Indivisible: Coming Home to Our Deep Connection - Softcover

Mason, Christine Marie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0997727705 ISBN 13: 9780997727708

Publisher: Now Labs, 2016

Synopsis

There are more people living alone than at any time in history, and more depression than ever recorded. Violence to each other and ourselves continues to cast long shadows across generations. We are fragmented individually and collectively to the point of vile speech and hate crimes based on false divisions. How do we heal? How do we become more connected?

Indivisible is a transformational story of a deep human journey to the heart of connection.

Christine asks questions such as: Why are people lonely and alienated from one another? Why are people angry? Or mean? Or violent to each other? Is that reversible? Why do we lie and hide our true selves? How do we make more love and less conflict happen? Can we make a world that works better for all of us? How might we shift our internal state and the design of our communities and institutions to be happier, more connected? 

Traversing continents and walks of life, from early chaos, anger and violence, including her mother's murder - to a life of professional intensity, childrearing, and spiritual seeking, Indivisible documents a deep (10 year plus!) journey investigating our disconnection, and its ultimate expression in anger or violence.

Christine digs into the stories of people who've made magnificent transformations from their upbringing; into genetics and neuroscience; into religion. She investigates alternative ways to live together by visiting intentional communities worldwide. She goes to some extreme places - from the wilderness to the Deep South - from TED to the desert - and eventually into work with violent offenders who committed the type of crime that took her mother, as a victim's stand-in in therapeutic work.

In the process, what unfolds is this: The roots of many our behaviors come from a culturally learned disconnection: a false belief that we are separate or in competition, or valued for how we perform, when in actuality we are deeply interconnected and never alone. Indivisible examines how we might tap into our incredible ability to learn and grow - how we might hack our own evolution and change our hearts, minds and habits to create a new way of being.

About this title

From the Author

Dear Reader,

I wrote this book to share hard-won learning, in the hope of making the path easier for other people, and to accelerate collective evolution toward a more connected, less conflicted world. 


I was hoping to accomplish several things by putting my own story and the stories of others on paper, such as:

• First, that people will begin to fundamentally question our acceptance of violence in all its forms, the small and large, to self and other. It's all around us, and we just disassociate to preserve our sanity, when it's fundamentally not okay!
• Second, to trigger insights or reflections in the reader that lead to more self-love and acceptance, which is the foundation of loving and accepting others.
• Third, that readers will have a tiny bit more juice to overcome any core loneliness or depression--maybe something in these stories will prompt more authenticity, or the release of damage or doubt, or the healing of anger and violence in the self. Maybe someone will start asking the questions they may be afraid to know the answer to (e.g, do I real believe in this relationship I'm having, in this work I'm doing, in my happiness). Ultimately, to speak the truth, be oneself, without fear.
• Fourth, people begin to seek ways to connect more often. People move toward more authentic acceptance and connection with others, to find and make a truly connected tribe, and build deep community.

Thank you and happy reading - if you have any questions or want to open a dialogue, find me online or on Facebook.  

Love, 

Christine

About the Author

Christine has been a leader in the tech sector for 20 years, as the venture backed founder and CEO of several companies. She has always been a convener, bringing people together to have conversations around growth and change, and to spark action around new possibilities. She is the curator of 9 TEDxs, the convener of Naked Conversations and founder of LoveSpring.

Her own deep journey exploring anger, violence and disconnection in the aftermath of her mother's murder, early abandonment and general chaos have propelled her explorations into the interior life and capacity of the individual to heal and connect; her work as a victims' right advocate for restorative justice and prison reform; and as an investigator into the neuroscience of human evolution and behavioral change.

Christine holds a MBA from the JL Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University in Political Science, with a senior thesis in Arab Nationalism. She served in the US Army ROTC program through the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She has lived and traveled all over the world, and speaks French and German. She is a yoga teacher and musician.She's mother to 4 of her own children, and co-parent to 2 girls.

About this edition

• Publisher: Now Labs
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0997727705
• ISBN 13: 9780997727708
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220