Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
7 Ways to Think Differently:
Embrace Potential, Respond to Life, Discover Abundance
by Looby Macnamara
Foreword by Dr Chris Johnstone
112 pages Paperback, with line drawings and diagrams,196 x 130mm
Published by Permanent Publications
ISBN 9781856231893
Price: £5.95 US$ 10.00
7 Ways to Think Differently explores ways to address personal, social and environmental concerns in simple practical steps in our daily lives, helping us to make incremental, achievable changes.
As well as addressing our internal landscapes, the author explains how individuals and communities can work together to achieve positive change. She also explores the current political and mainstream paradigms and where they are leading us.
Learn about:
- Abundance thinking
- Solutions thinking
- Systems thinking
- Thinking like nature
- Co-operative thinking
- Thinking for the future
- From thought to action
These ways to think differently are influential alternatives to the current mindset and can shift us to a better present, as well as setting us on a trajectory towards a better future. This is for anyone who wants to make a difference in the world. Looby offers potent medicine for a world full of challenges.
This is definitely a book with lots of food for thought and it points the path that we must go to bring about a new, better and fairer society for all of Earth's children. But, as the author shows, we have to change our mindset. Tor paraphrase Einstein: we cannot solve the worlds problems with the same kind of thinking that created them in the first place; we have to approach them from a different angle, and that is what Looby is teaching us to do.
I must take umbrage though with one item and that is where on page 85 the author talks of the “three sisters” planting of corn, squash and beans, stating that it has its origin in South American. This is rather incorrect as, in fact, this system originates with the Native Americans of the Eastern areas of what is today the USA, with the Iroquois and some related Nations.
Looby Macnamara is author of People and Permaculture, the first book to explore the application of permaculture principles and design to all aspects of our lives. Looby has taught permaculture since 2002 and is a partner in a leading teaching and consultancy partnership, Designed Visions. She is renowned for her ability to enthuse people to engage with their natural environment and inspire them, individually and collectively, to bring about positive change, both for ourselves and for the Earth.
An excellent small book that deserves a great readership and then putting the lessons into practice, which I am hoping to do with what I learned from this book.
© 2014
