Barbara Lima is a multilingual multipotentialite in the domains of linguistics, education, translation, entrepreneurship, art, writing and poetry. She is passionate about human and planetary regeneration, the regenerative culture, education and animal welfare. She was born and raised Brazilian, but identify herself as a cosmic citizen, and she is, as she says, an avid learner surrendering to the unfolding of her highest self and purpose.
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𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀:
* An awakening journey around the world
* Personal development and spiritual development
* Reclaiming our wholeness
* Regenerative movement and culture
* Human regeneration is a prerequisite for planetary regeneration
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𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲:
“Just relax - don’t take things so seriously. Have some fun - everything will be ok.“
-Barbara Lima
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𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀:
Connect with Barbara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-lima/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suddenlyskyclad_/
Do you sometimes have trouble getting your brain to focus and concentrate on the important task in front of you? Then I have a solution for you: an amazing app called Brain FM. As my podcast listener, try it for free and get 20% off if you decide to join. Use my partner link: brain.fm/agi
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𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁:
I am Agi Keramidas, a zealous podcaster and a knowledge broker. I am on a mission to inspire others to grow, stand out, and take action towards the next level of their lives. Visit my website: agikeramidas.com
#PersonalDevelopmentMastery
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
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Please note, while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.
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Barbara Lima 0:00
That gets reflected on the environment. And I think that that's the real foundation for regeneration. And that's why I believe that human regeneration is a prerequisite for planetary regeneration. We cannot care about the environment if first we don't care about ourselves. And we don't understand ourselves in our wholeness in our connection with source with each other, and with our planet.
Agi Keramidas 0:36
You are listening to personal development mastery podcast where you will find both the inspiration to grow and the actions to implement towards your next level. I am your host, Agi Keramidas and my mission is to inspire you to stand out and live your best life. I interview thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs, spiritual teachers, exceptional people who will inspire you to improve your life and offer through their wisdom actions you can take and implement. Tune in for two new episodes each week and make sure you follow the podcast to get the episodes as soon as they are released.
In today's show, I am delighted to speak with Barbara Lima, Barbara, you are a multi lingual, multi potential light in the domains of linguistics, education, translation, entrepreneurship, art, writing and poetry. You are passionate about human and planetary regeneration, the regenerative culture, education and animal welfare. You were born and raised Brazilian, but identify yourself as a cosmic citizen. And you are as you say, an avid learner surrendering to the unfolding of your highest self and purpose. Barbara, welcome to the show what what a joy it is to speak with you today.
Barbara Lima 2:16
Thank you very much, Agi, and thank you for your beautiful introduction.
Agi Keramidas 2:22
It is my pleasure. And actually, I will make a comment about the introduction because I had to actually look up the word, multi potential light, which I even though I understood what it meant, but I had to really look it up. And I liked this excel in in two or more different fields. And by contrast, it said that the VO schools interest lies lie more in one filter called specialist. So that's like, you know, I always enjoy learning. And I know you do as well. So that gave me an opportunity to to learn something. So I would like a quick comment on that. And before I move on.
Barbara Lima 3:09
Absolutely. First, thank you so much for this invitation. It's a pleasure to be here with you. I'd like to thank evoke real estate before we start for giving me there's space for us to have this interview. And so the term multi potential light is something I became familiar with fairly recently, I would say. And it was a journey of self discovery in itself. And it was the journey that took me to discovering that term. What I mean to say is that most of my life, I didn't know exactly how to explain how I felt about learning and doing different things. Because we are often told that we need to choose one thing to do in life that we have one passion and that we have to follow one path, especially professionally. And that's something I'm going to say I've always struggled with, but I understood later that it wasn't a struggle. It was just part of who I was. My curiosity always led me to experiment with different types of knowledge, different types of environment and cultures. And it's there's multi interest in different areas and skills and abilities. That is referred to as multi potentiality. So a multi potential light is someone who usually has a number of interests they're very passionate about and that interest usually translates into developing different skills and following diverse career paths and so multi potential lights off often do things in parallel, or they experiment with different careers, or they have this intrinsic need to exercise different skills within, for example, the development of one project. And so this is something I enjoy very much when I have the opportunity to work on a project that allows me to exercise different abilities, different skills, or look at one thing from different angles, exercising different perspectives. And that has defined my path in life because I ended up having different careers over the years or experimenting with different things at the same time. And the discovery of this term, multi potential light was actually a process of liberation from this internal guilt that I had towards not being able to choose one thing and always feeling so thirsty for learning different, learning about different topics and pursuing different ventures. And now I just rejoice in that space of multi potentiality. And I understand that it's actually an asset, not an issue, like I was told in the past. And so after that realisation and that liberating process, I believe that I was able to bloom into that understanding, and better serve my higher self and what it wanted to offer and become.
Agi Keramidas 6:44
Thank you. And there are already with your short answer. There are already so many things that came to my mind about that. One of them being what you said that it was liberating when she realised that it was not an issue, it was an asset, and, you know, when you are doing or being someone that is different, maybe than the majority, it can and frequently been termed us. Not right, that it is an issue. And you brought back something that from my story, when I was growing up, I was I was always wanting to know. And I remember my my mom say, No, that's there is an issue there, you should be content with what you have. And it took me many years, you know, to figure out that balance between those things. But yeah, that was one thing that came to mind. And, you know, out of all these diverse and multiple interests and paths that you have travelled, we will discuss one or two. Before we go there, I would like to go back a little bit. And you have done you have travelled extensively, and I read somewhere, you're describing your journey around the world as deeply awakening. So I want us I want you to take us back briefly to what you were doing before you started this, this journey and what led you to embark on this awakening journey, as you call it?
Barbara Lima 8:34
Great, I will try to be concise. It started when I was probably seven or eight years old, and I was in the backyard with my dad. He was working in his workshop. He loved working with wood. And my mom had told me about her sister who loved travelling and she was a polyglot. And for some reason, that caught my attention very deeply. And she told me about the fact that my aunt lived in another country and I didn't know what a country was. So I went to my dad who was in the backyard, and I asked him what's a country and he told me about these places outside of the place where we lived, where people spoke different languages, and in Portuguese, we use the word tongue rather than any other language student to refer to language. It's a translation clarification that will help understand what came next. When he said people have different tongues, which would be the equivalent in Portuguese, I understood that people actually had different kinds of tongues physically. And so in my mind, what happened was this vision of in each country people having a different tongue position in their mouth and i i visualise this 360 degree possibility of different languages being spoken in different places, but for me, obviously the Understanding was in terms of the physicality of the tongue, right. And that fascinated me, it's the memory that I believe has informed a lot of my choices moving forward. I was since that moment, fascinated with the idea of learning different languages and exploring the world. And that thirst was something that I carried with me throughout my entire life until I was able to leave the country for the first time. And it was through a conference that the interest to go to Canada was born. And Canada was the first place I visited. I became a Canadian citizen, I lived in Canada in total for nearly eight years. And then from there, I lived in France for a year and a half. And then my journey took me to China, where I lived for four years, and I just left China last year in July, went back to Canada for a few months, and I am now in Mexico. And as a child, I never thought I would be able to realise this dream of living in different places, because I come from a background of poverty. My dad grew up in poverty. Very Fortunately, he was able to ascend socially. Therefore, my sisters and me, my sisters and I, we were very lucky to not have experienced poverty. But that informed a sense of scarcity in regards to possibilities of abundance in my life. And so I never thought I would be able to leave the country because my parents had not had that opportunity. But life presented me with many opportunities that led to that possibility of travelling the world, and actually realising my dream. And I chose a programming linguistics, naturally informed by that memory, but also informed by a tradition of love of languages in the family, most particularly the Portuguese language, we have many teachers and professors in the family. And so that was very strong in my lineage. And the fact that it was deeply awakening has to do with, I believe, an exploration of different cultures. I don't think that comes alone and in itself. However, I believe that we need to be open to the possibility of looking at these different cultures and experiences that were offered along the journey with an eye of curiosity, non judgement and clarity in regards to what is it that you're interested in? And what is it that you want to learn? And not only from a place of desire, but a place of purpose? What is it that my soul is seeking? What is it that my mission is calling for, and in that space, informed by my personal journey in my family, which is trauma informed, I pursued this path of self exploration and self discovery. See, seeking tools that would allow me to heal most of all, but also break certain patterns that I felt and I saw repeating themselves in my life, through my parents and their parents, and through the behaviours, relationships and actions I was experiencing in my own life. And so experiencing the world and remaining open and curious about different ways of living and different ways of
looking at the same thing, gave me the opportunity to not only start understanding who I was detached from the place where I was born, and the family where, where I was raised, in which I was raised, but also gave me the opportunity to gather different pieces of what I had been offered through this journey of exploration around the world. And see which ones actually fit with this person that I was discovering along the way. And so who is Barbara and who, what does she actually want? What a what is it that she inherited that doesn't belong to her and what is it that actually belongs to her but she never had the opportunity to have access to or she didn't even know she she belonged to because she hadn't been exposed to it. along that journey. I had tools that were very powerful in the process, yoga meditation, deep conversations with people from different places and the the ability To speak different languages gave me the opportunity not only to hear about different ways of looking at life, but also experiencing the power of language in describing reality from different perspectives by using different words. And so that in itself was an awakening process, but from the living under different kinds of government, government and experiencing different kinds of professional experiences, having different kinds of professional experiences. All of those experiences, along with my thirst for self discovery and healing led me to deepen my relationship with spirituality.
Agi Keramidas 15:49
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Thank you, you you gave so many different angles of the description of the awakening the word awakening journey. So it was wonderful to see from the cultural explorations that you mentioned to the the personal of the self development or the spiritual. So it was a great description. He also said something I wanted to make a comment about about languages and describing reality in a different way by using a different language. And I speak two languages for Greek, Greek is my my mother, my mother tongue, because we actually use the same words like tongue in Greek to describe language. But I have found that it helps me to be able to think in different languages. So it's not apart from the obvious, which is the communicating, speaking or writing and reading language, the fact of thinking in a different language gives a different perception of in thinking so that was great to hear you describe it. I will ask you something, I wanted to ask you something that is, in a way it is related to what you were saying. And many times when we speak when we talk about personal development, or some people when they talk about about personal development, they refer more to techniques and tools rather than the some inner process that I will describe as spiritual in the broad sense of the word. So I wanted to ask you in terms of those two, if if there are two categories, like the personal development and spiritual development, are they two, are they do they converge at some point or do they diverge after a point? What are your, your thoughts from this?
Barbara Lima 19:34
I think that's a great question. I think that has to do a lot to do with your cultural perspective, first of all, and the depth of the exploration that you propose to yourself as a personal development journey. What I believe is that most people don't really understand what spirituality is and oftentimes They undergo a spiritual awakening or spiritual development period, which they call personal development. And this is not to cancel one of the terms, I just believe that they work together, they merge the way I see spirituality, it's, there are many facets to spirituality. But when we talk about spiritual development, that has a lot to do with this inner exploration, and in inner development, there's actually now a term, we know the Sustainable Development Goals. Now we have the inner development goals. And if you look at that framework, it's a personal development framework, but it's very much founded on spiritual tools and spiritual aspects of that inner development. So in my understanding spirituality is an intrinsic aspect of who we are as human beings, alone, or in community or in relationship to another. But I believe that it starts in the realm of the relationship with oneself. That's when people when you discover spirituality, it's when you establish that relationship with yourself. And you understand that that's the most important relationship that you can cultivate in your life. Because it's through a process and here I'm going to start talking about regeneration, it's, it's, it's through a process of self regeneration, that we can then enter a collective space from a place of self understanding, self regulation, healthy relationship with yourself. And, and that will inform the quality of your presence in the spaces where you are in the relationships you establish with people and with the planet. So for me, it's personal development is an intrinsic aspect of spirituality and spirituality is an intrinsic aspect of personal development. And that is the first most important journey we need to take in order for then cultivate that healthy presence in community. And from that space, co create with other people,
for the development of strategies that will allow us to understand our relationship with the earth and understand that when we belong to ourselves, we also understand that we belong to the earth. And so it's a journey from separation to oneness, you know, separation from ourselves, separation from the people around us separation from our environment, spirituality and personal development will give you the tools to then navigate the liminal space of self discovery and the shadow work, no looking at the corners where you don't want to necessarily be but facing yourself, and owning the wholeness of who you are taking self responsibility and loving yourself as a whole, instead of just looking at the parts that shine. And in that process of reclamation of the wholeness, we enter the realm of regeneration in that liminal space that then guides us towards oneness. So the journey would be for me separation, liminal space of the unknown, where the shadow work is where we befriend darkness. And we then generate light through sitting with darkness, and then getting to oneness oneness with myself, I now I am now whole, I, I recognise, I accept, I love all parts of who I am. And from that space of honouring that within myself, I can then honour the same dynamic within other people. And that gets reflected on the environment. And I think that that's the real foundation for regeneration. And that's why I believe that human regeneration is a prerequisite for planetary regeneration. We cannot care about the environment if first we don't care about ourselves. And we don't understand ourselves in our wholeness in our connection with source with each other, and with our planet.
Agi Keramidas 24:46
Thank you, that's a wonderful way to say it and it makes complete sense that unless we regenerate as you said, As humans, we took the collective regeneration is not possible. So that's the whole paradigm of how we look at ourselves and in relationships with others has to change. And it is changing, I think in this times that that we are. And I like very much used the term reclamation of the wholeness that we are. And I made a note of that it is very, it made an impression, because of the fraseri, reclaiming it. And it is it is maybe a subtle thing. But I enjoy very much listening that description. And you, you started talking about regeneration. And this is actually something I wanted to discuss with you and get some ideas and you are someone who supports organisations in the regenerative movement and space. Let's say someone listening to this has maybe heard them once or twice, but they're not sure of what it involves, would you give him or her a simple explanation of what it is? And I mean, now, of course, you gave that wonderful introduction about the regenerative process of ourselves first. But if we take that to a bigger scale or the planet show, I hope my question is clearly for you.
Barbara Lima 26:39
It is. And there's actually a way of explaining this that I really enjoy, it's very simple. I'm going to talk in terms of lifestyle. And so we have three ways of living a lifestyle, we have the extractive way of living, we have the sustainable way of living, and we have the regenerative way of living. And if I were to use mathematics to illustrate this, an extractive lifestyle would be minus one. Right. And so I am consuming the word consuming already carries that meaning of taking, right the dynamic is one way I'm taking, I'm consuming, I am not conscious about what I'm buying the impact that it has on the on the environment, or this is one example out of many that I could give here. So it's minus one, I'm just taking a sustainable way of living would be zero, that means I am taking but somewhere on the other side, there is a measure that is creating balance. I might not be taking. I'm not I might not be giving back myself, but maybe someone else's. Ideally, I should be taking in giving in order for me to say that I live sustainably. So my taking in my giving equal to zero. Whereas a regenerative lifestyle is plus one. And so I recognise that we live in a world at a time where sustainability is what I believe an outdated concept. It's no longer enough, we cannot just maintain what we have, because we have destroyed extensively. And we were talking about the planet, that's very clear. Therefore, our efforts need to be regenerative. It means which means I need to give more than I take much more because our role our mission, our the need that presents itself to us right now is a need to restock. It's as if I had a glass full of water and I had drank all the water and I have a line of people who are thirsty and want water. Well I have to fill that glass up again so that I can serve the needs of the people who are thirsty and so very simply extraction minus one sustainability zero regeneration plus one. It's Regeneration has to do with recreating so bringing the environment back to a state where it's thriving. And it allows us to then carry carry out a way of living that is sustainable, but I think that regeneration always finds place even though if even if we had pristine spaces right now that did not necessarily need regeneration. I believe that a regenerative life A star is much more than our relationship with the planet. It's our relationship with ourselves, as I said, and with each other. I hope that was clear.
Agi Keramidas 30:09
It was very much clear and that analogy used with the numbers that the mind knows. When you started saying about the extraction or the destructive phase, I was thinking that this minus one has accumulated over God knows how much time so being on a sustainable level, it's it's pointless right now, because we are very much in the mind, which that's how I looked at it. So the plus one is probably need to be plus more than more than one to two, to tip that. So yes, it does make sense. There was a question you said, when you're describing about sustainable, you said about the giving and taking to be equal, which makes sense. Can you describe to me the giving and taking of what
Barbara Lima 31:13
have everything? I believe? I'm sure this is a very extensive answer. But I like to approach things from a holistic point of view. And so giving and taking in is a concept that needs to be considered within each realm of relationships that I described, the realm of relationship with oneself, with others and with the environment. So when I'm when I'm taking something from the environment, it's important for me to consider if that resource will renew itself, or if it needs to be replenished. Right. So in terms of environment, that's a question that's very important, my dad used to say, always leave the place where you are better than you found it. And that's something that really stayed with me. And I apply not only to physical spaces, but my presence with other people. You know, I think that it's a beautiful way of just conducting oneself through life. So I believe that sustainability has a lot to do with that. Although his idea was already regenerative. If you think about it, right. In terms of relationships, it's about that awareness in regards to how I establish my interaction with the person in front of me, am I always asking, taking blaming, pointing my finger? Or is it? Is this a sustainable framework? Or am I giving? And am I acting from a place of non judgement? Am I making sure that there's balance in the relationship? And and so the same goes with yourself prior to what kind of internal dialogues are you cultivating? Are you feeding your mind just negative thoughts? Or is there a balance in regards to the kindness that you offer yourself and your ability to demonstrate self appreciation, so give and take it's it's such an abstract concept, but at the same time, so accessible, and that can be applied to all of these realms. And I believe that the more we exercise, applying it to the relationship with ourselves, I go back to this because I believe it's the seed of everything, the better able we are to exercise it with other people and our environment. And so always just looking at this relationship of balance, because nature is harmony in its natural state. And I believe that we have removed a lot of that natural quality by being extractive or by establishing an extractive relationship with nature. Therefore, I believe that balance is a good measure that guides us through this process of understanding, taking and giving in creating sustainability within ourselves with other people in the environment.
Agi Keramidas 34:31
I know that my question was very general, but you covered it. It was your answer was holistic, I think so. I would like to ask you a bit more about specifically the regenerative process and cultures in terms of the environment. It's, even though I very much appreciate what you just said about our relationship with ourselves with it starts from Macedonia, remember who was it that said that if you want to change the world, start by changing yourself. That's, that's really what you can do. But let's take that a bit further out. So people who are into the the culture of regeneration, and they embrace what you just describe initially with their relationship with ourselves, and then of course with others, in terms of the greater environment, planet, nature. Can you share? And maybe my my question, I don't want to be to be very general show Oculus for you specifically, as Barbara, what? In your projects, the projects that you support and participate in regeneration? What do they involve, if you could share a bit more specifically of that?
Barbara Lima 35:57
Sure, absolutely. So I work with regenerative culture, education and communication. So this is mostly in the realm of changing the way we do things to create different results, right. And so we have people who work more on a global scale and people who work more on the ground. And it's the marriage between these two initiatives that I believe creates a framework for us to really create co created regeneratively. So more specifically, we can talk about regenerative economy, right gift economy, different ways of exchanging value understanding value. So in the regenerative movement, we say that we're trying to get rid of money, and we're trying to cultivate different ways of, as I said, creating value and exchanging value. So cryptocurrency is a hot topic, but also given ask initiatives and new ways of establishing relationships between humans, human beings and human beings and nature. We have, for example, permaculture, which is a beautiful framework that not only allows us to stablish a different dialogue with the Earth, but also between ourselves. So we talk about social permaculture, and how that can influence the way we then impact the environment. So economy and the way we we cultivate the earth, and changing the way we cultivate the earth are really important, moving away from extractive models of monoculture, for example, and going towards permaculture. And it's not that I need a piece of land from you to do that. When we talk about community building, which is another aspect of regeneration, we move away from this exclusive exclusivity that has been placed on the nuclear family. And we extend the idea of family to community in that space of community. We're talking about different ways of doing things. So common spaces, sharing resources, instead of each person having a camera, for example, we share one camera, and we have common spaces where we can gather and develop our passion. So we would have, for example, an art studio that everyone can share. We're growing our own food. We're generating energy locally. And so these are some of the things that exist in the regenerative movement that are then supported by a framework in education that has the objective to move us away from domination culture towards partner ism, for example, and we're looking to new models of governance. And that has a lot to do with decentralisation and how we can then manage our resources and our relationships in a different way. It's not necessarily about erasing hierarchy, but understanding new ways of establishing those relationships from a place mostly of self actualization and embracing differences and focusing on creating equality. I don't know if my answer is specific or general, but I believe that in Regeneration, we have these concepts and we have these ways of living we have this needs to review culture and to recreate culture as the heart the core element that informs the on the ground actions, regenerative actions that will physically impact the environment and people as a result.
Agi Keramidas 39:58
Thank you. I believe your answer was So it was quite comprehensive, based on the the general question. The reason why I'm asking and I will ask you maybe to expand a little bit more, if you have any more thoughts to add them. But the reason is that I, I want to bring this topic more to the awareness of people, because I don't know what your experiences are, obviously, you work in this second show you have your environment is different than maybe the majority of people out there. But my experience is that there is not enough knowledge about regenerative culture in the regenerative movement. And that's why I'm asking you so I will. Tell me what you think it would be, let's say, important, maybe for someone who's listening, and is learning about this, and they're selling what Barbara says, sounds very interesting. What would be something else you can tell them to, to build up on this?
Barbara Lima 41:15
Yeah, so the work that I do, as I said, has a lot to do with recreating culture, through education and communication. And so my work is an overarching framework that gives support to the on the ground work. As I was saying, if we talk about on the ground tools, this is going to be much more practical. So we can talk about for example, if we if if we start in our households, the way I separate my garbage, reviewing the relationship I have with consumerism and understanding what is the underlying root of that norm, making better choices in terms of choosing what I bring into my space, really taking time to read labels and understand what is inside the food that going back to wholeness is a process that also has to do with what I put inside my body. And so if I'm consuming, consuming, industrialised products, wholeness is not necessarily there. And so regenerative lifestyle has to do with going back to the earth, remembering that we are the land that we belong to the land and not the other way around. Regeneration has to do with stewarding the land, not owning the land. So we don't talk about ownership in regeneration, we've talked about stewardship. So I am serving the land. And the land is serving me in return. And so it's about for example, changing your diet, I'm going to buy whole foods that are produced organically if I if possible. And I understand that if you live in the city, there's a high cost for that, usually, although I believe that the movement is growing to a point now where those products are becoming more accessible. But these are things that we can definitely cultivates home, we can compost my, my my garbage, I can separate my garbage and I can have a garden and I can have a you know, some vegetables and I can go back to that relationship with the earth that is nourishing instead of consuming. Right? Even the vocabulary, I'm very interested in looking at the vocabulary as well, instead of consuming food, I am nourishing myself. And that changes completely the perspective from which I'm going to act and even the way I do certain things. So instead of just putting food inside my mouth, without thinking about what's in front of me, and what's the impact that's going to create inside my body, I'm taking the time to turn that experience into an experience of presence and honour of what is in front of me and how what I put inside my body is informing my thought processes, my levels of energy, my emotions and the way that's going to show up on the outsides, as I said again, so the work that I do has a lot to do with questioning and recreating the relationship with the self. It can be on a small scale on a larger scale. But from a cultural point of view, right. I'm very much interested in a framework right now called Dragon dreaming, which is was something developed by Dr. John Kraft. And the the dragon dreaming framework comes originally from an Aboriginal tribe from Western Australia and And it's beautiful because it really takes us through this journey of personal development, community building and service to Earth, through a relationship with one's ourselves and others that has to do, for example, in terms of communication, this is a practical tool that we can apply charismatic communication, nonviolent communication, these are regenerative tools that we can apply on our daily on a daily basis that will transform our life. And more than that, Dragon dreaming also brings this strategy of looking at projects professionally, personally, from a perspective that allows you to celebrate what you do.
We start by dreaming something. And so this is a regenerative process, because we live in a culture of domination, extractive culture, that tells us that we have to do one thing, and we have to do it with a certain principle within a certain principle of generating income or responding to an external need. That busyness takes away from that space that we need to cultivate of introspection, where we discover who we are, and we can cultivate our dreams. And from that dream space, we can plan we can do and then we can celebrate. So this is a regenerative way of living as well that can be applied to a professional endeavour, really sitting in creating that space of silence of deep listening. In this Western Australian tribe, they call it Pina kadhi, which means deep listening, but this deep listening is not is not only in regards to the person in front of you, but it's deep listening to what wants to unfold within yourself, and your connection with the source and the earth, and how that will inform your purpose and your mission. And from that you can plan so I'm going to write a book or I'm going to become a teacher, I'm going to teach a certain topic, or I'm going to build a community in this country, because this is my calling. This is my purpose. And this is my mission. And from there, that planning space, I'm going to do I'm going to do in community now because I'm acting from that space of wholeness with myself understanding of who I am and my mission. And we're together, we're going to celebrate. And I insist on this point, because I believe that we moved away from a community type of society. We live in separation, and I believe that the first step that we need to take in the direction of regeneration is that reclamation of wholeness. And so these are practical tools that we can apply to our lives to get there.
Agi Keramidas 48:20
Thank you for your answer. You took the the term, all my question of regenerative when you applied it to all sorts of different things now with your answer. So even communication, I had never thought of a regenerative way of communication. So that was, I believe, very useful. So thank you. Barbara, I would also like to ask you some questions to start wrapping things up some quickfire questions to tell me the first one is What does personal development mean to you?
Barbara Lima 48:58
Though, the word that comes to mind is water for some reason. And I say that because water is vital in our lives, and I believe that a life without personal development is not a life, really, I believe that we come here to, to grow. I believe that we're given different opportunities for that to happen. That usually happens in the space of darkness. And I love using an analogy to illustrate this. The seed in the soil needs that dark space for it to start thriving. Right and so this is where the cultivation starts. And this is the reason why I believe we're here. We're here to understand the nature of who we are and through. And when I say understanding, it's not from the analytical mind, it's not through the mind. It's understanding who we are by being present. So, instead of looking at a forest, and trying to describe the trees as a way to explain what it is to someone who doesn't know what it is, if, for example, a child, that would be the analytical mind trying to explain something, I sit with the trees, and I feel into what they are in order to understand what they are. And I feel that that's a much more comprehensive and holistic way of understanding something. And that's how we cultivate presence. And it's in that space of presence and silence, that we can start that process of personal development. So personal development, for me, is water in presence. And not only because it's vital, but because it's fluid. It's liminal. Personal development is a liminal space of liquid newness, and you can shape it the way you want. Nothing is static, nothing is unchangeable. It's the very possibility of changing. That is one of the greatest gifts that were given when we come into this world. And it's the very thing that we are constantly invited to explore. Because the only thing that's certain is temporarily temporary. And so temporary temporality I'm struggling with this word today is that realm of possibilities of change everything changes in life I love using biomimicry to, to navigate the world. This biomimicry for those who are not familiar with the term is it's to imitate nature. When we observe nature, it's constantly changing. And so change is an intrinsic, intrinsic aspect of who we are. Personal development is that now, what I do with that is up to me, I can sit in comfort, and just watch these possibilities pass in front of me. Or I can sit and observe those possibilities. From a perspective of taking them and turning them into something else. It's always about the possibility to transform into something more whole, or I don't want to use the word better, because I think it's very dualistic. But going back to wholeness is probably the idea that I want to explore.
Agi Keramidas 53:13
Thank you. And one quick hypothetical question. Let's say you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self, what's one piece of advice you would give her? If you would,
Barbara Lima 53:27
I would tell her that she can relax. She can relax, everything will be more than okay. I would tell her that. Abundance is her birthright. And it's a realm of infinite it's a shared realm of infinite possibilities. And in that realm of infinite possibilities, she will find herself even though at that time, she feels like she doesn't belong. The not belonging. The feeling of not belonging is exactly what's going to take her back to herself and that she can just relax. She doesn't she doesn't have to take things so seriously. She has she can have some fun. You know? That's what I would tell her just relax. Everything would be okay.
Agi Keramidas 54:27
I can relate in the thing. Maybe people can relate with that piece of advice, that specific one. Barbara, what is the best place for people to connect with you and find out more about you?
Barbara Lima 54:43
I would say LinkedIn is a very good space. Other than that, I spent nearly two years away from social media in general. But I'm slowly going back to Instagram so Instagram is another space that I started cultivating again, where I'm sharing a bit of what I've learned along the way, with the intention to inspire and serve as Lighthouse wherever possible. And explore my voice, which is something I've been focusing on a lot in the last few months.
Agi Keramidas 55:23
But I want to thank you very much this, I've really enjoyed the conversation. And there were some aspects in their belief. They were very valuable. Any last parting words?
Barbara Lima 55:37
I just want to thank you for the invitation. Once again, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. I find your presence very soothing, very regenerative. And so I really appreciate it. And yes, I just hope that what we've discussed, has brought light and inspiration and maybe sparked a question within someone out there. And that that question will start a process of stepping into that space of change and transformation.
Agi Keramidas 56:18
I hope you enjoyed listening and that you got a huge amount of value from today's episode. If you have, please share this episode with someone who you think will benefit from it. If you want to know more about what I do, visit my website. AGIKERAMIDAS.COM. And until next time, stand out don't fit in!