Mycelium Monthly #4 Bioregional Weavings Labs, Imposter Syndrome & Systemic Cycles

And many more regenerative reflections from the last months

Hi friend,

Welcome to the Mycelium (somewhat) Monthly — a short but sweet synthesis of the things I loved and learned last month(s).

It’s been a while…

Somehow it did not feel right to share the last months. I’ve been transitioning to a new dream job. There were many internal shifts and movements. And intense imposter syndrome didn’t help with posting…

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Bioregional Weavings Labs 🌱🌊

What started as a MSc thesis investigating ‘Weaving’ to scale Nature-based Solutions, is now my vocation — I recently started working with the Bioregional Weaving Labs (BWL) Collective as a Systemic Innovation Portfolio lead.

From bioregion to systems change.

Besides sourcing meaningful bioregional stories, I'm connecting a portfolio of systemic innovations to help bioregional changemakers overcome systemic barriers to restore, protect and regenerate 1 million ha of Europe’s land and sea.

I'm immensely grateful to work closely with the local weaving teams, Ashoka, Commonland and many other beautiful partners. Are you working on community-driven, nature-based solutions and do you want to explore scaling deep to one of the bioregions we work in? Get in touch!

We are establishing Bioregional Weaving Labs in 10 bioregions.

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Imposter Syndrome 🫣

I’ve always been confident in my skills and abilities. Blessed with a Pippi Longstocking mindset of “I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that.”. But somehow I’ve been feeling like a fraud lately — ever-present self-doubt making my well of inspiration run dry.

Impostor syndrome, also known as impostor phenomenon or impostorism, is a psychological occurrence. Those who have it may doubt their skills, talents, or accomplishments. They may have a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as frauds.^[1] Despite external evidence of their competence, those experiencing this phenomenon do not believe they deserve their success or luck. They may think that they are deceiving others because they feel as if they are not as intelligent as they outwardly portray themselves to be.^[2]

Questions of ‘What do I know?’, ‘What have I achieved?’, ‘What do I do?’ and ‘Who am I?’ have been paralyzing me, especially after landing a dream job. Yet, this doubt led me closer to the source of these wounds. There’s wisdom in insecurity. When feeling stuck, I always thought the way out was out. Now I realize the way out is in.

The Way Out is In. Spheres of Systems Change by NPC

I’ve barely scratched the surface of uncovering my deeper patterns and shadows. Luckily Vincent Deinum from U Turn is guiding me on my journey to tune into my feelings and emotions (and not running away from them, like I usually do).

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Systemic Cycles 🚲🌀

A Systemic Cycles tour in Hemsedal, Norway.

If I’m not saying ‘Hell Yeah!’ to something, then I say no.
—Derek Sivers

Signing up for the Weaving Guide course by Systemic Cycles was definitely a ‘Hell Yeah!’. Just when I was longing for outdoor adventure and to deepen my bioregional practice, Systemic Cycles came to my path.

Systemic Cycles is a bicycle tour exploring, mapping and interconnecting (bio)regions towards more circular, resilient regional supply chain systems and ultimately regenerative cultures through systemic design tools.

Systemic Cycles is based on the Designing Resilient Regenerative Systems (DRRS) program and is prototyped by Martin Schütz and Tobias Luthe from ETH Zurich’s Systemic Design Labs (SDL) in collaboration with the MonViso Institute.

For a week we’ve been exploring the Venice lagoon bioregion. Mapping material, energy, water, financial, and social flows. Shifting from sightseeing to insight-seeing; disembodied laptop work to embodied cognition; and from fast-paced extractive tourism, to deep regenerative development. Connecting the regenerative dots while cycling.

Systemic Cycles is not only limited to cycling. Depending on the place, other slow-moving practices like walking, kayaking, ski touring, and horse riding, also promote embodied cognition and direct engagement with local communities and environments. I’m looking forward to putting this bioregional weaving activation tool to practice.

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The Shithropocene 💩

The Shitthropocene – Welcome to the age of cheap crap. A film by Patagonia.

The Shitthropocene is a journey from the cellular-level origins of our lack of impulse control to the ways our central nervous systems have been hacked in the name of capitalism. It’s also about how we might begin to save ourselves from ourselves. Plus, there are dancing cave people.

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Bioregional Mapping 🗺️

What is a bioregion? How are they defined? Brendon Letsinger created four simple thresholds to help map a bioregion.

Bioregions "emerge" from the landscape, and are made up of many layers. At its heart, mapping a bioregion means exploring what is downstream and who's upstream. It means sensemaking—does this scale make sense for supporting your community regarding food, energy, and the other life living within an area? If not - expand the scope - repeat.

Image by David McCloskey.

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The Young Food Forest Farmers 🌳🍎

Transforming a barren grassland into an attractive, healthy and future-proof agricultural system that lives. That is the joint mission of The Young Food Forest Farmers.

My dear friend and colleague Sacha Brons, together with Simon Verboom, Katja Zweerus and Wytze Walstra hope to realize a food forest on 13 hectares of land south of Arnhem in the Netherlands. With the support of Aardpeer, they’re raising 3.5 million euros for nature-friendly farmers. Are you participating?

The Young Food Forest Farmers Simon Verboom, Sacha Brons, Wytze Walstra and Katja Zweerus.

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High Signal Newsletters 📡

It’s such a privilege to be able to promote other people’s beautiful work. This is why I started The Mycelium — to illuminate and interconnect the regenerative dots. I recently created an overview with 50+ of my favourite newsletters that help me find signal out of noise. I hope you’ll find some new signals too.

My Favourite Newsletters

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Quantum Social Change 🌌

Talking about high-signal newsletters, my friend

Karen O'Brien

just launched her transformative

Karen O’Brien for Quantum Social Change

newsletter!

This newsletter is part of an ongoing inquiry into how we can rapidly transform ourselves and our societies to realize an equitable and thriving world. For years, I’ve been fascinated by what quantum social science implies for issues like climate change and global sustainability. Why? Because it asks us to think differently about the relationship between mind, meaning, and matter. Moreover, it invites us to recognize that we matter more than we think.

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Ciao 👋

I’m sending you warm regards from the beautiful Italian lakes, mountains and lagoons. Looking forward to sharing more about our bioregional biking adventures!

Greetings from the Systemic Cycles crew Lucie Smolková, Benjamin Marias, Adrian Howell, Martin Schütz, Tobias Luthe, Michael Grimm, Justyna Swat, Sylwia Orczykowska and Folef Hooft Graafland.