Intellectual Property...

Where do we draw the line on intellectual property?

In the wellness industry much of what we create and promote is conceptual. As a collective we come together to create new ways to think about life, different ways to work with our bodies and new ideas on how to regulate our emotions.

It makes sense that if you are sharing someone else's ideas, they would want to be credited.

But at what point does someone else's idea become your own idea?

Stay with me... (I promise I am not here to promote plagiarism, or whatever the conceptual equivalent of that is).

Earlier this week I wrote a podcast episode. A few days later (and before publishing my new episode) I had a guest come onto the show and as we were recording, she started talking about all the things I had just written.

It was a little freaky, haha!

At first, I thought "Well I guess I can trash my other episode, we are covering it all with this guest..."

But after I talked myself down from the all or nothing ledge, I realized how cool it was that we had both independently come to the same knowledge, and that we both wanted to share it with the world.

The more voices we add to the chorus, the louder we get, right?

Who is to say that my guest and I understand things in the exact same way?

Everyone is a unique individual with our own unique way of viewing the world. When we interact with a new concept, we take that in and process it in a way that makes sense within our own experience of the world.

So every time someone shares a concept, it's filtered through their unique thought process.

Perhaps, through their unique lens, they were able to expand on that concept in a way the original person wouldn't have the ability to do?

When you think about sharing concepts in this manner, the idea that each unique individual can add and expand onto a concept, it's easy to see how collaborative this industry can be.

It doesn't have to be about creating a new concept and claiming it as your own. It's about sharing what's in your mind and getting a deeper understanding through the thoughts of others.

We get more done, and heal more wounds, when we work collaboratively, rather than work to protect our own intellectual property.