💡Regeneration Isn’t a Technique — It’s a Way of Being
Weekly Lightbulb: Reflections from the Regenesis TRP Program
This week’s Lightbulb email, is about what I learned from the Regenerative Practitioner Training with Bill Reed and Regenesis. I thought I was going to learn about regenerative development practices, and instead realized, what we were being taught, was a completely new way of being and relating to our external world.
Over the past 9 months, myself and 20 or so peers from Costa Rica and around the world, were immersed in the Regenesis TRP program. It wasn’t just a course on theory — it was a re-wiring of how I understand myself, my work, and my relationship to my external context and the rich tapestry of the living world around me.
Here are a few of the most powerful lessons that landed for me:
1. Regeneration isn’t about minimizing harm — it’s about maximizing life.
Where sustainability aims to slow down the damage, regeneration asks: How can we create more vitality, more resilience, more beauty than was here before?
Regeneration is inherently cross-disciplinary because life itself refuses to be boxed in. Ecology, psychology, architecture, planning — all must be in conversation.
2. We are part of nature, not separate from it.
The story we’ve inherited — that humans and nature are distinct — is false. Regenerative practice invites us back into participation with life’s cycles, as co-creators, not conquerors. To build with nature, not master it.
3. Every place, every community is a living system.
Instead of treating projects like problems to solve, we learn to see them as evolving, breathing entities. The work becomes about helping life systems fulfill their potential, not imposing fixes from the outside.
Rather than trying to "fix everything," regenerative practice teaches us to find systemic leverage points — the places where a small, conscious act can ripple through an entire system.
4. Regeneration starts by seeing potential, not problems.
One of the most beautiful shifts for me was learning to look at any project or situation — not by diagnosing what’s wrong — but by asking: What’s trying to happen here? What latent potential wants to be realized? It's about suspending judgment and choosing curiosity. Asking more questions. Living in a state of wonder rather than rushing to conclusions.
5. We are part of a greater whole.
Every project, every place, every person is embedded in larger living systems.
Our real work is helping the system see itself more clearly — and grow its capacity to regenerate, adapt, and evolve.
6. Regeneration is not about learning — it’s about practicing.
In TRP, the goal wasn't simply to accumulate knowledge. It was to grow our capacity through practice. Through being in the work, again and again, until new patterns of seeing and being take root.
7. True change requires true commitment.
No amount of technical expertise can replace genuine care and responsibility. Working regeneratively asks me to grow as a person. It demands a different way of seeing, a different level of listening, and a humility toward life’s complexity that no checklist can replace.
8. Nature already knows how to heal.
Our job is not to control but to remove obstacles and create conditions where self-healing and self-organizing processes can thrive — whether it’s a river, a community, or a community.
9. Think on multiple levels — and notice your state of being.
Regenerative work isn’t just tactical. It’s about how we show up.
Am I approaching life from my habitual self — reactive, defensive, rushed?
Or from my needed self — open, creative, deeply present to what life is asking for right now?
10. Regeneration is a living, evolving practice.
It’s not a method you master once. It’s a way of being that keeps evolving, deepening, and adapting as you and the world around you change. It’s a way of participating in the ongoing unfolding of life — with humility, courage, and creativity
In closing: The Regenesis TRP didn’t just teach me about regeneration.
It invited me into a different way of being — one grounded in potential, curiosity, and co-evolution.
A new orientation toward possibility, partnership, and participation with life. And I can feel that this way of seeing will continue to unfold in everything I touch — from land projects, to community building, to my own inner growth.
Regeneration is not something we "do" to the world.
It’s something we become together with it.
Curious about the Regenesis TRP or regenerative practice? Feel free to reach out — always happy to share more about the journey.
I’d love to invite you to check out the Land Steward Alliance - where we meet monthly as a community to discuss our land projects and our lives with a collective of project founders, experts on the ground, and peers looking to not walk alone in this journey. We’re stronger together!
I’d also love to hear from you so reply to this email or schedule a chat!
To a mutually beneficial future,
Ed
