If climate reports and dystopian vibes are getting you down, this conversation with Meg Berryman might just lift you (gently) from the tiles. Meg is the host of the Regenerative Life podcast, where she holds activating and catalysing conversations about social change, sustainable business, holistic wellbeing, personal development and regeneration, creating ripples of change from the inside out. She’s not only a brilliant interviewer, meeting mighty minds like Tyson Yunkaporta and Claire Dunn for the kinds of intellectual-yet-accessible chats that leave listeners awestruck, but a formidable thinker herself. We’re stoked to welcome Meg for a wide-ranging convo that covers nervous system care, sitting in the magic dark, tending survival energy and watering the seeds of discontent. We discuss the perils of trying to make a positive impact out there if it’s having a negative impact on you and your people. And how to go about satisfying that deep primal yearning to reconnect with self, earth and other beings. Right now, in this time of grief, confusion + frustration, Meg Berryman is pure medicine. Listen in. SHOW NOTES The inspiration behind the Regenerative Life podcast An unlearning journey of dropping the postures and dropping into true self. Finding the balance between the unknown + the five year plan. Challenging domesticity with wildness Regeneration is an embodied experience; but it’s not as easy as we’ve been sold. The things we’ve sold as making us happy aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The agitation and restlessness we’re feeling as feedback is not anything wrong with us! The lie of capitalism is that it’s your problem, you need to buy something to fix you. The seeds of discontent are also the seeds of regeneration Homeostatic flux: ecosystems are constantly recalibrating according to feedback. How to reconsider + reevaluate what a good life is. We have a deep primal yearning to reconnect with ourselves, the earth, other being. That urge is continually being overidden because on some level, we assume there’s something wrong with us. "It’s not that I’m allergic to life, I’m allergic to the ways we’ve organised society and systems that are so removed from those basic primal instincts of being connected and belonging." Wisdom birthed from the bathroom floor. Epic burnout led to total breakdown led to epic recalibration. Is sheer willpower the only way to get shit done? Reframing breakdown as a period of magic dark. We’ve had a health and wellness paradigm for 20 years that’s focussed on DOING things. But that keeps us in survival mode; it’s not sustainable or regenerative. We need a whole lot of people to be regulated enough, for long enough, to make life giving decisions and make a dent in these systems. Being in conversation with questions. How do we come back to ourselves, and is that enough? Getting out of hustle culture in business. Everyone is saying, "we can’t slow down because x, y, z….” It’s the courageous soul chooses to interrogate that. If you’re making impact out there, but that work is having a negative effect on your people in here, it’s a net zero. It’s not regenerative. The best gift you can give other beings is the gift of a settled system. Avoiding the one-two punch of shame and guilt. LINKS YOU'LL LOVE My Grandmother's Hands -- Resmaa Menakem Support the show Support the show
