Nina Simons
on being a Bioneer and Balance in Leadership
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon believe that “the bird of humanity” has two wings: male and female. It has flown on the first one for far too long. It is time for the feminine to fully join the masculine so that the bird can fly in balance, in full splendour.
Nina Simons is the voice of balance. A woman passionate about social and cultural healing, female leadership, Mother Earth, Indigeneity, and igniting peoples’ capacity to act on behalf of whatever they love most and feel in service to.
Her new book, “Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership” was born out of a deep yearning to reinvent and reclaim a new form of leadership. Nina felt conflicted when hearing people calling her a leader, so she began unpacking her unconscious stories, roles, cultural biases or societal definitions that were contributing to the discomfort she was feeling. That is when she started noticing that leadership was based upon a social assumption of competition, hierarchy and scarcity: “appearances, stature, scale and outer achievement were much more highly honoured in leaders than inner awareness, mindfulness, integrity or deep listening.”
How can we be authentic leaders, though? Nina guides us: “I suggest bringing yourself to it with all the wisdom of your magnificent body, the knowing of your heart, your intellect, and your intuition. Bring all of yourself. Trust that exactly who you are is what is needed at this moment in the world and that you are enough in every way to meet this assignment. Do this not because it’s right, not because it’s needed, but because it is the most joyful, purposeful and fulfilling way to live your life.”
Bioneers is the place where Nina brings together visionary and inspiring leaders who share practical solutions for healing our relations with ourselves, each other and Gaia. Creative and collaborative, curious and courageous, humble and passionate beings who merge the rational with the intuitive. “Bioneer” is a word that applies to all of us. Anyone working toward healing our relationship with Earth in thousands of different ways. We each have a role to play, we can all be Bioneers if we choose to be: "all our contributions, all our collective creativity and imagination are needed to reinvent this world.”
Read Nina Simons’s answers for Inspirators and join her in this journey of exploration. But first, give yourself permission to fall in love: "Fall in love with a place, with a person, a cause, a creature, anything that lights you up. Then give yourself to it in some sort of purposeful action. You don’t have to know what that means exactly or have it strategically mapped out in advance. You just have to commit to being its ally, to acting to protect or improve its life.”
Thank you, Nina, for being a Bioneer!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Nina Simons
Company / Institution: Bioneers/CHI
Title: Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer
Website: Bioneers.org and ninasimons.com
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-simons/
Country of origin: USA
Country you currently live in: USA
Your personal definition of Regeneration: Finding our way back into the right relationship with ourselves, each other and the Earth, which generates equity, love, joy, light and healing.
Main business challenge you face: Limiting what I say yes to, and – due to my big heart and some patterns I’m working to shed - shifting my own habits of over-committing.
Main driver that keeps you going: My love of this world, and of so many of the people in it. And my love of learning, it’s a never-sated hunger in me.
The traits you are most proud of in yourself: My perseverance, authenticity and humility.
The traits you most value in others: Honesty, congruence and humility.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: Feeding birds, walking in wildlands, seeing deer, learning from nature’s mentorship.
The #inspirators who determined you to take the regenerative path:
Terry Tempest Williams
Adrienne Maree Brown
Octavia Butler
Alice Walker
Joy Harjo
Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining)
Lyla June
A hint or starting point for companies or professionals that are taking the first steps in the regeneration journey: Trust the ideas or visions that wrap around your heart, and won’t let you go.
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you: "We’ve got to save the Earth". She doesn’t need saving, it’s our species, and lots of others, that are in danger/endangered, by our own denial and complicity.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope: Invest in your longing that lives in a chamber behind your heart, and it will help draw to you your next clear step. Choose your friends well. Love yourself and them well!
Books that had a great impact on you:
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams
Joy Harjo’s poetry
No One Is Here Except All Of Us by Ramona Ausubel
Must-reads for any regenerative professional:
Intelligence in Nature by Jeremy Narby
Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future by Melissa K. Nelson
Movies or Documentaries you would watch all over again: Patch, It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Burial, The Elephant Man, Philadelphia, Barbie, Oppenheimer.
Blogs / Websites / Podcasts you visit frequently: On Being; Bioneers-Revolution from the Heart of Nature.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: Rising Appalachia, Robbie Robertson, Allison Russell, Michael Franti, Aretha Franklin, MaMuse, WildChoir, David Grisman, Alison Krauss.
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: All of the islands of Hawaii, Venice, London, the Grand Canyon, Costa Rica.
Global Regenerative Voices you recommend us to follow:
Gabor Mate
Bayo Akomolafe
Pat McCabe - Woman Stands Shining
Lyla June Johnston
Trends in Regeneration we should keep an eye on: Rights of Nature, Native + non-Native Collaborations to defend nature, Birth Justice, Traditional Ecological Knowledge leading the Feds, Workers’ Rights, Intersections where justice, earth repair and unusual coalitions are forming.
Best places for business networking (online or offline): If business is movement-building, then Bioneers and Solidaire and Othering and Belonging conferences.
Events we should attend: Othering & Belonging offerings; the annual Bioneers conference.
Associations, business clubs, tribes you belong to – and why: Solidaire, Women Donors Network and of course, Bioneers. To meet kindred spirits, to influence philanthropy, to connect with mentors and collaborators and to make new friends.
Sustainable Development or Regeneration courses, trainings, or certifications that really teach us how to have an impact: Anything offered on the Bioneers Learning platform, as we must both act on behalf of the world we want and continue to cultivate ourselves to meet the challenges of this time.
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030: Youth leadership and civic engagement, and the immense groundswell of grassroots movements and innovative strategies emergent for climate justice and transforming our culture and worldview, that share much in their common vision. The uprising of strong women into local governance, entrepreneurship, think tanks and organizing. And the intergenerational transfer of wealth. The young people get it.
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: The rise in authoritarianism and violence to retain power, the war machine and how reinforced it is in media and governance, and the power that corporate monopolies have in our government today.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Relational intelligence, flexibility, humility, discomfort resilience and openness to new ideas and to sharing power.
The #inspirator you are endorsing for a future edition of the newsletter is: Valerie Kaur
The quote that inspires you:
“The key to a life well lived is to use your suffering well.”
Your own quote that will inspire us:
