Essential #1 - Resources

Every element of our environment—physical, social, cultural, digital, and cosmic—can be understood as a resource. This includes everything: the materials and energies of our planet, the sun, the wider universe, and ourselves: our bodies, time, skills, attention, and creativity. 

Traditionally, we’re taught to see resources as materials—wood, water, oil, minerals—things to be taken, processed, and sold. But this is a narrow and extractive definition. In truth, resources are not inherently good or bad. They can support life or cause harm, depending on how they are used and governed.

Resources include:

• The natural world:
  Everything that exists in nature, including matter and energy.
  Examples: land, air, water, plants, animals, the sun, people

• Living systems:
  The patterns and relationships among living things.
  Examples: ecosystems, cultures, families, communities

• Invisible assets:
  Intangible things that affect how systems work.
  Examples: time, attention, care, knowledge, trust, values

• Human-made creations:
  Anything people make or build.
  Examples: homes, tools, technology, art 

All of these resources—whether visible or invisible, natural or created—are deeply interconnected. The health of one affects the well-being of all. We are not separate from this web, but part of it.

As humans, we have the power to decide how we use, govern, and relate to resources. Our choices can shape resources into tools for thriving, or instruments of harm. The direction we choose will determine the kind of world we create, for ourselves and for future generations. When choosing to thrive—individually and collectively—we must redefine resources not as what we consume, but what we care for.

📝 Today’s Game:
Create your own Resource Map using the expanded New Game definition.

Step 1: List Your Resources

Write down 12 resources in your life. These can be anything you depend on or interact with regularly—material, social, invisible, or created.

Step 2: Reflect

For each resource, briefly consider:

• How do you interact with it?

• Do you treat it as a commodity (something to use) or a relationship (something to care for)?

• What might change if you approached it with care, gratitude, or reciprocity?

Step 3: Explore Categories

Review the four types of resources:

• The natural world

• Living systems

• Invisible assets

• Human-made creations

View the nested diagram that shows how these categories connect.

Step 4: Map Your Resources

Place each of your 12 resources onto the nested map. Notice where they overlap, fit in more than one category, or shift as you reflect.

If you see a category (like living systems) with no resources listed, choose another resource from your life that fits and add it to your map.

Step 5: Final Reflection

What did you notice about your relationship to different types of resources?

Did anything surprise you?

How might this awareness shape how you interact with resources in the future?