On Tuesday 19th May, The Elephant Meets... Karen Downes, on the feminine intelligence we need to flourish
Karen Downes speaking
Next week's Zoom public discussion/forum, with members of the Alternative UK's next-system group The Elephant is with Karen Downes.
Karen has had a remarkable career, building a global business in essential oils before moving her attention and energy to the bigger challenge of the transformation of corporate culture. She has worked with major clients from Virgin to Coca-Cola, introducing the concept of a feminine intelligence as the route to a more humane connection with people and planet. Karen has also worked in global NGOs such as the Hunger Project in India and Africa to initiate new relationships between people and Aid.
Karen is currently a co-chair in Catalyst 2030, a network of global social entrepreneurs and philanthropists - including The Alternative UK - that are collaborating to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals by the end of the decade.
Come and join us on Zoom to hear her visions for what will drive a better system, post-Covid, on Tuesday, 19 May 2020, 17:00 – 18:30 BST. Click the Eventbrite link here, or use the app below:
Below is a short blurb from Karen, evoking her concerns, tone and agenda for the discussion:
Karen Downes: Mother Nature - the intelligence of the feminine we can learn from to flourish
Today, we need nothing short of a fundamental transformation, a quantum exponential shift from the current dystopia and the crisis we are facing, into imagining a flourishing future.
Just as in natures’ seasons, own human system operates in rhythms and cycles, which are essential for our wellbeing. All of us will experience the four seasons at different life stages and transitions, in the losses we face and the triumphs we celebrate, we call these ‘seasons of the soul’.
In our modern day lives, in the pursuit of personal happiness and business growth many have lost the capacity to honour all of the seasons; Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. All are necessary for our development and evolution.
None of us will escape a winter of the soul, when our light is dimmed, a time when vitality has left us and joy is nowhere to be found. For some this may simply be a sense of existing without the feeling of being truly alive. These can be times of loss – of a loved one, a job or a business failure. It can also be a time of hibernation for renewal and reflection.
Many look upon an internal Winter as the opposite of flourishing. However, just as in nature, it is essential for building our resilience. Unfortunately, most are not very well equipped to honour the winter - personally or in business, and holding out for the next Summer.
And here is Karen’s original contribution to the Elephant series, from December 2019: