Ep.36 I Don’t Want To Participate in the Mainstream System

Welcome to ReConnect with Plant Wisdom. I am your host, Tigrilla Gardenia, Nature-Inspired Mentor and Leadership Coach. In this podcast, I share ancient and modern knowledge, from biology to spirituality, about the wondrous ways plants can help you lead a Naturally Conscious Life.

I do not want to particiate in the mainstream system. Yep, that’s our title for today. That’s what we’re going to be talking about. Because this is a comment, a question and affirmation, a statement, a fear that I hear all the time. It covers pretty much all the bases. I no longer want to participate in the mainstream system. And the reason for this is because, of course working with so many incredibly talented multi potential lights with lots of different ideas, with lots of ways of different of doing things, who have oftentimes been forced to sort of squish themselves down into some box, especially depending on their age, they could be doing this for a long period of time, that they’re they’re just not there anymore. Not only that, as the world is changing with everything that’s going on the idea of participating in a system that’s creating many of the problems that we’re experiencing is just something that well, let’s just say you’re not willing to do.

But the question is, if you don’t want to participate in the mainstream system, what are your alternatives and really which part of the mainstream system so I hear this on the family front, I hear this on the kind of business front especially for nature, printers, and entrepreneurs and creatives. I hear this also in the way that I organize my life and the projects that I contribute to but more than anything, I also hear it so even beyond just the business perspective, in the sense of me as an entrepreneur who is looking to create something or somebody who is looking to see what kind of career do I want to go into this. I also see it very much in the front connected to the purchases that you make every day, my clothing, my housing options, like what is it that I spend money on and put therefore energy into? There is just so much misinformation out there that it makes it really hard.

So if you don’t want to participate in the mainstream system but the mainstream is all that is being offered to you readily, what do you do? So really, I guess my first question is, have you ever found yourself at the crossroads where you’re not really wanting to participate in a mainstream system but you’re struggling to identify viable alternatives? Like really, especially if you have a business, this is a big time? Or if you’re going shopping for just about anything like I know if you’re like me, that I spend hours just trying to pick up clothing options like clothing seems so simple, but it’s not the fashion industry, as a main stream is extremely confusing on the relationship that I have between the products that I wear and how they came into being. And if you’re if you’re concerned about this type of thing, where do you go for information and stuff like that?

Look, it’s a dilemma. This whole I don’t want to be part of the mainstream is a dilemma that many many of us encounter especially as we’re going through our plant reawakening as we’re entering into our true nature again as we’re reawakening our plant nests and we’re starting to understand that if I am a being of nature, the mainstream system that has been created around me is actually something that’s constantly trying to pull me out of that it’s constantly trying to take me from my natural flow and my union with everything around me and separate me out to put me on some kind of and me as in the human human in me, as some kind of like object that is outside are actually super intelligent, very conscious, whatever being that is outside of that, and where it might sound appealing to our ego to think of ourselves that way. It really doesn’t work in the type of lifestyle that we’re trying to build and ultimately, it doesn’t lead to happiness.

So in a world that really emphasizes conformity, most of us especially if you’re listening here are really searching for a path that aligns our values, our principles, our desires, all together, especially it unites them in harmony with our you know, the natural world around me, as well as that will give me the type of lifestyle that I want to live. And I think that that’s really the main challenge that happens is it is there’s a thought process that these types of of alternative systems are all going to be of lower quality.

And so that’s one of the first sort of limiting beliefs that we’ve created for ourselves. That and it’s, it’s a belief that has protected us it’s a belief that has protected us from you know, working a little harder or for more than anything feeling bad. Like it holds us in a space where yes, you might feel a little guilty for the way that you’re doing things but then you You say, Well, this either doesn’t exist, what I want to be doing like it doesn’t exist, it’s not possible or it won’t allow me to support myself in the type of style and lifestyle that I want to be living in. And therefore my quality of life is going to suffer and that’s one of the biggest limiting beliefs probably that that are out there.

Actually, that’s multiple limiting beliefs, right the belief that the alternatives are not out there at all. They don’t actually even exist. That’s one perspective. Another perspective is and that’s that’s a limiting belief that holds us back in this is that even if I found them, they would be of lower quality than what are the mainstream choices out there. The third one is that those limiting beliefs are really not going to take me where I want to go or they’re not going to be able to support me, I’m not gonna be able to support myself through those.

There’s lots of different beliefs that have protected us and kept us safe. Especially emotionally safe because many of these topics open us up to a whole area of experimentation and change and transformation that we’re really not capable of, we’re not really supported in exploring. So we’re kind of going into uncharted. You could say uncharted territory, right, where we’re trying to, for example, create a business that reflects our ethical beliefs that contributes positively society that allows me to step outside of the box and create something completely unique. And how you navigate this is not always easy, and honestly, there are not a lot of support systems out there for you.

Really that kind of alternative logic that thinking outside the box is not heavily rewarded in the mainstream culture to begin with. As a matter of fact, you know, as we’ve talked about before, you know, weird is your superpower and to step out of the mainstream logic, you sort of have to embrace your weird, you have to get to the place where you realize that this term of weird is being thrust on you, in some ways to hold you back to keep you in that norm. But what it really means is that you are being seen as somebody that has a unique set of characteristics, a unique set of traits that you are willing to put in to physical motion. In other words, you’re willing to use them and to have that be your guiding star. So part of the work of getting it outside of what is considered the mainstream culture is really first and foremost getting to understand what your true values are.

What are those guiding principles that are so important for you, and then looking at those and starting to see how they get applied in a way that is in harmony with others. Now, let me take a step back because I could talk about this topic from multiple different perspectives, but let’s talk about it just from the perspective of I don’t know, a business or a career, okay. I don’t want you to feel like the only way to embrace stepping out of the mainstream culture is to become an entrepreneur, necessarily. If you’re an entrepreneur, great today, there’s a lot of ways to help you on that path. But it isn’t the only path you can still and get out of the mainstream while still embracing a more so.

What’s the right word I’m looking for?
I want to see I want to say like to be even an employee to be in a career where you’re not necessarily creating and forging new ground. Not everybody is built for what it takes to be an entrepreneur and that’s okay. Some people want to be an individual contributor. That’s the word I was looking for. You want to be an individual contributor. So what are some of the options that are available? If you want to build for example, a business life a professional life that breaks free from conventional molds? How can you ensure that you can thrive and still stay true to your non mainstream values? These are the questions that many of us grapple with.

This is something we talk about in the naturally conscious community, especially in flourishing sprouts, right? Remember that flourishing sprouts are all of the people that are doing or have done mentorship with me, we have our leadership group. These are people who are really taking this to the next level who aren’t envisioning and creating the lives that they want to be living. And so therefore, we talk about this as natural leaders naturally conscious leaders have this is a topic that comes up often this isn’t a journey that you need to take alone.

This is the kind of journey that you can find people that want to do it with you and it’s really important because together it’s a lot easier for us to kind of unpack the challenges to see what are the opportunities and then to find that unique path. Because you have a series of people with which you can experiment with you can also kind of double check your thinking you can try out new ideas. So these are all these these pieces. So let’s take the example of business or professional life. The first and foremost question is for you to have a really good definition of what mainstream really means to you. What are the aspects of mainstream that that makes something to you mainstream with the end with a capital M that makes it equals bad because not all mainstream culture is necessarily bad? Right? You want to break this down. If you cannot break it down, you will unfortunately put a huge label on something and potentially miss out on opportunities.

There are plenty of businesses that even businesses that might have had a really bad reputation of those types of creating products that were maybe single use plastic or not aligned with the values you want to have that are shifting right. And so if your mainstream gets tacked on to like big bucket names, you will never see the good that is happening within some of those.

And sometimes you could work for a company that actually today is doing something that for you is that kind of mainstream culture that that removes your individuality or such and find that there’s a pocket inside of that company that’s doing good work. And so therefore you can move into that pocket and find a way to step into that pocket. All this to really say that it is important that you don’t use broad strokes. In order to do this, you need to get into the specifics. So if you are going to start a process of really embracing your uniqueness of really embracing your values you have really embracing the type of world you want to live in. You start more than anything with defining what are those elements, what are the elements, the values, the forward thinking, the characteristics that are the things you want to support?

And on the other side what is it today that makes it identifiable to you that this is outside of alignment with that? What are the elements of that definition mainstream that you do not want to participate in until you have these two definitions clear that are not based on I don’t want to go purchase from this company, but more of what is it that this company is doing that you do not want to support? You will never be able you will be sort of stuck in that process.

So it’s important for you to really think about what are the aspects of a mainstream system that you want to change or replacing your life and this goes really much for everything. It goes for your professional life. It goes for your private life, it goes for your purchases, it goes for everything. Identify what are those aspects that you want to support? And what are the aspects that you clearly want to stay away from. The reason for this is because within any of these, it is really easy for you to get again for you to not see the forest for the trees for you not to see the work that’s going in that direction and it is up to us who want to change the mainstream system to ensure that we are supporting all of those that are stepping outside of the mainstream.

This includes the small organizations or the small sort of initiatives, the ones that are kind of doing that good work, as well as the shifts that some big organizations are wanting to do, because oftentimes a big company might even try to start to shift, but if nobody supports the shift that they’re making. Obviously we know that so much of the modern culture goes on the bottom line and therefore what’s going to happen is that if they don’t get support for the shift that they’re going to make if you don’t give yourself permission to see that that organization or culture or or business can actually be different in the future, then you yourself are holding them back because you are not giving them the opportunity to be different to prove to you that they can go in a specific direction. Now I’m not talking about greenwashing. I am not talking about you know kind of saying Oh, woe is me. These companies, you know, they need to support their bottom line. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying look for the good work and support that good work there with your purchases with your projects with your career.

Look for the places so therefore identify what are your values and principles and what you want to support. And at the other side of it, make sure you have really clear the behaviors, characteristics and values that you don’t want to support and look for those even if they’re within a company. So that’s one of the big aspects. But before I go on, I want to share with you one of our Eco conscious business partners. These are the types of companies and the types of organizations that you want to support because these are the ones that are operating outside the mainstream norm that want to support our evolving green brilliance. Any little bit we can do to help the environment is a win in my book. That’s why I’m such a fan of who gives a crap, a be certified company that donates 50% of profits to ensure everyone has access to clean water and a toilet within our lifetime.

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Okay, so now I really want to get into one last concept before I leave you because I think it’s extremely important which is actually it’s connected to my tagline if you’ve noticed every time I sign off I sign off with resist the urge to hold back your evolving green brilliance. Now this tagline for me is extremely important. And honestly it was born many years ago. I used to have a production company I produce large scale dance events that gave the opportunity for you to transform and in an environment in a safe environment in a creative environment. Those were the good day so I had so much fun creating those events. They were super hard to put together but so rewarding.

But they’re my tagline was resist the urge to stay home because it’s super easy for you you get home you’re tired and then you know you go to bed and you take a nap or whatever and then you don’t go out at night. So it was resist the urge to stay home. And then I started to work in this you know I started to work with people and I kept seeing this. People who have this beautiful individual personalized remember multi potential lights right unique set of characteristics. This brilliance, this green brilliance because to me it’s a natural brilliance that is evolving and then holding you back.

Drives me crazy, you know in a world that often applauds conformity, and sticking to the rules. It’s so important that you have this brilliance that isn’t a fixed identity. It’s not a fixed entity in and of itself. It’s this dynamic, ever evolving force. It’s going to present itself in multiple ways. Kind of like some beautiful leaves green gorgeous leaves of a tree that are reaching out towards the sun right there. They’re constantly and they’re constantly moving in order to catch the best rays. And sometimes this is going to come up and sometimes another bushel is gonna come up and often times they’re just slight movements. We tend to restrain ourselves we tend to hold ourselves back and part of this mainstream culture is this idea that you need to label yourself and put yourself in a box we have labels of all sorts all over the place. And this is exactly what holds you back right the idea that you have to pigeon holed yourself.

So the mainstream culture is pushing you to identify to give yourself a box to stay static to not evolve but to be remember I was talking about earlier, the companies you have to see where the company is going not just chastise them for where they are. Now if they’re not going anywhere, chastise them, you know, make sure you don’t purchase and don’t be a part of it. But if you see movement, you want to support that movement and the same thing goes for yourself.

Part of being out of the mainstream system is giving yourself permission to be dynamic to move around, to not hold yourself back, not worry or be fearful of the judgment but to really let out your growth, your creativity and your full potential. So really, that is the last element of this staying out of the mainstream culture. You need to resist your urge to hold back your evolving green brilliance and to stay stuck in the system. You need to revel in the uniqueness. You need to let your brilliant shine in many different ways you need to grant yourself the freedom to evolve, to learn and to constantly shine, not just brighter, but in different ways.

And that is the way that you get out of the mainstream culture. You want to find that system that supports you fully for who you are. So if you’re searching for an online community, where growth is is completely celebrated, where this type of stepping out of the mainstream is going to be supported, and not only that, we’re going to help each other do it. I want you to join the naturally conscious community. This is the place where we can find solutions and chart courses that are that harmonize. You know all of who you are your authentic self that you create a brighter, more sustainable future that helps you make choices of what are the products and services and companies that you want to support.

So if you’re searching for a community, where growth is celebrated where you uniqueness is embraced, where are you they’re actively looking for ways to step out of the mainstream culture and create unique paths. Then I want you to explore the naturally conscious community. This is really the place for you. This is where we are evolving. Our collective green brilliance by evolving each person’s individual green brilliance.

So let’s find solutions. Let’s chart a course that harmonizes authentic selves and brighter future and creates really the sustainable world the regenerative world, the unique world we all want to live in. Oh, I could go on and say so much but I’m going to close it here. But I’d really love to hear your thoughts and experiences. So leave me a comment, or better yet. Join the conversation in the naturally conscious community. This is your premiere ecosystem to explore new ways of living and being and doing in collaboration with the plant can home and I want to see you there because I want to see your green brilliance. So remember until next time, resist the urge to hold back you’re absorbing green brilliance. That’s me to get I got bye

Thanks for listening to this episode of reconnect with plant wisdom, Intro and Outro Music by Steve Shuli and poinsettia from the singing Life of Plants. So join me to give you like our Dania and my plant collaborators next time on reconnect with plant wisdom