at the end of one such session, participants gathered in a circle can share both impressions from the bodily journey they have undertaken together, and events that may be of interest to what quite intuitively appears as a community of like-minded people.
For others, like myself, the structure imposed by timed speaking and listening exercises in the Inner Transition meeting felt somewhat counterproductive to authentic interpersonal connection. Although this impression might have to do with the fact that I had already stumbled upon the same exercises in a number of different settings, hence it might disclose a measure of weariness from my own repeated exposure: the first few times, on the contrary, there can be a sense of something deeply liberating. Finally, not everyone may resonate with a group setting, or be comfortable engaging in practices that are explicitly designed to shift people’s sensibilities by nurturing an alternative embodied and linguistic apparatus for relating to the others (and nonhuman othernesses) we encounter and depend upon.
In sum, an explicit focus on change through conscious group practice may put some people off, by virtue of being too close to a ‘spiritual’ practice, which I mean in the sense eloquently offered to me by one interviewee, as a ‘a conscious and regular attempt to make meaning of your life and take responsibility for your emotions in the way you experience them’. To individuals that are, willingly or unwillingly, more invested in the split between ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ (sometimes accompanied by the prejudice that the latter only is worth of concern), a space constituted precisely to make room for the conscious cultivation of an alternative embodied and emotional literacy of the sort just described may be too ‘airy-fairy’ for comfort, and for letting go into the ways of this collective practice.
It would be a mistake, however, to identify ‘Inner Transition’ solely with offerings of this sort, namely with the conscious cultivation of embodied and discursive orientations, in gatherings convened explicitly for this purpose. Much as was the case with permaculture, where the relational qualities and attitudes it articulated explicitly got a new lease on life inside Transition in a Trojan horse-like way after lowering the threshold of engagement, so, perhaps the same happens with practices of ‘inner work’, of which the Work That Reconnects is but the tip of the iceberg.
Indeed, it is the case that some experiments with ‘inner work’ have a life within Transition, without being explicitly framed as such. This different form of engagement is expressed in the activity of curating ‘process input’ to Transition events, seeking to establish a ‘highly participatory style’30 in the way these are run and facilitated. Alternatively, Inner Transition practices have also tended to be woven in what is called ‘Transition Training’, namely an introduction to Transition for activists who are either engaged or willing to start a Transition initiative. In an interview with Sophy Banks, one of the original contributors to the articulation of Inner Transition and to the development of the Transition Training programme, she explained that what Transition training days seek to achieve is to give a sense of Transition as a change process. As such, there is a focus on bringing together the ‘outer’ aspects (e.g. the re-visioning and transforming of ‘physical systems for living’),31 with the psychological, ‘inner’ aspects of that change. The weaving together of this multi-directional awareness yields an attunement to the dynamics of ‘parallel process’,32 in the sense that the patterns of resistance observable outside of oneself or one’s group can often replicate themselves within the group or the individual, and therefore demand a response, lest causing a loss of consistency and fittingness between the practical goals of the group, and the ‘process’ whereby those goals are to be achieved. This explicit formulation of the problem of ‘fit’ between ends and means,33 which in turn prompts a search for appropriate ways of addressing it in the everyday of Transition, appears to be another very significant – if ‘implicit’ – manifestation of Inner Transition inside the moving of Transition as a whole.
It is in close connection with these concerns, for instance, that Inner Transition is a designation that can therefore apply to the adoption of ‘effective meeting’ techniques. These can involve having a check-in at the start of each meeting, to make sure that everyone in the room is feeling willing and able to engage on the topic, and are not overly absorbed by something else they may need to attend to instead. Another example is the scheduling of ‘doing’, agenda-led meetings, as well as ‘being’ meetings. These are not about achieving a particular resolution or decision, but simply facilitated spaces where conversation and conscious examination of the ‘process’ of working together, of the life of the group as a group, becomes possible. Such spaces may be held in a variety of ways, from the use of a talking stick (whereby a stick goes around and whoever holds the stick is given a space to voice and share concerns and disquiets), or through appreciative inquiry (a practice of focusing on instances of previous successes for finding new ways of relating to a problem that surfaces to attention), or by experimenting with ways of dealing with conflict. One more innovation can be the practice of having, alongside a person in charge of sticking to the agenda, a ‘keeper of time’ (to ensure that the meeting is held in the stated timeframe) and a ‘keeper of the heart’ which – in my understanding of it – is someone in charge of ensuring that no one is feeling unfairly excluded from the conversation, and is given a chance to be heard and to feel a meaningful participant.
In this sense, Inner Transition, perched between its continuity (to the unfolding of Transition) and the specific difference of ‘inner work’ (as opposed to practical, hands-on, ‘outer’ work), exists under many forms and – like permaculture – is sometimes implicit in the life of Transition, rather than explicit. The variety of expressions and experiments pertaining to Inner Transition allows to lower the threshold for gaining an awareness of the importance of ‘inner work’, making sure that people from as broad a background of inclinations as possible may be able to connect with some of the qualities that Inner Transition amplifies. This became intensely evident to me when, at the end of a meeting of the Totnes Pound working group (hence squarely in the realm of ‘outer’ Transition), a conversation took place, where the ‘process’ of the meeting was scrutinised in the light of a growing awareness of the importance of the subtle qualities of interaction as a group. More specifically, the need was raised to make sure that the style of working together would respond not merely to the immediate challenge which the working group was meeting to address (tending to a complementary currency scheme), but also to the other animating concerns pushing the development of Transition (such as to nurture empathy and care, as a way for Transitioners to ‘resource themselves’ while doing their work) so as to enable resonance across the range of realms of experience that are simultaneously enfolded in its moving. Inner Transition, in that exchange, manifested itself to me as a qualitatively prominent area of engagement that was being made recognisable and woven into the moving of Transition, starting from something as seemingly simple and commonplace as how to hold a ‘mindful’ meeting.
Along similar lines, the quality of being ‘Inner Transition-type’ can be equally recognised in another project called Transition Streets.34 Transition Streets was an attempt to facilitate the meeting of neighbours living in the same area, by offering them a blueprint of questions that could be of common concern. It drew inspiration from an earlier project that had been developed with Inner Transition input, where a large event set in motion a number of self-facilitating ‘home groups’ trying ‘to share information about the need for transition’.35 In a similar fashion, Transition Streets endeavoured to bring people living in the same neighbourhood together to discuss everyday problems, such as how to save money on heating or water. As groups worked their way through a programme of weekly topics for discussion, more lifestyle-related issues were introduced – such as in terms of food consumption and transport decisions – bringing the focus closer to routines that would be relevant to the issues of climate change and peak oil. By giving groups something to talk about, to which anyone could connect, a collective process of relating was set in motion. As part of this process, people became embroiled in group-dynamics through which to explore the implications of a deepening awareness of peak oil and climate change for their everyday practical choices. This is another example of how practices like group awareness-raising and the facilitation of peer support, which bear some lineage to the ‘inner work’
