Interbeing and Your Career

I'm obsessed with the prefix "inter" because it means between. So, every time I find a new word that starts with "inter," I get giddy.

Today's new words are: inter-be, interbeing, and inter-are.

“To be” is always to “inter-be” - Thich Nhat Hanh

My invitation to you this week is to remember your interbeing- reflect on the idea that how you are and what you experience (in life and in work) is created by infinite other expressions around you.

Your parents, your colleagues, the seasons, the weather, the food you eat today, the music you hear on Spotify right now, the chair you're sitting on...are all a part of you. There is no independent entity.

Thich Nhat Hanh explains interbeing this way:

"If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are." (Read the full excerpt here).

"We inter-are with one another and with all life."

When we realize we can inter-be, we experience incredible connection and let got of the idea that we have separate selves. This applies to all of life and to our work.

WHY INTERBEING MATTERS

Interbeing is a profound way to experience life. I bring up these terms because they help us explain and express who we are. They give us other ways of communicating our interconnectedness and hybridity.

Have you noticed how you are interbeing in your life or career recently?

You "are" because of everything around you and everything that's come before you.

When you look at your actions at work or at home, can you see the presence of past experiences, past teachers, ancestors or other skills you have being transmitted in that moment? This is recognizing your interbeing.

Being able to notice interbeing is when you see your hybridity in action.

From my personal experience and research, seeing your interconnectedness requires intense meta-awareness, reflection, and an ability to be mindful of each moment.

When you see who you inter-are, you will see your hybrid professional identity and feel more peace and freedom to be your whole self no matter what you're doing.