1 May 2026 · 00:33:15
We Are Kapwa: How We Forgot to Belong and How to Remember with Lana Jelenjev
Guest: Lana Jelenjev
Episode 51 · 00:33:15
We Are Kapwa: How We Forgot to Belong and How to Remember with Lana Jelenjev
Show notes
What does it mean to truly belong - not as an individual seeking acceptance, but as part of an interconnected whole?
In this episode, Sara Rego speaks with Lana Jelenjev, a Filipina facilitator and systems thinker based in the Netherlands, whose work sits at the intersection of nervous system literacy, belonging, and organizational transformation.
Lana introduces us to kapwa - the Filipino value of seeing our shared humanity - and pakikiramdam, the practice of deep sensing and empathy. She explores why so many of our modern systems were built on trauma responses, and what it would look like to build for flourishing instead.
Together, Sara and Lana discuss:
• Why belonging is not something we need to find - it's something we need to remember
• How ancestral grief and intergenerational trauma shape our nervous systems and our institutions
• The "sandwich generation" navigating between hyper-individualism and collective roots
• Healing-centered responses: stop, soften, flock, flow, and surrender - as alternatives to fight or flight
• What the Filipino concept of kapwa can teach us about building life-centered organizations
If you've ever felt the weight of living in a world that moves too fast and connects too little, this conversation offers both a diagnosis and a path forward.
"Settled bodies settle bodies." - Lana Jelenjev
If you want to learn more about Lana's work, please visit her website.
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