The Pachamama Alliance staff recently had a visit from Erin Ross, who came to talk to us about the Nine Superpowers of Community. We figured we’d share these Superpowers with you, as they’re useful to anyone working in community, as well as for your personal development.
Erin runs a non-profit called Get that You Matter and is also a qualified Facilitator of Café Gratitude workshops, which is where the Nine Superpowers of Community come from. The Engelhart’s new book, Awakening to Love: Tools for Building Community, will be out Spring of 2013. You can buy books and learn more about their workshops here.
Grow Your Own Superpowers
- Holding Space: The ability to hold the “seat of love” in any circumstance, in the face of any upset or story. It is the ability to be fully present for someone else without becoming engaged in their story, reflecting them to themselves.
- Apology: The ultimate tool of accountability- of taking responsibility for any breakdown in oneness. This isn’t to say that we are always responsible for the breakdown, but it is really the only place to come from where we have any power.
- Integrity: It is the source of your power, and it simply means doing what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it. It doesn’t mean you always keep your word; it means that, when you don’t, you communicate, apologize and re-commit.
- Acknowledgment: The currency of a healthy community. When we acknowledge someone for who they are rather than what they do, we are calling forth their divinity.
- Generating: The capacity and willingness to create your own experience regardless of your circumstances or emotional state.
- Making Requests: As opposed to demands or requirements, requests heal our ability to receive. When we make requests, we’re willing and able to hear a “no” or a counter-offer just as easily as we are to hear a “yes.”
- Transparency: The ability to share what is in your heart and mind openly and fully. When we are transparent, it gives others permission to do the same, thus creating safety and deeper connection.
- Checking In: The act of asking your community how you are occurring for them in their experience. Questions like, “How am I doing at being your co-worker?” or “How am I doing at being your spouse?” empower the people around you to be transparent and support you in being the best you can be.
- Being Complete: The declaration that an issue, task or transgression is wrapped up. When we are complete, we declare that we are willing to set aside the temptation to bring up old stories, to let go of resentments, to clean up communications and closets, and move on.
