will be saved by western women. We’ve got the freedom, the education and for those over 50 and the decades beyond, there is much less focus on child care. We know how to love a family and our concept of family has expanded globally. Barbara so elegantly put it: “We have more love in our hearts than we were able to give in the old structures”. We are on the loose with energy and passion and we need to mobilise … !
The Breakfast Event where Barbara had been speaking was organised by Mirela Sula, Founder of Global Woman Magazine. Their next major event is the Global Women’s Summit on July 30-31
Feminine Leadership Today 