Why Nurturing is at the heart of Regenerative Leadership

By Emily Johnsson

Hi,

I’m Emily, and I’m the newest team member in the Regenerators Academy. I’m deeply honoured to be here.

One of the best decisions I ever made, and by far the best decision I made in 2022, was to join the year-long Regenerative Leadership journey under the wonderful guardianship of global changemaker Laura Storm.

A new cohort is starting in January 2023, and if you are a changemaker wanting to make a real difference at this pivotal time on the planet, you absolutely don't want to miss the opportunity to join.

If you do join us, you will be meeting me as your Community Nurturer.

This is a brand-new role within the Academy and one that I take very seriously, but also with a whole lot of joy.

The serious aspect is to me about acknowledging the ground-breaking nature of creating a role specifically for nurturing.

In doing so, declaring to the world that nurturing is so vital, so crucial, so necessary for this great turning to happen, that we must focus our attention on nurturing. We must dedicate ourselves to nurturing.

It’s saying: let’s come together and dig deeper and get curious about what nurturing means to us, here now, as changemakers at this crossroad in the history of humanity. And why it matters.

The joy I feel is about being alive and here for this moment: the opportunity for us to together weave a new way of being, living, leading, creating together as life.

Because nurturing is life.

Nurturing is what Nature, and the Earth does for us every moment of every day, in beautiful, intelligent, mind-blowing, heart-opening, complex and simple, intricate and interdependent ways. Lovingly. Unconditionally.

Without nurturing, none of us would be here.

And without nurturing, none of us will be here in the future.

The moment we allow ourselves to focus on nurturing, we say yes to remembering one of the most regenerative aspects of life’s logic.

It is my belief that the specific act of nurturing enables cultures of belonging: spaces and places, networks and contexts where we are all equally important, celebrated, appreciated.

Essential.

Interdependent.

Cultures, where each of us can express our unique voice and know in our core that we have an important contribution to make, simply by being ourselves.

Just like every cell, organism and species is essential to the health, vitality and thriving of any given ecosystem. To the life of everything else.

Nurturing, I am convinced, enables us to return home to ourselves and each other a little bit more.  

By that I mean that experiencing nurturing allows us, in turn, to be a little gentler and more compassionate with ourselves.

Less judgemental. More allowing of imperfection.

Because nurturing is, in essence, about unconditional love.

From where I’m sitting, nurturing isn’t nurturing if it is not coming from a place of unconditional love.

One of the wonderful things about unconditional love is that when we know we can be who we are, without running the risk of rejection, we are able to show up differently in the world.

It allows our bodies to relax a little, and to become less rigid.

It invites us to the possibility of letting go of striving, hiding, proving, pretending and competing.

It paves the way for openness, softer edges, greater transparency, trust and truth telling. Loving accountability. More compassion not only for ourselves, but for others too.

It allows us to become a little more present.

 With ourselves and everyone and everything else around us.

 Presence enables us to listen to life, to the wisdom of Nature, as Nature.

 And it is right here, when we can hear life within us and around us, that we will make different kinds of choices and decisions.

 Decisions that mean we dance with life in a different way.

 In boardrooms, staff meetings, product chains, investments, plans and strategies.

 In classrooms, emails, neighbourhoods, shops and at dinnertime.

 Decisions that allow all of us and our planet to thrive.

 Decisions that plant the seeds that allow the children of the distant tomorrowlands to lead nourishing lives, long after we are gone.

What kind of world can we co-create, if each of us and all of us felt more nurtured, more part of instead of apart from? What kind of community can we weave if we were all more present, felt more whole, seen, heard and loved?

You tell me!

This conversation will be my priority in 2023.

I cannot wait to meet you.

From my heart to yours,

 Emily

“Emily Johnsson is here to hold space for the remembrance of wholeness. In people, organisations and communities. She is a trauma-informed self-leadership coach, facilitator, creative thinker and deep feeler. She has 20 years experience in the fields of human development, creative learning, access, diversity and inclusion, and is dedicated to a regenerative, de-colonial, thriving future for all of us and our planet. Emily is a HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) which means that she has an innate ability to sense into the collective with intuition and empathy. She has a close relationship with trees and listens deeply to the wisdom of Nature and the Earth. She leads with her values Love, Nature, Connection, Creativity and Integrity. Learn more about Emily on LinkedIn or Instagram.”