BIOMIMICRY
“Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We are a part of NATURE and nature can teach us how to be in right relationship with each other and the world. Accordingly, at nParadigm, we look to the natural world to remember and reimagine how to work as a part of a group within an environment—a sustainable system.
NParadigm works with biomimicry or the copying of nature and what we call natural law, principles that govern human nature as a part of nature. Creating order out of chaos and simplicity out of complexity, these laws are universal and predictable. Though the outcomes of the laws vary, the truth of their influence does not. Instead of creating a new and false foundation, nParadigm builds upon the preexisting patterns of nature with nature.
Natural laws govern the world within us, around us, and between us. Balancing what is ideal and what is real, natural law supports the fundamental freedom of the individual within the group. Nature realizes that both the individual and group potential are one, and so nature can teach us to remember. Nature is thus an integral part of our labs and curriculum, and the retreat center facilitates the necessary immersion into the natural world. Walking in reflection and meditation on the land, people are transformed by a way of being in harmony that cannot be taught but must be experienced—a way of being beyond words.
Nature FACT
According to environmental psychology research, being out in nature has three positive effects: Reduced stress, improved mood, and improved thinking.
IT'S ELEMENTAL
"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."
Albert Camus
Nature
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The phenomena of the physical world collectively including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creation.
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The basic or inherent features of something, especially when seen as characteristic.
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The universe, with all its phenomena.
Nature reflects the outer world but also our own true character or nature. From the infinitesimal atom to the infinite multiverse, nature connects the microcosm to the macrocosm, what alchemy calls Above and Below, within and without. Humanity stands between these levels of scale, able to direct their own conscious evolution. Naradigm helps people to understand and relate to their nature, allowing them to evolve and create in real time to meet real needs. Like nature, nParadigm is based on the natural laws and principles that govern and structure creation.
The act of creation works with the seasons as cycles of nature, building upon archetypal patterns which are reflected in our nature. Just as the seasons affect the organism, so cycles of initiation in spring, growth in summer, maturation in fall, and decline in winter evolve us as an organization. In this process of renewal, the earth represents the physical, water the emotional, air the mental, and fire the intuitive or spiritual aspect of creation: the four elements. The elements and seasons connect humanity to nature and the balance that it represents.
NATURAL LAWS
“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order."
Carl Jung
Natural Law
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A body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for human conduct.
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An observable law relating to natural phenomenon.
First and foremost, natural law is based on our interconnection and interdependence.
NParadigm moves from the individual to the group to the groups of groups that comprise the natural world. Moving from smaller to larger levels of scale to meet expanding needs, the customer, for example, is envisioned within and as systemic whole. Always the parts are seen within a whole that reflect sustainability and the balance of nature. We believe that this is not only an honest and natural perspective but a truly self-serving perspective, as it honors the interdependence of relationship. It is also a long-term or sustainable perspective based on balancing the interests of the parts and the whole in community.
An Ecosystem not an Egosystem. The model is based on the interdependent strength of the many over the weakness of the isolated individual (ego). It leverages the power of group think and group genius as well as the resources of the ecosystem as an environment. It is based on the balance of the individual and group within a sustainable environment in which once adaptive traits (fight, flight, paralysis) are not longer advantageous. It is a model of conscious cooperation versus unconscious competition, of compassion not aggression, inclusion instead of exclusion.
WATER
"Look deep into nature, and you will understand everything better."
Albert Einstein
While air is often symbolic of intuition and fire for the mind, water for emotion and earth for embodied experience, it is water that we focus on. Water moves as we are moved by emotions. It is transparent and reflects light. It changes form, freezing to form ice, vaporizing and burning us as steam. But it is in its fluid form that water demonstrates most clearly the power to connect: to flow. This flow connects above and below, from the raindrop to the ocean. In this cycling movement, water demonstrates the natural movement that we seek to model as a sustainable current of energy.
Water reflects emotions. Boiling over, steaming, or frozen, water can be still and peaceful or wrathful, leaving damage in our wake. Water gives us a way to speak of inner states, as we move from whirlwinds of disturbance to the placid waters of inner calm. Our actions ripple outward in influence and we can create currents of influence. From a unified ocean that allows us to understand the power of our collective potential to the single drop on the verge of evaporating along, water is a perfect metaphor of our individual and collective power. Water tells our individual and collective story.
Water patterns our movements as our deep dives move from the shallows to the depths and back. Water also models inner and outer states to teach us to identify and alter states of being.
"The Chinese say that water is the most powerful element, because it is perfectly nonresistant. It can wear away a rock, and sweep all before it." Florence Scovel Shinn
Water is said to be the most powerful of the elements in different archetypal traditions.
Water is powerful. It can wash away earth, put out fire, and even destroy iron. Water can carve its way through stone. And when trapped, water makes a new path.
NATURAL PHENOMENA
"He is richest who is content with the least, for contentment is the wealth of nature."
Socrates
nParadigm EMERGENT CREATIVE MOVEMENTS
Working with natural movements and biomimicry we can repattern and remember how to be in natural balance as part of a larger whole. We remember how to work in harmony as a group.
Energy. Follow your interest (energy), both as an individual and a group. The first stage is to get in touch with where the energy is. Your interest will guide and teach you. You do not have to understand how or why. That will unfold. Move with the process as an emergent phenomenon that seeks a higher potential and a homeostatic balance. Trust the process, both individually and as a group, as it begins to move. Go within.
Metaphor: rain drop. Recognize that each member is individual yet shares a common purpose. “Drop” into your interest (project) and water it with your attention. Water is transparent. See what begins to become transparent or clear. Allow yourself to go within, immerse yourself in your interest, and be alone. Go deep.
Flow. Allow your energy to flow toward your project and express itself freely and imaginatively. Explore through active imagination, experiment, play, and refine your interest. Take risks, fail, and learn. Recognize synchronicities and synergies as guiding principles that move and teach you in your project. Relax into the unknown as you create new patterns and new skills. See where your imagination leads you.
Metaphor: river. Feel momentum build in the convergence of many drops (ideas, people). Begin to work as a group in order to refine your interest in a group process of combined interests (combined projects). How do the interests interrelate? How do the movements flow together?
Confluence. Move in the current of your interest, carried by its momentum. See how ideas carry you and your group together into larger confluences. Begin to play in the confluences where the streams join. See how these streams meet current needs and how the movement of the energies move as a systemic whole. What emerges?
Metaphor: Estuary. Just as the water of river flow above the ocean current, see how existing currents can support new flow. Follow the river current (changing flow of emergent opportunity) as it meets the ocean (tidal flow of funding cycles). See how the currents move creatively together. Phase: Creation
Expand. Build upon the energy of the interest (now group) to reinforce and expand the emergent patterns and structures that are naturally occurring. Use the raw material that has been gathered by the current to recreate, test, and refine your structure.
Metaphor: Delta. Deltas are extremely fertile, and most human civilizations have been built in delta regions. This is where the potential for new growth lies, rich with the material accumulated through the movement from drop to ocean, individual to group. While only 30% of rain makes it to the ocean and not all ideas are created, the movement of the currents meets needs along the way, just as the energy of individual interest forms ideas that nurture group growth. Branch out and explore offshoots of your interest where interests converge in the collective. How do these confluences move around or remove obstacles to meet their collective goal? How does the material, carried by the water, form a structure? Phase: re-Creation
