For a long time, I believed the headlines:

Our planet’s gravest dangers were the escalating climate emergency and the decay of institutions.

I was incorrect.

The sources feeding these visible crises are:

• A deep-seated disconnection

• The relentless engine of greed

• The poisonous narratives of supremacy

Surface-level “solutions” and technological quick fixes avoid these depths.

We need deep inner transformations (1).

This involves:

• Un-learning of destructive habits.

• Re-learning healthier, more connected ways of being.

• Navigating the many traps and myths that arise along this path.

Let's dive in.

Here are 5 inner capacities for the inner work of systems change.

1. Nervous Systems Attunement & Emotional Fluidity

In a world that often demands disembodiment, relentlessness, and urgency, the body is a site of resilience.

It is therefore vital to listening to your body’s

• Subtle signals

• Distinct rhythms

• Unique language

You might find that the state of the world deeply affects your nervous system.

According to Polyvagal theory by Dr. Stephen Porges, the nervous system has three main states:

We can’t force our state, but we can create the conditions for it.

The goal isn’t constant calm.

It’s the capacity to respond instead of react.

Dr. Lauren Fogel Mersy gives guidance:

“Deep breathing is our nervous system’s love language.”

This somatic anchoring allows you to

• Show up fully

• Perceive more clearly

• Sustain your efforts with grounded vitality.

And, this ripples into all your relations and communities through co-regulation.

This impact on others is powerfully captured by Lana Jelenjev, who states:

“Settled bodies, settle bodies”

2. Embracing All Our Parts: Cultivating Inner Wholeness

Richard C. Schwartz teaches a core wisdom:

Within us, there are “no bad parts.”

We are made of many ‘parts’—each a distinct voice, emotion, and story from our inner world.

Some parts work hard to protect us.

Others carry the weight of old wounds and burdens.

Even the parts we judge most harshly emerged for a reason, each with a positive intent, trying to help us navigate life.

Tending our inner landscape, this inner family of parts, means:

• Shifting from judgment to open curiosity.

• Listening to their fears, needs, and hidden wisdom.

• Understanding healing means integration, not silencing or exiling any part.

In this way, we can cultivate a sense of integrated wholeness.

This internal coherence allows our core Self to lead, enabling our true purpose to animate how we serve the world with authenticity.

So, navigating our inner landscapes directly shapes how we step into larger systems.

This journey from inner division to wholeness is echoed by Thich Nhat Hanh:

“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.”

3. The Colonial Shadows in Self-Work: Beyond Superficial Inner Growth

Inner work without decolonizing the self is just superficial integrity.

Critical self-examination requires to look at the empires built within ourselves.

The cultural models prevalent in the Global North are characterized by:

• White supremacy

• Myths of separation

• Anthropocentric worldviews

These ways of thinking keep causing deep harm, such as the destruction of cultures (ethnocide), nature (ecocide), and ways of knowing (epistemicide).

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o charts a path:

This demands recognizing how:

• Systemic privilege

• (Unconscious) biases

• Colonial myths and ways of thinking

…have wormed their way into our minds.

This un-learning is a life-long process of dismantling ingrained mental habits, demanding an embodied commitment to equity and profound humility.

Decolonizing self-work, however, contributes to collective liberation rather than replicating old paradigms of power.

Otherwise, inner work is simply bypassing.

4. Re-wilding Our Kinship with All Life

Flowing from the decolonization of our inner worlds, it is also vital to decolonize relationships with the Earth herself.

This calls for re-wilding our sense of kinship with all life — a reconnection that, for those shaped by dominant, extractive cultures, can feel radical.

However:

For many Indigenous and Global South communities, this deep kinship was never severed.

Indeed, it remains a foundational aspect of their worldviews and wisdom traditions.

Stan Rushworth reminds us:

This invites us to engage the Earth not as a resource, but as a:

• Primary mentor

• Intricate web of relations

• Active partner in co-creation

From this place, we learn as nature—not just about it—through deep attunement to rhythms, cycles, and inherent resilience.

This process is rooted in recognizing the interbeing that sustains every ecosystem.

Re-wilding involves:

• Nature-based rites of passage

• Stripping away anthropocentrism

• Being in right relationship with Indigenous cultures

Through these practices, we can design life-affirming systems, aligned with the same intelligence that animates the universe.

5. The Art of Wayfinding through Heart Intelligence

Today’s complex realities call for enhanced human capacities to effectively navigate uncertainty.

How then, do we chart a course?

One powerful approach is wayfinding.

This practice, based on Aboriginal practice is about traversing uncertainty through sensing, adapting, and responsive learning.

As Wayfinding Leadership suggests:

“Wayfinding rests on being in the present moment, staying still, and becoming calibrated to signs.”

This calibration requires heart intelligence.

Research by the HeartMath Institute shows:

The heart’s intrinsic nervous system independently processes information, influencing our perception, problem-solving, and emotional processing.

A deeper connection with our heart cultivates:

• Intuition to navigate ambiguity

• Empathy and relational connection

• Capacity to respond to emergence

These qualities are the toolkit for wayfinding in complexity, transforming it into an embodied, intuitive art.

Doc Childre stated:

Thus, wayfinding, illuminated by heart intelligence, guides our passage toward more resilient and adaptive futures.

Let's wrap up:

Quick fixes won’t do it for today's poly crisis.

A profound cultural and spiritual transformation is needed, starting within.

This inner cultivation unfolds through e.g.:

1. Settling our nervous systems for grounded resilience.

2. Tending all our inner parts to embody wholeness.

3. Decolonizing the self for genuine integrity.

4. Re-wilding our kinship with Earth.

5. Wayfinding through heart intelligence to navigate uncertainty.

These are not mere ideals, but embodied actions.

This inner work makes us potent, wise, and compassionate co-creators.

It is how we answer the call to heal ourselves and our world, building the just and vibrant future we yearn for.

In solidarity,

Adrian

PS: If you want to learn in community, check out the Networks Festival (It’s still running for 3 weeks!)

(1) The angle for the introduction was inspired by a perspective of Daniel Hires.

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About the Systemic Shift Newsletter

This weekly newsletter is dedicated to exploring practices, mindsets, and strategies that make networks effective in driving systemic change. Each issue offers practical tools, real-world lessons, and curated opportunities to help you build impactful, collaborative networks & communities.

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