Health and Land "Management"

Do we not trust nature to do what she already knows exactly how to do? When we say land management and health care do we actually mean industrial interventions that ensure profit? It is a form of manipulation rather than a working-with relationship. Why do we need to manage the divine force of life? 

We do not trust the soil to balance the bugs and weeds. We do not trust the forests to burn in ways that burst into new eras of biodiversity. We do not trust our immune systems to tolerate the environment we live in. We see the small life as the bad guys, the pathogens that make us all sick (these are all just life forms that are crucial to harmony and evolution). But just like in Hollywood and politics, we do not like bad guys, and we know what to do with them. We need to eliminate them and then everything will be fine. 

I can see why, for every time nature causes alarm in our lands or our bodies, we experience the unpleasantries of lost property, life upheaval, and pain. We see that our security never was there. We are thrown in discomfit and uncertainty. We use military language to address health and natural crisis: defeat, fight, kill, combat, beat, knock out, conquer etc.

How have we come so far as to not trust life?

Are we at war? We certainly act like it. We live in a cultural paradigm that accepts the idea that nature is what makes us sick and causes us suffering. It is to blame for the imbalance. We must control it in order to prosper.

Yet, no matter how many mechanisms of control we implement, our problems seems to grow, our lands break down, and we get sicker. So we invent more solutions that distance us even further from the cause, and from the mechanisms of life. But the bad guy is not a germ. It is not a forest fire. The degenerative force is much more subtle, and much more insidious. It is a zeitgeist. It is our approach. 

How we treat our lands and how we treat our bodies are much the same. The control and sterilization practices are what set the ground for the monumental disbiosis we are experiencing. Our bodies and our environments have been stripped of their biodiversity and therefore do not have the balanced resources to handle “invaders.” The more we control, the more we constrict the flow of life. Life will always find ways to express itself, and through this paradigm of control and toxification, we will see these expressions as threats to our ways. Sure, they are warning signs, for they are symptoms of the toxic world we have created. They are not the problem, but they point us to the problem, and therefore the solution. 

We created this mess and we can undo it. But, we will have to let go of everything we have been told to believe. We will have to listen very deeply to the profound wisdom of the earth and her stewards. We will have to trust that when we are sick, it is an offering towards better health and balance. There is a lesson that leads to expansion of consciousness. We will never find health for ourselves or the planet if we continue to be at war with nature. We will never find health by eliminating what perpetuates balance. Go hug a tree, eat some dirt, and skinny dip in that alpine lake. Remember what aliveness feels like. 

Inherent Connections between Racial and Environmental Justice

We need to decompartmentalize these issues.

Environmental justice occurs when people are protected from environmental harms and have access to goods regardless of status. It happens when humans are not creating more harm than good, and when they are not subject to the harms that other humans have caused. Empowering indigenous communities is at the heart of environmental justice. They are the ones with the wisdom. They are the ones we took everything from in order to create massive imbalance, that we still turn a blind eye to in the name of progress, modern medicine, and capital. When science makes a discovery suggesting an ancient/lost practice is good for your health….we are “surprised” and praise modern tools for their accomplishments, rather than lifting up the communities from which this wisdom lies.  Steadfast knowledge that has existed far longer than our country itself has been erased. We cannot go forward in unity and harmony without diving deeply and humbly back into that wisdom of spirit and dirt.

Western society sees the human community as separate from nature. It does not comprehend  how division from homelands, spiritual and physical roots, leads to great imbalance in people, place, culture, and creates massive consequences for all. Traditional stewards of the land know that the health of these elements are greatly interwoven. 

Yet, indigenous stories are turned over to anthropological and cultural categories, and challenged by hard science as a way to accredit or denounce the tales. This is to say that they were not truths in themselves, with lessons and guidance forward. So, to “prove” their stories, BIPOC turn to scientific tools that were originally meant to exclude them. Even philanthropy and funding requires BIPOC people to justify the worth of their people and beliefs. It makes the colonizers the heroes if they choose to support. 

Programs and policies designed by western paradigms are often not fit to address the needs for community or environmental revival. They are part of a complex modern barrier that uses metrics to measure data, and determine if money is well-spent. They often put economic contribution before truth, especially if that truth is mysterious and controversial. Metrics are a very impersonal, one-dimensional way to evaluate complex situations that do not fit into a single category. What if these systems decided to really listen stories of impact, rather than just measure them? What if we created systems of trust? What if we chose to believe those who came before us? When was the last time you heard a story from a BIPOC without trying to prove its truth?

The environment is far more complicated than metrics.

It is comprised of energetically harmonizing ecosystems. 

When communication between environment and people breaks down, systemic disease sets in. Compartmentalization of these issues perpetuates disconnection of land and people, and therefore disharmony. “Experts” of specific issues disjoint the big picture, and limit real conversations, leaving the indigenous people out. This creates fragmented discussions with issue-bound prerequisites and alienates traditional stewards from civic engagement and decision-making. 

In order to move forward we need to grow and strengthen social and cultural infrastructure that empowers traditional ecological knowledge. We must support indigenous people and practices that hold a worldview inherently tied to the land that gives us life. We need to perpetuate this work in order to capture its truth and heal the great imbalances that are upon us. 

Cutting Open the Collective Unconscious

The collective unconscious has been infected with patriarchy. Thousands of years of unconscious material needs to be revealed. Now all the toxic puss of that infection is getting squeezed to the surface and we must look at the perversion we have collectively created. All of the untruths are being exposed. The falsehoods stripped away. Everything we have suppressed, lied about, ignored is being felt.  This isn’t just a global phenomenon. This is happening on a very personal level for us, which makes it ever-more powerful, and difficult.

How did we get here? With these people in power? How did these psychotic clouds of lies contaminate us? So contaminated that we are made to believe we are clean. 

Darkness/shadow is what I call the parts that have been denied light by means of neglect. What will we do with our freewill to face our shadows? Will we transcend the limiting boundaries of culture and ego? Or will we continue to let life happen to us, as if we are only here to participate in the decay?

The soul is an instrument of truth. We are designed to know balance, and to be guided toward health. Yet, the collective has undergone an accumulation of choices that have thrown off the laws of nature, and we have been directed against each other. We have been convinced that someone else is the source of our pain, rather than taking ownership of who we are, and being willing to look at our darkness. We have learned to hord, rather than gather what we need. We have learned to protect and measure, rather than trust. 

“I can’t breathe.” The infectious lies are cuttings us off from laws of nature. The life-giving force of prana, breath, internal life, the Law of One. 

We have been living in the yang world of extroverted conquering, dominance, and suppression. What about the yin? The dark half of the dynamic duo? The part we have denied, the unseen, the inner life that leads to profound expansion? These energies need each other. We live in a polarized world, yet we are interdependent. We exist within each other. 

The social isolation has forced us to look inward and feel the unconscious parts of ourselves that we could push aside before routine was interrupted. We are awakening to the evolutionary need. We will solve our problems by co-creating. By listening. When we realize that we live in a very generous universe. When we celebrate someone else’s abundance, joy, love, rights, accomplishments because we realize they are extensions of our own.

So we must do our inner work and get clear about who we are.  We must tap into our root energy of belonging and support. We must understand the transformative truths of what we have suppressed. We must be humble. We must be gentle with ourselves to handle the profound shifts of our home planet. 

Creative Power in Times of Uncertainty

There is a lot going on in the personal level, and in the collective: 

Energy vampirism, deception, manipulation, half-truths, distractions, fear, hope. We struggle with what to believe, even if it is something we have put much of our faith in before.

SO MUCH CONFUSION! 

This is so Gemini. Back and forth. This or that. Polarity. Perhaps we are at the height of this human illusion of separation. We say we are in this together, AND we are becoming more and more separated. Yet, the lines are blurring between personal and social identities. Perhaps it is not either or, but in fact it all exists. Perhaps we can accept that we do not need, and cannot have clarity right now. So then what?

Now is a time to hold your truth more than ever. There is so much out there that tries to convince us what to believe. 

What makes you feel powerful and the core of your being?

Staying creative and centered in your personal power is a sweet medicine for times of uncertainty. 

When you are creating, you enter the intuitive flow that the intellect cannot control. Your energy begins to flow again, and congestion melts. 

When you are in your center, you feel that you are co-creating your life with spirit, rather than having life happen to you. You sense your power to choose.

So, what do you do every day that is creative?

Gemini air loves to play, even if you aren’t “good” at what you are doing. 

• Put on some music and dance! 

• Bring out your old watercolors you’ve kept in storage all those years (I did this recently!)

• Doodle!

• Talk to the birds and the flowers. They are listening!

• Make a vision board.

• Soak up all the sensations of spring air, colors, sounds.

• I have been collecting fallen blooms and arranging them in bowls.

An exercise for truth:

Imagine blue light filling up your entire body. Blue is the color associated with the throat chakra, and how we express our truth. Let yourself fill up with this comforting vibration. Notice all the blues you come across in your days. Paint with blue. Hold a lapis lazuli and invite it to work with you. 

True desires will manifest, even if you are a mess. Your soul still knows what you want. There is a very big picture going on, and your light ripples into the matrix just as much as anything else. 

Self-care is the True Healthcare

Let’s face it: We have been taught not to love ourselves. We have been taught to produce for the economic machine and to give to others, rather than to receive and reflect. We push off the important, for what appears to be the urgent. When our intuition tells us to tend to our hearts, we feel shame and guilt for putting ourselves first. No wonder self-care is not a priority, for we have lost sight of our eternal, divine being-ness. We let others choose for us.

This life-force, infinite creator, higher Self, or whatever you call it, is essentially LOVE.

Love is medicine.

Love is what expands existence and potential. The more we expand, the more we realize that we have so many options, and that we are not meant to live within the confines to shame and unworthiness. Within this new space, our energy has the opportunity to find balance. Balance is health. No institution can tell us how to find our own unique balance. 

During this time of global pandemic, self-care is a partially interesting topic. Some are faced with the increased stress of working the front lines, while others are at home with more time on their hands than desired. In all cases, we must ask: how do I maintain my wellbeing? Have I lost sight of my own life? My hope is that we are realizing that our health is our greatest wealth.

Planet Earth is the ultimate example of self-care. She knows how to heal herself. She keeps doing so, even as humans work against her. She calls upon her resources without hesitation, and keeps astonishing us with her resilience. As earthlings, we can be like her because we are part of her. 

So, I encourage you to take back the reigns on social programming, fate, and genetics. What can you do to make yourself feel more balanced? For five minutes? For a few hours? For the long haul? It doesn’t have to be monumental or glamorous, but a tool, and eventually a habit, that brings you back to yourself.  

It is amazing what just 5, 10, or 20 minutes can do.  It doesn’t have to be serious, it can be silly. It can be mundane. It can be radical. Learn to love and enjoy yourself, even in the smallest ways. 

Let yourself be surprised!

Questions of Embodiment

Wow are we swirling around in our heads these days. Feeling with the unknown has an effect on how we see ourselves, as individuals, humans, and society. We are grieving the old ways of self and security, and having to tap into different resources to keep us feeling safe and centered. 

We cannot escape the world, but we can let go of our grip on the outer world to find steadiness in our own power. 

This does not have to be monumental, but it is a process of bringing you back to yourself.

“There is no real security except for whatever you build inside yourself.” -Gilda Radner

So rather than being stuck in our meaning-making heads, how do we connect with the entirety of ourselves and allow for the unknown to exist? Our intellect can only makes since of things based on our past experiences, but it knows nothing of the future, or of your heart, unless you are bringing your soul into the conversation. 

Body. Embodiment. Feel. 

So rather than me giving suggestions, I want to ask:

• What does it feel like to be embodied?

• What does it feel like to be grounded?

• How do you find groundedness?

• Do you want to be grounded?

• How can does groundedness lead to expansion?

• What does it feel like to dissociate?

• When does this happen?

• Are you trying to escape something?

  (Recognizing your dissociation is a critical step in becoming embodied. noticing your sensations is a path to indisputable truths of who you are.) 

• How can you be embodied even if you are not grounded?

• How can you listen to your body without guilt or shame?

• What feels good in your body and how do you experience pleasure?

• How and where does pain arise?

• What signals does your body give you and how do you listen to them?

These are constant conversations and I have as I navigate my own energy and how I meet the outer world. Please reach out to continue this conversation with me!

Don’t feel like practicing today?

I don’t blame you. There is a strong inertia effect going on…we are stuck in our house more, wondering when this will end, and trying to digest all the noise of the outer world.

This can make it hard to get going due to a strange combination of lethargy and anxiety. The inner monologue is extra chatty. How do we spend our energy so that we feel balanced and focused on our own lives? 

My greatest suggestion is:

Just start moving. Get your energy flowing….chances are you will like to continue!

In the yoga realm, what I tend to do is begin moving in gentle ways. I may be on all-fours, on my back, or my belly. I notice my breath but I am not focused so much on synching it with my movement. I make strange noises. I sigh a lot. When I feel the urge to pause or rest, I do. I let my energy settle. I stay there until I get the impulse to move again. After a while I may even introduce some muscular strength as feel more awakened. 

This turns into a juicy embodied flow that not only get my energy unstuck, but it delightfully gets me out of my head. Even if for just a few minutes, I am simply enjoying my body in motion. Most of the time the shapes I make don’t even resemble traditional yoga postures. I’m not working on alignment. I playing with presence. You can’t think about what is coming next when you are here. Let your felt sense lead you. 

Perhaps it will turn into a full-blown practice, or perhaps it will serve as a mini break from the weight of life.  Wherever it takes you, I hope it helps clear your slate and return to “real life” feeling more centered and bright. 

The Spiritual Crisis of Separation

The crisis that you will not hear on the news is that people are feeling worthless because they are not producing. The global pandemic has people out of work and many out of income. Through the ages we have become a society that tricks us into believing that we are valuable if we can produce “stuff” and consume “stuff.” We must participate in the economy to be a respectable human. Is that why we are here? To produce and consume?

We have separated about as far as we can from our humanity. We have forgotten that “worthiness” shouldn’t even be something to consider, because we just are. We have been convinced to put aside our greater calling and our joy to feed someone else’s bottomless appetite for power. The shame of not fitting in this box keeps us even further from our personal power. So how do we disentangle this mess, especially when our mental patterns work to serve others’ narcissism?

We start small. We recognize our power to choose and choose again in our daily lives. Now I choose joy. Now I choose peace. Now I appreciate the glories of spring. Now I choose to do five minutes of yoga. Now I choose to smile at someone beneath my face mask and hope they see it in my eyes. This light of yours will likely dim and brighten, but with commitment it will grow and grow. Others will feel it. Then they will begin to feel their own. Your light will be the healing virus.

We have reached the peak of individuality and separation. We as crested waves must crash back into the ocean to togetherness. Millenia of separating from togetherness, to tribes, to clans, to families, to selves, we must integrate our unique discoveries to serve each other. This is where we have the choice to learn our lesson to help our people and help our planet. Otherwise we try to go back to business as normal, where we continue to neglect our live-giving resources and face more and more viruses. How will we use our freewill? How you use your light is where you power resides.