Why we care
and hope you will too
The Humankind team consists of four Global Project and Change Management students, working together to bring the re-connection toolbox to life. Brought together during a semester in which we followed the ‘Value Creators’ programme, the team started this journey by looking into the concept of ‘well-being’.
During the initial phase of this exploration, the team quickly discovered that although the definition of well-being is culturally fluid, there exists a somewhat standardized definition of well-being that much of current mainstream culture adheres to. Under this definition, experiencing well-being involves feeling happiness and satisfaction with one’s life, which is often determined by factors associated with personal success (such as good health, employment, educational excellence, financial comfort, and material wealth) and the well-being of our tight social circles.
Although this is all good and well, what does this definition mean for the way we lead our lives?
We asked ourselves...
Does such an understanding of what it means to be well prompt us to live in harmony with one another and the world around us?
Or does it pit us against each other in a cycle of perpetual growth and consumption?
Whilst the answers to those questions are up to you, considering the modern epidemics of burnout, loneliness, climate degradation, and polarization, the team hesitates to wholly accept the values that dictate our lives. It seems that through our individualized approaches of securing well-being, that are built on exploitative and egocentric values, we increasingly disconnect not only from those around us, but from ourselves.
At the same time, there are many cultures which take well-being to mean entirely different things. For many indigenous cultures, the status of being well encompasses not only one’s personal health and happiness, but the well-being of their communities and the natural environment. Such a worldview arises from the recognition of the interconnectedness of all living beings. As such, experiencing personal well-being whilst the world around you is suffering is considered inconceivable.
“Most ‘modern’ people find it difficult or impossible to imagine a world where community is more important than possessions, yet this is how about 1 percent of the world’s population still lives, and how all of your and my ancestors lived for 100,000 years.”
- Thom Hartmann
(The last hours of ancient sunlight, p. 218)
As such, we feel the urgency to take a critical look at the cultural lens that dictate our values and open our minds up to alternative ways of in which we interact with the world, in the hopes of restoring balance in both our lives, and the world around us.
We hope you will join us in this task, in whatever capacity you prefer. You can do this by exploring our website, checking-out the resources that inspired us, or even trying out our practices.
"If you want to go fast, go alone;
but if you want to go far, go together."
- African Proverb