What If Systems Change Starts With Inner Work? | School of Radical Imagination, Ep. 4

What if the biggest barrier to change isn't the systems we live within, but the systems that live within us? Educator and leadership coach Lena Papadopoulos joins Progress Reimagined to talk about shadow work: reconnecting with the parts of ourselves we learned to push down in order to belong. We explore why people cling to hate, why she sees binary thinking as a trauma response, how the ego protects us from seeing the harm we cause, and how a pattern inside one person can repeat all the way up to conflict between countries. Lena is an award-winning educator and leadership coach who works at the intersection of personal and collective liberation, and the host of Leadership That Liberates. Take her course, Tending to the Roots of Conflict in a Divided World, at the School of Radical Imagination. Starts October 6. Applications close September 30, and spots are limited. Use code PROGRESSREIMAGINED10 for 10% off (new students only). Course: https://www.radicalimagination.school... Lena's website: https://www.lenapapadopoulos.com/ Lena on LinkedIn: LinkedIn: lena-papadopoulos Leadership That Liberates: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Chapters 00:00 Why we cling to hate 00:24 Introduction 01:24 The systems that live within us 02:43 What liberation means 03:45 What is shadow work? 05:08 What people get wrong about shadow work 06:30 How inner patterns repeat at every scale 07:34 Why this work matters more than we think 09:17 Binary thinking as a trauma response 11:04 Compassion and accountability: Lena's story 14:10 Shadow work in everyday life 18:22 Self reflection or overthinking? 19:55 The ego as protector 21:41 How we build a less divided world 23:43 Her course: Tending to the Roots of Conflict 25:47 What to say to skeptics 27:44 Why blaming the system isn't enough 29:51 Bringing this work into schools 31:27 A vision for a more liberated world 32:45 Performing confidence: Kathleen's story 34:09 Two questions to start shadow work today 35:15 Where to find Lena Progress Reimagined explores innovative ideas, technologies and emerging economic models that put humanity and our planet first. This episode is part of the School of Radical Imagination Special Edition. Subscribe: / @progressreimagined Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: ACABR7DSNIBCQWDZ, LI7QRRJ7RLIPRKTV #ShadowWork #SystemsChange #ProgressReimagined