| Sustainable AND regenerative | This paradox “speaks to the important shift from sustainable (measuring, monitoring, controlling, and reducing negative impacts) to regenerative (creating life-affirming outcomes that enhance flourishing for all concerned, including local communities, wider society, and the interconnected fabric of life on earth” (Hutchins, 2022, p. 28). Yet, there will be a need to hold room for both AND |
| Positive AND negative emotions | Learning to be comfortable with the discomfort to which tensions give rise, rather than avoiding them, is highlighted as an important skill for the facilitation of regenerative transformations (Hutchins, 2022, Hutchins & Storm, 2019). Macy & Johnstone’s (2022) regenerative practices are further inspiration for facilitating this tension because the spiral of “the work that reconnects” invites both gratitude AND an honoring of our pain for the world |
| Human AND more-than-human centric | This paradox is about being able to ask both what gives life to you? As well as acknowledging that a regenerative human culture cares for the planet and it cares for all of life in the awareness that this creates a thriving future for all (Wahl, 2016) |
| Outer AND inner transformation | The concept of “right relationship” (Villegas, 2010), or “in good relation” (Nickel & Fehr, 2020), which is central to many indigenous cultures, might be more of an appropriate term for a regenerative way of relating, facilitating and dancing with ecosystems. It captures an inner transformative change and way of existing in a sustainable, loving or caring way with all living beings. It reaches into a way of being and an underlying mindset acknowledging the need for a transformative change of both our outer AND inner world |