Climate Optimist Challenge #4 - Retruthing
How To Question Everything
Retruthing
To change the world, we must find the courage to challenge our existing knowledge.
We don’t often recognize how trapped we are in our mental webs of “truths” and the belief we hold that things should be a certain way – but our fear of being wrong can create a lot of trouble. Unknowingly, it sparks conflict, stirs confusion, and allows for polarization to grow.
We’ve created a society where “knowing” is celebrated and “questioning” is not, yet what we need to do now is be bold enough to question everything.
Welcome to week four!
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The renowned American architect William McDonough famously said,
“The Stone Age did not end because humans ran out of stones. It ended because it was time for a re-think about how we live.”
We’re there right now, at the bridge of a new era, and you get to help write the script of what’s next to come! We must let go of old patterns and beliefs and dare to believe in something new. We must wake up every morning and know that we don’t have all the answers, but tell ourselves that it’s our daily task to keep asking questions and figure it out.
Because what if the future is better, healthier, and more beautiful than anything we’ve ever seen? What if we shouldn’t fear change, but embrace it, and actively start taking bold steps into the unknown?
That is what I believe and I’ve recognized that the (climate) challenge isn’t just in finding the right technology or extracting the right resources, but in shifting our minds and beliefs. And that challenge starts right here, right now, with you.
You can become a climate hero by finding the courage to “retruth” your world, and with it, the world at large.
Retruthing is a word I made up myself and has become one of the most empowering exercises I know. I’m excited to share it with you in this week’s challenge!
Retruthing
(Re-truthing - i.e. redefining the “truth”)
Verb
The willingness to question what 'is' and to let go of ideas, thoughts, and perceptions as they have lived in our heads up until now, to co-create a sustainable and more compassionate world.
‘Retruthing’ refers to one’s ability to understand that things and circumstances always change and that it is our duty as human beings to adapt to the flow of change; to continually find ourselves in new worlds, communities, and realities; new truths.
As defined by Anne Therese Gennari
Challenge: A Week of Retruthing
If you have a few extra minutes, I highly recommend reading this article describing the concept of retruthing and how the subconscious mind rules our lives.
Step 1: The “What” — Identify Your Truths
In the coming week, start paying close attention to your thoughts, habits, and reactions. Keep a notebook close or start a note on your phone where you jot down your discoveries.
What do you fill your days with? For example, what’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
What kind of things do you buy in the grocery store?
What activities/things in life make you happy?
What things do you do that doesn’t make you happy, but you do them anyway?
What triggers you in other people’s words and actions? What makes you feel frustrated, angry, happy, or sad?
How do you see yourself and the world? What do you tell yourself is possible/not possible? In what ways might you be impeding your own growth because of old beliefs (about yourself or the world)?
Step 2: The “Why” — Identify the Source
Once you’ve acknowledged a behavior, emotional reaction, or thought pattern, try to identify why you act, react or think this way. What is the root of this behavior? If you go down memory lane, what clues can you find from life that might be the reason you act this way today?
Is it something your parents told you as a kid?
Has society taught you to feel this way?
Were you hurt as a teenager and left with deep wounds?
Become the investigator and take some moments where you allow yourself to just sit and reflect. Try to find the why’s!
Step 3: The “Aha” — Find the Retruthing
Try identifying three “truths” that you live by and then begin retruthing these beliefs. For example, if you eat meat every single day, why is it that you do so? Is your “truth” telling you that you need to eat meat to stay healthy and strong? And if so, what would the new truth look like?
Write down truth number one (the one you live by now) and then write down the new truth that you’d like to start living by tomorrow. Read both out loud and see how they make you feel. Most importantly - how does the new truth make you feel? Do you believe it?
Here’s what this could look like:
Old truth: Change is hard and scary. I don’t like change because it means uncertainty and the potential for failure. The fact that the world around me is so uncertain and ever-changing frightens me. How am I supposed to know what to expect?
Retruth: Change is so fun and exciting! You never know what awaits you around the corner and I love change because it empowers me to become someone new. Life is ever-changing and I want to be ever-changing too. By embracing change and seeking opportunities to grow, I know I’ll live a life where I truly get to thrive!
Sounds like fun? It is!
You don’t have to believe the new truth right away because chances are you won’t. Your ego operates on old data, so if this is not part of your code yet, it’s simply because there’s no data in your subconscious supporting that belief. By slowly integrating practices of the retruth into your life, your code and belief system will begin to change.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this article
Step 4: Retruthing
Now here comes the fun! Write down the new truth — the retruth — and put it somewhere you can see it every day. Decide to act boldly on making this new truth a part of your life!
Take baby steps but don’t back down if it feels uncomfortable (it probably will) and pay attention to how it makes you feel. Do this for a week and keep a journal, what emotions are surfacing due to these new action steps in your life?
Have FUN and Please Share!
Have fun with it this week but please go easy on yourself. Retruthing your life is an exciting and empowering exercise but it can take some practice to get going. Don’t get frustrated when you find yourself falling back into old habits. Simply catch yourself and recognize how much we actually do act on subconscious thoughts and old beliefs. Isn’t it silly? Then use it as fuel to empower yourself and try again —
choose growth, new thinking, and CHANGE!
I’d love to see what retruthing you’re up to. Use the hashtag #retruth or #retruthing or if you prefer not to share publically, send me your wins straight in a DM! Not on Instagram? An email works as well — annetherese@theclimateoptimist.com :)
Good luck!
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10 Weeks of Climate Optimism
Every Sunday for the first ten weeks of 2022, I’ll be sharing a thought + challenge to deepen, widen, and strengthen your climate optimist heart. I hope these ten weeks will be a time for growing your emotional resilience and helping you become that grounded, empowered, and optimistic climate leader you are meant to be — for yourself and for the world!
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