Anxiety About Global Fragility Is Normal, Ignoring It Is Not
A lot of our clients are concerned about how to manage significant disruptions in the supply of water, power, food, finance and heat. Learning how to handle these issues is one of the primary outcomes of a permaculture design course or our consulting services. What is permaculture and what and how can it help you to sort out these issues? The goal of this article is to explain how we help people address their anxiety.
The easiest way to answer this is to share some real-life examples, so over the next few weeks, I am going to share some of the projects I have worked on through my design process.
Before we get into examples, I need to set the stage to describe why a design process is essential and how it works.
Through my journey, I have learned that fear and hopelessness is the result of not having a map. Maps to problems are different than navigation maps in that every problem needs its own map. Not having a map leads to two responses that I regularly see in my work.
1) Obsession: This response involves an obsession with the problem(s), driving everyone you love away from you and can cost tons of money never dealing with the root cause.
2) Cultivated Ignorance: In this response, the individual shuts down because the problems are too big. They do this by ignoring their emotions and pretended that everything is fine. However deep down there is always an uneasy feeling about what they already know leading to a form of nihilism (nothing matters anyway).
But there is a third way…
If you know how to build a map you can solve ANY problem and thus the fear allowing you to move on with your life. Once you have a map, you can trust the anxiety disappears because you know you’ll be fine.
3) Assessment, Design, Action and Life: The third way allows you to acknowledge the problem(s) create solutions and stop worrying about the future so you can enjoy your life.
The image below depicts the process of assessing, designing and acting on a hyper-complex problem with a map, its hairy, emotional and tests everything within you. There is only one way through this mess, and it is a robust stepwise process, a process you can use to help build a map. Without it, you stay in the tangle. This mess could be food security, energy security, protecting your financial assets, or water security. All of them are solved with the same process.
This process is what I call permaculture engineering. It is the result of my career in engineering combined with my intensive ten year study of permaculture and it is what I help my clients and students with.
My most significant insight over the past ten years around design has been that the majority of design does not spend enough time in the diagnosis. In my opinion, a properly conducted diagnosis is worth 80% of the solution to a problem. To diagnosis a problem efficiently you need to have a robust process to do it.
“Process is more important than the outcome. When the outcome drives the process, we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome, we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.” ~Bruce Mau
When we are looking at resilience, the diagnosis has to start with the elements that have the most significant impact on the property, are the slowest to change and thus the hardest to change. There are three broad regions of things that are hard and slow to change when it comes to property design. They include:
- regulation
- agroecology
- goals
When clients or students come us with a problem, they are overwhelmed by the “sum of possibilities”. The options are endless. The diagnosis, if done properly will narrow the options down to the middle or solution.
Agroecology is dictated by the water cycle, climate, geology and geography.
Regulation is dictated by the land use bylaw, jurisdictional codes and laws.
Goals are dictated by your lifes experience dreams, aspirations and values.
When we look closely at these three areas, there is usually a sliver in the middle of the circle that represents the solution. When we don’t spend enough time in this process, we end up in another less desirable part of the Venn diagram which can get you in trouble, cost your money, waste your life energy or destroy the ecosystem.
Getting the diagnosis is hard, once you’ve got it, the details are easy. Anxiety quickly disappears once you have a strategy of approach.
If are ready to start feeling better and solving your problems check out our upcoming Permaculture Design Certificate, this class is built around the process that Michelle and I have worked out over the last 15 years of our careers, we made it quiet our concerns and now show others how to address theirs.
Rob’s Bio:
In less than ten years, Rob Avis left Calgary’s oil fields and retooled his engineering career to help clients and students design integrated systems for shelter, energy, water, waste and food, all while supporting local economy and regenerating the land. He’s now leading the next wave of permaculture education, teaching career-changing professionals to become eco-entrepreneurs with successful regenerative businesses. Learn more and connect with Rob at https://vergepermaculture.ca/contact/
PS. If you see any typos, please let me know.
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