This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 4: There is No Future if We Go Numb and Episode 5: This Pain Is Not for Nothing, deeper into your life.  Both of these episodes are about the second phase in the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects, Honoring Our Pain for the World. This bonus is a recording of Joanna leading a meditation called Breathing Through, recorded at a retreat in 2006. In it, she’ll guide you to create space to acknowledge and honor the pain for the world that you carry without numbing or getting overwhelmed. All you’ll need for this bonus exercise is a place where you can close your eyes and relax.   We recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.com.  

Now we get to what may be the toughest part of reckoning with our planet’s situation: dealing with numbness, grief, and despair. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the many crises around us, and natural to want to numb ourselves to the pain.  Joanna and Jess speak with great vulnerability and candor about what it takes to navigate our darkest feelings—and the strength and beauty that can be found when we honor our pain.  Trigger Warning: In this episode, we discuss suicide. In this episode: When it feels like our pain could swallow us whole, it helps to remember that all feelings come and go Desperation can take us to dark places, but we are more than our despair Numbness—Jess opens up about her familiar tactic for escaping pain Our pain becomes sacred when we allow it to deepen our connection with the world Bonus Exercise: Breathing Through We recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.com.

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 4: There is No Future if We Go Numb deeper into your life.  This bonus is a recording of Joanna leading a meditation called Breathing Through, recorded at a retreat in 2006. In it, she’ll guide you to create space to acknowledge and honor the pain for the world that you carry without numbing or getting overwhelmed. All you’ll need for this bonus exercise is a place where you can close your eyes and relax.   We recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.com.  

We recorded this conversation just after news broke of the Biden administration’s approval of the controversial Willow Project, opening up millions of wilderness acres in Alaska to new fossil fuel drilling. Jess captured in real time how Joanna processes the fresh outrage and sorrow of this insult to the planet from the very culpable powers that be. It’s a master class in being present with these feelings—feelings that can give rise to determination, courage, and recommitment to our shared purpose. In this episode: As the news of the Willow Project breaks, Joanna flows through outrage and sorrow  The second step on the spiral: what does it mean to honor our pain, and how do we do it? Bonus Exercise: Breathing Through We recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.com. 

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 3, “We Begin with Gratitude,” deeper into your life.  In Episode 3, we talked about how in the Work That Reconnects we always start with gratitude, because it gives us the strength to speak the truth and act in service of life. Lovingkindness meditation is a simple and powerful way to feel and express our gratitude and love for our world.  All you need to do this bonus exercise is a quiet place where you can meditate. We hope you’ll do this exercise with someone else, so that you can talk together about your experience after you finish. We recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.com.  

Explore the power of expressing darkest thoughts, following fear to gratitude, and the spiral of Work That Reconnects. Embrace fears, gratitude, and transformative actions while starting a journey of gratitude and awareness.

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 2, “The Three Stories of Our Time,” deeper into your life.  In Episode 2, we talked about the three stories of our time: Business as Usual, the Great Unraveling, and the Great Turning. All three stories are true, and we can choose to give ourselves to the Great Turning—to building a more just and life-sustaining society.  We need inspiring visions for the kind of world we want to live in that can motivate us, move us to action, and so that we know what it looks like to succeed. So, in this bonus episode, we’re going to envision, in detail, what the world might be like if the Great Turning really were the predominant story of our time. All you need is a quiet place where you can sit and close your eyes. We hope you’ll do this exercise with someone else, so that you can talk together about your experience after you finish. It might also help to have something to write with and on.  We recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.com. 

Joanna discusses 'The Great Turning' as a paradigm shift towards a just society. They explore different narratives - Business as Usual, The Great Unraveling, and The Great Turning. The importance of cooperation, envisioning a non-toxic world, and actively participating in building a better future is emphasized.

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 1, “Love and Loss,” deeper into your life. Jess will guide you through a simple yet profound exercise called Open Sentences where you’ll be prompted to speak from your heart. It will take about 25 minutes.  All you’ll need is a friend and a place that is quiet enough for you to speak freely and listen carefully to one another. If that’s not possible and you want to try this alone, you can answer out loud or write the questions in a journal.  The prompts for this exercise are: Some things I love about being alive on earth today are… What breaks my heart about living on earth in this time is…  If I withhold my feelings about what’s happening in the world right now, I do so because…  What keeps me going when the world breaks my heart is… We recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.com.

Joanna Macy and Jess discuss connecting with possibilities in precarious times, awakening environmental consciousness, life-changing encounters, and the power of love, laughter, and heartbreak. Dive into 'the Work That Reconnects' and a bonus exercise to deepen belonging and community.