Restoring Sanity

Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity & Kindness in Ourselves and Our Organizations

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Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

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Copyright © 2024 by Margaret J. Wheatley

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First Edition 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Book design: Canace Pulfer Author photo: Canace Pulfer

Par/t.alt01 One

Restoring Sanity

1.

My Gi/f.alt01/t.alt01 to You

00

It Is a Wondrous Thing

It is a wondrous thing to know each other as humans being fully human.

It is a wondrous thing to be able to restore sanity.

It is a wondrous thing to awaken our human spirits.

It is a wondrous thing to know all humans can be generous, creative, and kind.

It is a wondrous thing to par/t.alt01ner with life and Spirit.

It is a wondrous thing to experience uncer/t.alt01ainty as inviting rather than frightening.

It is a wondrous thing to create Islands of Sanityplaces of possibility and refuge where the human spirit can thrive.

Restoring sanity is joyful work.

May we become intimate with this joy.

My Gi/f.alt01/t.alt01 to You

Gifts are meant to delight and surprise us. That's why people who care about us o/ffer them to us. This book is my gift to you, filled with perspectives and practices chosen for their power to restore and awaken the human spirit, to enrich our capacity to work well together, to create more goodness and possibility. At this time when lives and possibilities are destroyed by casual destructive decisions, I aspire for us to be sane leaders devoted to restoring and awakening the finest qualities of being human-our generosity, creativity, and kindness. We will not change the world, but we can create Islands of Sanity where our human spirits come alive and we contribute in ways that make more possible.

What becomes possible when we dedicate ourselves to using everything within our power to awaken the human spirit? We humans, with our wondrous capacities for generosity, creativity, and kindness. We humans, with our wondrous capacities buried by oppression, venality, and indi/fference. We humans, with our wondrous capacities forgotten or never known, or told we don't have them.

What an insane world this is, to be destroying these qualities when they are most needed! For whatever future awaits us, we need human beings being fully human.

Restoring sanity is very hard work-and it's the only work worth doing. Who knows if we'll succeed, but the joy is in the trying. The meaning is in moments when we know we did something good-we supported a person, we brought possibilities into form, we strengthened our community, we kept going against all odds.

Shall we do this work to restore sanity? As President Teddy Roosevelt enjoined us: 'Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.' Let's do what we can. To choose otherwise is truly insane-we'd be contributing to the continuing destruction of the human spirit. What greater crime is there?

Nothing here is easy to do-but nothing is easy these days. Yet every moment when a person or group discovers their potential and contributes generosity, creativity, and kindness, this is a joyful moment, a moment we remember, a moment whose meaning will live inside us always.

What a bold and beautiful experiment-to explore the reaches of the human spirit in this time when so little feels sacred, not even humans. May we choose to be those who restore sanity, awaken our human spirits, and experience the wonders of who we humans can be, no matter what is happening in the external world.

/eight.tf

Restoring Sanity

We can put our whole hear/t.alt01 into whatever we do; but if we freeze our attitude into for or against, we're setting ourselves up for stress. Instead, we could just go forward with curiosity, wondering where this experiment will lead. This kind of open-ended inquisitiveness captures the spirit of enthusiasm, or heroic perseverance.

Pema Chödrön Buddhist teacher

What Would It Be Like?

What would it be like to work together again in creative and generous ways? What would it be like to expect kindness and generosity? What would it be like to want to contribute as fully as possible, to feel welcomed and appreciated for my contribution?

What would it be like to be curious about who you're with rather than judging or fearing them? What would it be like to engage together exploring possibilities rather than withdrawing in conflict or disagreement? What would it be like to be working well together?

It is still possible to create the conditions for people to engage together for work they care about. But this work requires devotion, discipline, and faith. It requires sane leaders who have unshakable confidence that people can be generous, creative, and kind. It requires setting ourselves apart as an Island of Sanity.

The dynamics of fear and denial have taken hold and cannot be changed at the macro level. If we know our human spirits, if we know what people are capable of, if we remember working well together, we will have the motivation to separate ourselves from this oppressive and destructive culture. We will focus our energy and aspirations to create Islands of Sanity.

If you're curious about sane leadership, if you're curious about what it takes to awaken people's innate generosity, creativity, and kindness, please stay with me.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Poet

/one.tf/zero.tf Restoring Sanity

What Is the Human Spirit?

The human spirit exists beyond the physical realm of mind and body. The human spirit exists in a dimension never revealed by the five senses. When freed from the physical, the human spirit soars with Creation, the Sacred, God, the Great Mystery. The human spirit is boundless when liberated from fear and self-preservation.

We human spirits want to learn and grow. When held in community, no longer frightened and alone, we eagerly step forward. We want to contribute. We want to strengthen our community. We want to engage together in making sense and solving problems.

No longer imprisoned by fear and isolation, the human spirit is a wondrous source of generosity, creativity, and kindness.

/one.tf/two.tf Restoring Sanity

To Restore and Awaken

We can only restore what's already present. We can only awaken what's been asleep.

As we aspire to restore sanity and awaken generosity, creativity, and kindness in ourselves and in our organizations, we do not have to create, fill in the gaps, motivate, or train for these qualities. Humans innately possess these qualities by virtue of being human.

We know these qualities in ourselves. Our work is to know, with unshakable confidence, that these are human, not personal, qualities. Just like me, everyone wants to be generous, creative, and kind.

A terrible desertification has occurred in too many organizations, barren landscapes now devoid of life and human potential. Leadership has created these by striving for obedience rather than contribution, choosing greed and power rather than inclusion and engagement. Everywhere now we see the consequences of denying, ignoring, and suppressing the human spirit.

Can we envision ourselves as devoted explorers of these deserts, knowing there are deep underground wells of possibility? Can we use our power and influence to create sanctuaries to awaken and restore our finest human qualities? Can we be those who know what's gone underground and, through our actions, nourish and revive these wellsprings of human potential?

Ours is not the task of /f.alt01ixing

the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the par/t.alt01 of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some por/t.alt01ion of this poor su/f.alt01fering world, will help immensely.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes Writer

/one.tf/four.tf Restoring Sanity