Setting a Path Towards a Relational Fellowship
The Institute of Relational Being (IRB) Fellowship is bringing forth an alternative, emergent path for fellows to embark on. This pathway is a process, closely aligned with the principles of relationality, ecological awareness, and holistic well-being. Fellows navigate this journey in collaboration with their multi-species ecological community.
Holistic Well-Being:
The IRB Fellowship emphasizes holistic well-being, recognizing that personal rhythms, cycles, and ecological context are all intertwined with self-care as individuals, while also embracing that we are engaging in a shared journey with its own energy and processes. The individual, the group, and our multi-species ecological communities are all essential aspects of a fellow's journey. It encourages fellows to embrace a co-becoming along with their own well-being as they engage in relational practices.
Fluid Duration:
While the IRB Fellowship will establish a traditional structure for starting and completing a fellowship, it will also lean into and remain open to a flexible approach to duration. IRB recognizes that relational learning and transformation may not fit within rigid timelines. Therefore, fellowships can, and likely will extend beyond traditional or rigid timeframes, allowing for deeper, more nuanced experiences.
Relationship-Centric Outcomes:
While traditional fellowships often emphasize tangible deliverables, the IRB Fellowship places a greater emphasis on the transformational outcomes of relational engagement. These outcomes may not always be quantifiable but are no less valuable. These outcomes might manifest through personal healing, grief tending, or artistic expressions that are not meant to be publicly shared.
Rather than limited networking opportunities, the IRB Fellowship encourages fellows to form inclusive networks that extend beyond their immediate fields. These networks may encompass diverse perspectives, cultures, and expertise. This is an invitation and encouragement, yet not a mandatory part of the fellows’ process. It is an invitation towards leadership that invites external agencies into the process.
Inclusive Networks:
Multispecies Awareness:
Unlike traditional fellowships that primarily focus on human-centric endeavors, the IRB Fellowship has an integrally important process of enhancing our multispecies awareness. Fellows are encouraged to explore their relationships with the rest of nature, and the cosmos beyond, as a participatory process of ecological, and cosmic engagement and entanglement.
Mutual Support:
The IRB Fellowship promotes mutual support among fellows, fostering a sense of kinship and shared purpose. Fellows are welcomed into a role of giving and receiving, being able to provide encouragement and accountability to one another in both personal and professional endeavors. This process will be similar to a mycorrhizal network with fruiting fungal bodies. Where all fellows are in supportive relationships with each other, while also having certain times where the energy and focus is directed at one individual (the fruiting body).
Eco-cosmic Perspectives:
The IRB Fellowship integrates an eco-cosmic perspective, recognizing the interconnectedness of all beings as part of a living planet. This encourages fellows to explore how they can contribute to regenerative practices within the ecosystem they are a part of. This is done in part while practicing processes of attuning to the cycles of the seasons, the lunar cycles, and importantly, the cycles of their own bodies.
Personal Relational Transformation:
Personal transformation and our relationship with a broader context of self-awareness (as part of living systems and multispecies ecological relationships) are central to the IRB Fellowship journey. Fellows are invited to explore their own relational identities and how these identities shape their interactions with the rest of the living world we are part of.