on kapwa, bro-ductivity, and why your work system keeps failing you

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word systems, especially in business, & what it even means. so, in natural 12H gemini, former-english-teacher fashion, I looked it up 😅

according to MIT, in the post "What is Systems Thinking in Business,” (oooo, credibility),

Systems thinking is a way of understanding how connected parts of a business, and its wider environment, interact to produce outcomes. Instead of focusing on individual problems in isolation, it emphasizes the relationships and structures that link different parts of the organization into a broader whole.

here is where kapwa enters.

cuz long before business schools existed, our peoples understood kapwa, the self that is always shared, the other who is not other. that I cannot be understood in isolation from my relations, my ancestors, my body, my community, my spirit. & neither can my work.

we are always operating within an ecosystem, within a web of the seen & unseen.

this is what I mean by creating in kapwa.

the interconnectedness piece within a system & within structures is undeniable. & we are witnessing in real time, as we doomscroll, the dismantling of the ones that keep us anxious, depressed, oppressed, & disconnected from kapwa, from each other, from our relatives within our ecosystems inside & out.

the bro-ductivity industry is an offshoot of this disconnection. it keeps you severed from your natural ways, from your creativity, from being supported by the web of elements & beings within & around you. it has us imposing these external systems upon ones that are very much internal & incredibly local.

then, it blames YOU for being inconsistent with your planner or your digital project management tools. for not waking up at 5am when you’re not a morning person.

this is all very much interconnected with Jane Doe, Kendall Francis, & Nolan Wells. each one of these stories is a part of these overarching systems of oppression, one that separates consent from the body, mind & spirit, one that names “friends” in a haphazard, transactional way.

& it’s all coming to light during this new moon in libra on saturday & venus in retrograde in scorpio, of all signs. scorpio is such an interesting sign & energy to me cuz it doesn’t avoid the darkness & the depths of the emotional waters, it wades in it.

so to have venus here, in retrograde, baliktad, has us slowing down to examine the darkness & depths of the emotional waters of what & whom we are in relationship with.

• who & what make up our ecosystems?

• how are we in relationship with ourselves & our work?

• & how are we in relationship with the systems & structures we create for ourselves?

bro-ductivity has you severing yourself from your own systems & structures, from those of your business, of your creative practice, of your home. it shows you how you should do it. how it should be. based on someone else’s template, ways of thinking & being, someone else’s goals.

our creativity has been convoluted into these very restrictive & linear boxes that “productivity” requires of us. has us measuring our own wild creative process based on how much we’ve “produced.” & so we feel guilty & shame spiral ourselves cuz we took a different route that day. we wrote something else that was completely off the topic we scheduled in. we wrote an entire historical biography on ONE character instead of the scene that’s next in the outline.

we rush through building out our beautiful body of work, our medicine cuz capitalism requires us to “stay on a weekly schedule,” within the time block, “on time.”

this is not why we got into this work to begin with. this is not why we were gifted by Creator with the abilities to envision novels and businesses and poetry and painting.

we most definitely did not get into this work to fill algorithms in service to billionaires with “content” & our calendars with “time blocks.”

we are in the work we are doing cuz it fills us up. it makes us feel alive.

being in creative flow is an experience of true connection: to the work itself, to the gifts we were given & designed to steward, to our ancestors who gave us this body so that we could, to spirit who guides us our aliveness.

Maryam Hasnaa, energy healer and founder of Resonance Apothecary & the New Earth Mystery School (https://linktr.ee/maryamhasnaa), shared this recently on her IG feed,

“Fulfillment doesn’t come from what we chase, attract or magnetize. It comes from what we’re actually in genuine relationship with.”

so, what & who are you in genuine relationship with?
do you feel genuinely connected to the work you are here to steward?
do you feel connected to the structures that you create to steward that work?
where are you consenting to the work you’re doing & where are you not?

the more you attune to the systems within & around you, the more you’ll be able to find your own rhythm. to create when it feels good to, to be in full consent with your own creative practice.

this might look like letting yourself be the night owl you already are & be with your characters in ways you feel pulled to be with them - maybe that’s getting to know their birth charts or how they move through their day. maybe it’s letting yourself follow through with an idea you’ve had for a digital product or workshop you’ve had on your heart for months or even years, even if it doesn’t make sense income-wise.

there are so many ways to explore your own natural rhythms, but one I’ll leave with you now is this:
what do you feel called to create right now? what if you sat down with it today? what does that look & feel like? & can you take one moment, even if it’s only for 5 or 10 minutes, to call in creative flow?

the internal weather check is also a great place to start with cultivating an attunement practice.

and also, this is exactly what we do in the first phase/month of CULTIVATE, a one-season cohort to co-create YOUR systems & structures inside of your business & your life.

we clear your emergencies (aka, the things that keep you & your business or your creative “blocked,” overwhelmed, or “bottlenecked” into paralysis. we build your flow almanac & your home nest/digital HQ/cozy cottage studio that holds & guides your work. and that is JUST phase/month one 😊

we are cultivating the conditions for your own “consistency,” so that you can show up to your work & your life more fully.

DOORS ARE OPEN, KAPATID!

read about all the details: https://creatinginkapwa.com/cultivate