It feels like a time of moving from a consumptive economy to an enrichment economy. That said, I am inspired to breathe life back into a long-held vision to develop a highly creative and self-sufficient community as a model and resource center for others who want to explore harmonious ways of living. My idea of this is community made up of simple individual living spaces, although if people are inspired to live in more of a collective, that's up to them. The community I have envisioned will have five primary focuses: 1) care for and education of the children; 2) food production; 3) architectural design for energy and resource efficiency with an emphasis on aesthetic beauty; 4) healing and transformational services (which includes a strong emphasis on the creative arts), and 5) consulting, communications and external project funding. The objective is to provide livelihoods for community members through these five focus areas.
I see people from all walks of life visiting this community not only to explore the idea of cooperative living, but to take part in a series of experiences which would open them up to their creative potential by reconnecting them to a part of themselves that longs to dream and to celebrate. By the way this model can easily be integrated into existing communities.
Intuitive knowing and a sense of balance within our environment has been conditioned out of many of us, or at least significantly repressed. How many of us are even the least bit aware of what our own bodies are trying to communicate to us through discomfort or illness? We have been taught not to pay attention—take a pill and it will go away, rather than exploring where our body is telling us we are out of balance. Similarly we are taught not to pay too much attention to the environmental imbalances that speak to us of a system in distress. If the water is not healthy to drink, we are sold water filters rather than being asked to look at how we are contributing to the situation.
The objective of the experiences people would go through in this community is to get them back into their bodies, so to speak, to enliven their senses and empower them to be acutely aware of how they are interacting with everything going on inside of and around them.
There could be retreat-type programs that included some or all of the following: 1) dream work and journaling; 2) body movement including five-rhythms, ecstatic or freeform dance, Tai Chi, yoga, etc.; 3) music workshops, i.e., drumming, singing, toning, etc., 4) communication workshops, i.e., consensus or team building, effective/compassionate dialoging and active listening, mediation; and 5) solo or guided wilderness quests. Body work or healing modalities geared toward accelerated release of emotional and physical blocks would also be available upon request, but would not be required.
During the course of a day, visitors would have free time to spend with members of the community whose function they were particularly interested in. For example, if someone’s profession was as an educator they might be interested in observing how that function happened in the community.
At the end of a day, people might gather around a fire to the sound of drumming to hear the storyteller weave a tale of who we are and where we have come from. Then the group would begin to develop their own story of where they want to go. By creating one’s own dream, the chances of maintaining the commitment to follow through are greatly increased.
The emphasis of the community experience would be to empower people to start from wherever they are to create a more satisfying life. Although the community itself would serve as one model, it is only that. This would not be presented as the only way to live, since it will simply not be within the reach of some of the people who come as participants. Ideally, funds will be raised to enable people from a range of social situations to come and participate and to have access to the help they need to actualize their dreams. For example, inner-city youth who are interested in taking their energy for organizing gangs and directing it another way can apply for scholarships. Once they have developed a plan or vision for how they want to enhance the communities from which they have come, staff members would be available as consultants to assist with the development of plans or to guide them to the resources they will need. It is even possible that some type of foundation could be set up as a part of the community that would provide funds for start-up projects on a limited basis.
The Community Core Center Design
Urban or suburban communities can also be enlivened and transformed with the introduction of a community core center. The model community proposed above would serve as a resource center to provide consulting services to guide people through the process of designing centers in their existing neighborhoods for the purpose of reestablishing and deepening their joyful engagement with one another. These centers would incorporate nodes that catered to the needs and interests of the members of that particular community. Existing buildings can be adapted for this purpose. In new developments, or where vacant lots exist, earth-friendly, energy-smart centers can be built. Following are some of the components that might make sense:
* A type of “general store” that would be a food co-op, carrying locally grown organic foods and also hand-crafted goods. An important aspect would also be to have a type of café or gathering space for socializing. Having live music or open-mike events further attracts people to hang out and interact, as well as creating venues for artistic expression.
* Shared gardens, both a community food garden and beautiful reflective gardens to engage the senses and for peaceful contemplation and renewal.
* A business resource center, particularly for people who have home-based businesses who would benefit from convenient access to shared equipment or services such as shipping. These can be relatively small and still serve the needs of the immediate community. It can also be a place for people to have a workspace who are visiting for a while.
* A community room for gathering to play music or have performances, meetings, classes such as yoga, dance, or celebrations of various kinds.
* In artisan communities there may be a desire for a ceramics studio or another type of workshop that people wouldn’t necessarily have room to incorporate in their home space, and would enjoy sharing with others.
* There might also be a desire for a few spa type rooms with hot tubs and space for services like massage or body work, or other healing modalities.
* There could be spaces for after school programs with the elders of the community being available for tutoring, storytelling, or childcare.
Basically, members designing the center would want to think in terms of what would draw them into the community space with others, feel nurturing, and make their life easier and more joyous.
When I think about these spaces I know that beauty draws me in, not just functionality. I suppose this would be the Feng Shui aspect of the design, or what encourages energy to flow there. Buckminster Fuller captured it when he said: “When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”
The garden aspect of the core center seems key. Personally, I like the idea of rooms or spaces that are built out around a beautiful hub—a garden that people can even walk into and sit next to a pond or small waterfall. Hot tub rooms could be situated to look onto the garden in areas that would have privacy. The café or other socializing spaces would also be enhanced by the garden. Additionally, there could be two garden spaces, one a community garden for growing food, the other aesthetic.
These centers would be supported financially both by membership fees from the community members, similar to homeowner’s association dues, and revenues generated by different aspects like the business center, café, or healing services. There may even be Bed and Breakfast pods adjoining the center for visitors coming for workshops held at the center, or just people who are interested in visiting to experience what it is like to live in one of these vibrant hubs. Additionally, initiatives could be put forward with local governments to give financial incentives for these centers since they would increase the health and well-being of their citizenry. This isn’t out of the question, since this is a common practice with large-scale development.
I also see this being a car-free center with ample bike and walking paths leading into the center, with covered, artistically enhanced walkways in between the different pods of the hub. One of the community services could be little electric shuttle carts for people who couldn’t walk or bike into the center from an outlying area.
To further enhance the healing aspect of this core center, it could be designed in line with sacred geometry principles and include things like labyrinths. There is so much creativity that could be brought to this endeavor and ultimately it is about communities thriving because money is kept local and relationships with each other and the Earth are the focal point.
Please respond if you want to join me in taking this idea further! (Or, if you already have such a thing going!)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Honoring My Body
I often wake in the morning with some type of ephiphany, perhaps resulting from soul journeys into other dimensions of consciousness, undertaken to weave together bits of information that haven't connected during waking hours.
Before jumping into what now seems ridiculously obvious, and yet still unresolved, I have to give a bit of background on how I relate to my body. For as long as I can remember I have struggled with weight issues, although I have had reprieves for periods of time when I would get everything just right in my diet and exercise routine. I was never one of those people who could maintain a stable weight for years with relatively little attention to the matter. While I gave up on ever having the "idealized female form" a long time ago, paying attention to my body for health reasons is very important.
As of the first of December I moved out of the house I was in when I began this blog. I had another temporary place to go to but not until the first of the year. I knew I was going to Colorado for Christmas and so I decided to camp in my office until I left. The combination of non-routine situations got me into some non-optimal eating habits and exercise went out the window as well. On top of that was the challenge of "holiday eating" . . . need I say more? So I'm back to square one on balancing my body and dropping the resulting weight. This part of the routine I am very familiar with, and also the fact that once I have spiraled down there seems to be a magnetic force that wants to suck me deeper into that hole. Combined with the physical weight and lethargy comes an emotional heaviness. No big surprise there either. What does amaze me is how I can still be surprised by how easy it is to change the emotional heaviness just by putting my body in motion again. Energy gets stuck and if I don't actively make a point to move it, well I stagnate . . . just like the water in a pond that doesn't circulate in some way. Okay, so far none of this is earthshaking news.
So, yesterday I was giving myself a biofeedback treatment and what popped up to be addressed was to reduce self-destructive behavior. It was a bit of a shock, but only momentarily, because I had to quickly acknowledge that despite how well I thought I was handling all of the instability I was neither exercising nor making good food choices. Hey, depression doesn't just happen, it creeps up on people slowly because we don't want to cop to the little self-destructive things that are laying a solid foundation. The biofeedback wake-up was the first bit of information that played into this morning's awareness.
The second thing that happened was when I returned "home" to the house I will be in until the spring, I had an email from the lovely folks who own the house and live upstairs telling me how much they appreciated that I respected and cared for their home more than anyone else that had ever lived here. I emailed back to say that they had invested so much of their love into the house that it would feel awful not to take care of it.
The third piece is that I have been reading The Disapperance of the Universe, which is connected to The Course in Miracles. I have spent many years engaged in spiritual dialogue that reminds us we are really spirit and not to be so identified with the body, but this book really hammers home that we are not bodies and this is all an illusion. Bear with me now as I try and quickly tie this all together.
This morning I woke feeling an emotional heaviness and I recognized the connection to the sluggishness in my body. I also saw the lack of care of my body being connected with the "self-destructive" urge to be free of the small self, or ego identity, because so much of my energy has gone into focusing on my physical reality. Perhaps all along my weight struggle has been an ego-identity battle. One part of me wanting to validate my physical existence and the other wanting to break free of what tethers me to this world. The crazy thing is that neither of these parts represents spirit, for spirit is already free.
Whether being here in this body is an illusion or not, I am having this experience and I recognize the love that is in every cell of this body that keeps it working in such a miraculous way in spite of me. I'm so sorry that for one moment, on any level of my being, I wished to be free of this, and when I return to the ultimate home I have a sense that whoever is upstairs will be grateful for how well I took care of my physical homes--both body and Earth.
Before jumping into what now seems ridiculously obvious, and yet still unresolved, I have to give a bit of background on how I relate to my body. For as long as I can remember I have struggled with weight issues, although I have had reprieves for periods of time when I would get everything just right in my diet and exercise routine. I was never one of those people who could maintain a stable weight for years with relatively little attention to the matter. While I gave up on ever having the "idealized female form" a long time ago, paying attention to my body for health reasons is very important.
As of the first of December I moved out of the house I was in when I began this blog. I had another temporary place to go to but not until the first of the year. I knew I was going to Colorado for Christmas and so I decided to camp in my office until I left. The combination of non-routine situations got me into some non-optimal eating habits and exercise went out the window as well. On top of that was the challenge of "holiday eating" . . . need I say more? So I'm back to square one on balancing my body and dropping the resulting weight. This part of the routine I am very familiar with, and also the fact that once I have spiraled down there seems to be a magnetic force that wants to suck me deeper into that hole. Combined with the physical weight and lethargy comes an emotional heaviness. No big surprise there either. What does amaze me is how I can still be surprised by how easy it is to change the emotional heaviness just by putting my body in motion again. Energy gets stuck and if I don't actively make a point to move it, well I stagnate . . . just like the water in a pond that doesn't circulate in some way. Okay, so far none of this is earthshaking news.
So, yesterday I was giving myself a biofeedback treatment and what popped up to be addressed was to reduce self-destructive behavior. It was a bit of a shock, but only momentarily, because I had to quickly acknowledge that despite how well I thought I was handling all of the instability I was neither exercising nor making good food choices. Hey, depression doesn't just happen, it creeps up on people slowly because we don't want to cop to the little self-destructive things that are laying a solid foundation. The biofeedback wake-up was the first bit of information that played into this morning's awareness.
The second thing that happened was when I returned "home" to the house I will be in until the spring, I had an email from the lovely folks who own the house and live upstairs telling me how much they appreciated that I respected and cared for their home more than anyone else that had ever lived here. I emailed back to say that they had invested so much of their love into the house that it would feel awful not to take care of it.
The third piece is that I have been reading The Disapperance of the Universe, which is connected to The Course in Miracles. I have spent many years engaged in spiritual dialogue that reminds us we are really spirit and not to be so identified with the body, but this book really hammers home that we are not bodies and this is all an illusion. Bear with me now as I try and quickly tie this all together.
This morning I woke feeling an emotional heaviness and I recognized the connection to the sluggishness in my body. I also saw the lack of care of my body being connected with the "self-destructive" urge to be free of the small self, or ego identity, because so much of my energy has gone into focusing on my physical reality. Perhaps all along my weight struggle has been an ego-identity battle. One part of me wanting to validate my physical existence and the other wanting to break free of what tethers me to this world. The crazy thing is that neither of these parts represents spirit, for spirit is already free.
Whether being here in this body is an illusion or not, I am having this experience and I recognize the love that is in every cell of this body that keeps it working in such a miraculous way in spite of me. I'm so sorry that for one moment, on any level of my being, I wished to be free of this, and when I return to the ultimate home I have a sense that whoever is upstairs will be grateful for how well I took care of my physical homes--both body and Earth.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Follow Your Heart
Attempting to convey the pure awareness from stillness into language feels like placing a first footstep onto a virgin drift of glistening snow. I cross it anyway, because I want to get you and share the experience of the beauty and, of course, in doing so I have taken away from the untouched nature that first captivated me.
I am a person "with a good mind," but perhaps there is a downside to that when one's ultimate goal is to break free from illusion. A truly good mind recognizes its own limitations and can offer its services more humbly. Mine, however, has seemed bent on contorting in every possible direction to make sense of it all, like a dog chasing its tail to exhaustion. At the same time I know that my self-identified mind will never grasp the totality of spirit, because you cannot make something concrete which by its very nature is not. To pursue the path of "reason" as an entertainment is fine, but to opt for this as the way to inner peace is less than optimal.
How then does one carry stillness into appropriate action in the world? I can only describe what happens for me as paying attention to resonance. That coupled with a return to innocent perception, or seeing with physical eyes that don't categorize based on preconceived assumptions, leaves me free of inner conflict. Do I do that all the time? No, but I certainly know what the difference feels like.
I describe resonance, which I sense in my heart-center, as a type of energetic oscillation that is expansive and deep like the ocean. It contains true, unidentified power and engenders reverence. It is also what I feel when I am physically present with the ocean of this earth. It requires nothing and it offers everything. It is indestructible and ever present, although at times it feels fragile and fleeting.
I also describe resonance as a sort of magnetic attraction. It's not a choosing based on reasoned assessment, although that doesn't need to be absent. However, the bottom line determinant for me is, Does it feel right? Does it keep the inner osciallation in accordance with the expanded state? I'm working on not needing to apologize or compromise my joy because I can't give a good reason for my choices. I'm sure everyone has been around someone who is blissfully in love and irrationally giddy about everyone and everything they encounter. How often have you thought, They'll get over it and get more real? I know the type of love described does often change, simply because it is contingent upon something outside of us, but what if "getting real" came to mean operating from resonance?
Life works best for me when I align thought and action with this inner sense of peace. I could call it my spiritual GPS. We all know it, but some have denied it more than others. I think there is a fear of how anything will get done, or move forward if reason gets tossed out the window. How will we judge right action if there are no rules to apply? I'm not too worried about it, because my experience tells me that the intelligence greater than what can be managed by my human mind will have no problem with the details.
I am a person "with a good mind," but perhaps there is a downside to that when one's ultimate goal is to break free from illusion. A truly good mind recognizes its own limitations and can offer its services more humbly. Mine, however, has seemed bent on contorting in every possible direction to make sense of it all, like a dog chasing its tail to exhaustion. At the same time I know that my self-identified mind will never grasp the totality of spirit, because you cannot make something concrete which by its very nature is not. To pursue the path of "reason" as an entertainment is fine, but to opt for this as the way to inner peace is less than optimal.
How then does one carry stillness into appropriate action in the world? I can only describe what happens for me as paying attention to resonance. That coupled with a return to innocent perception, or seeing with physical eyes that don't categorize based on preconceived assumptions, leaves me free of inner conflict. Do I do that all the time? No, but I certainly know what the difference feels like.
I describe resonance, which I sense in my heart-center, as a type of energetic oscillation that is expansive and deep like the ocean. It contains true, unidentified power and engenders reverence. It is also what I feel when I am physically present with the ocean of this earth. It requires nothing and it offers everything. It is indestructible and ever present, although at times it feels fragile and fleeting.
I also describe resonance as a sort of magnetic attraction. It's not a choosing based on reasoned assessment, although that doesn't need to be absent. However, the bottom line determinant for me is, Does it feel right? Does it keep the inner osciallation in accordance with the expanded state? I'm working on not needing to apologize or compromise my joy because I can't give a good reason for my choices. I'm sure everyone has been around someone who is blissfully in love and irrationally giddy about everyone and everything they encounter. How often have you thought, They'll get over it and get more real? I know the type of love described does often change, simply because it is contingent upon something outside of us, but what if "getting real" came to mean operating from resonance?
Life works best for me when I align thought and action with this inner sense of peace. I could call it my spiritual GPS. We all know it, but some have denied it more than others. I think there is a fear of how anything will get done, or move forward if reason gets tossed out the window. How will we judge right action if there are no rules to apply? I'm not too worried about it, because my experience tells me that the intelligence greater than what can be managed by my human mind will have no problem with the details.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Invictus
Last night I saw an incredible movie that I recommend without reservation. It is Invictus. It captures the essence of what makes Nelson Mandela so remarkable as a leader and offers insight into the key elements of transformation and reform.
You might wonder why I am writing about that on a blog for self-care. The answer can be summed up through another quote that I have always loved, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." (I’ve seen it attributed to both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes).
As individuals, our health and sense of well being are directly linked to our emotions and our emotions are linked to how loved and empowered we perceive ourselves to be. Mandela’s most powerful tool was forgiveness and rather than seeking to right a wrong through disenfranchising those who had oppressed him, he honored what they cherished most and used it as a focal point for creating unity. Mandela realized that for all the immense problems the country faced, none would be resolved successfully until the hearts of people were transformed and joined.
As you consider your own health and how to facilitate body-mind-spirit healing, consider what weighs heavy in your heart that pulls down your energy and contributes to imbalances. Ask yourself what you have identified as disempowering you, whether it is a person, a corporation, a political system, or something else. Then consider how to work with, rather than against those energies for a truly new reality.
I have inserted the poem Invictus below, which was a source of inspiration for Mandela during his 30 years of imprisonment. I am also following this with another blog that was something I had written previously that seemed related. It is called The Dream of Righteousness.
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
~ William Ernest Henley
You might wonder why I am writing about that on a blog for self-care. The answer can be summed up through another quote that I have always loved, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." (I’ve seen it attributed to both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes).
As individuals, our health and sense of well being are directly linked to our emotions and our emotions are linked to how loved and empowered we perceive ourselves to be. Mandela’s most powerful tool was forgiveness and rather than seeking to right a wrong through disenfranchising those who had oppressed him, he honored what they cherished most and used it as a focal point for creating unity. Mandela realized that for all the immense problems the country faced, none would be resolved successfully until the hearts of people were transformed and joined.
As you consider your own health and how to facilitate body-mind-spirit healing, consider what weighs heavy in your heart that pulls down your energy and contributes to imbalances. Ask yourself what you have identified as disempowering you, whether it is a person, a corporation, a political system, or something else. Then consider how to work with, rather than against those energies for a truly new reality.
I have inserted the poem Invictus below, which was a source of inspiration for Mandela during his 30 years of imprisonment. I am also following this with another blog that was something I had written previously that seemed related. It is called The Dream of Righteousness.
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
~ William Ernest Henley
The Dream of Righteousness
I am drawn to people who are good-hearted, kind people who exemplify a wholesomeness that feels right at its core. I have been involved with many causes spearheaded by people who stand for righteousness and the greater good, but as I get older the lines blur and the veil of illusion around a particular filter being inviolate weakens. This small "I" has been humbled many times by the shattering of conviction to absolutes that cannot contain the wholeness of spirit, however it may choose to appear. The only thing I know to be true now is that things are not always what they appear to be and love calls me to be present to the moment and what it offers.
I also see that at the core of this draw to live a righteous life is the desire to be loved—if I am good enough then I will be admired, respected, loved. Fair enough, after all the desire to be kind and to do no harm makes for better human relations and benefits all of life. Nevertheless, if my ultimate goal is to awaken fully, then even this beautiful dream must be surrendered. I must be willing to go unrecognized as anyone special. Resisting being ordinary, and equally as human in all that is contained within me, has perhaps been my biggest stumbling block. It has caused me to judge and create separation.
The spiritual teacher Gangaji once spoke of her days as an activist before "awakening" and the realization that she came to that those fighting against the "wrong doers," whoever they were, didn’t really want those people to "get it" because then they would all be the same. The activists would no longer be seen as more virtuous and on some level that was disturbing, because this was the basis of their identity.
If it is all a dream, then the dream of righteousness has a lot of appeal. At the same time it is a hard one to want to wake up from, just like when I have dreams with a very high pleasure content that I want to linger in longer. What comes with awakening is unknown, and I do believe there is nothing that "I" can do to make myself more worthy. In the meantime, to be present to love, whatever that looks like, seems a worthwhile endeavor.
I also see that at the core of this draw to live a righteous life is the desire to be loved—if I am good enough then I will be admired, respected, loved. Fair enough, after all the desire to be kind and to do no harm makes for better human relations and benefits all of life. Nevertheless, if my ultimate goal is to awaken fully, then even this beautiful dream must be surrendered. I must be willing to go unrecognized as anyone special. Resisting being ordinary, and equally as human in all that is contained within me, has perhaps been my biggest stumbling block. It has caused me to judge and create separation.
The spiritual teacher Gangaji once spoke of her days as an activist before "awakening" and the realization that she came to that those fighting against the "wrong doers," whoever they were, didn’t really want those people to "get it" because then they would all be the same. The activists would no longer be seen as more virtuous and on some level that was disturbing, because this was the basis of their identity.
If it is all a dream, then the dream of righteousness has a lot of appeal. At the same time it is a hard one to want to wake up from, just like when I have dreams with a very high pleasure content that I want to linger in longer. What comes with awakening is unknown, and I do believe there is nothing that "I" can do to make myself more worthy. In the meantime, to be present to love, whatever that looks like, seems a worthwhile endeavor.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Acknowledging Home
No matter what kind of abode I create or what town I choose, it seems important to remember that home is really the Earth. At present I spend too much time in offices, both for an environmental organization and for my biofeedback practice. What my soul really wants is to connect with home--to plunge my hands into the soil and to stand barefoot on fertile land. This time of year can be a bit cold for being barefoot, but when it is possible there is great benefit because the more I can get "in touch" with the healing frequencies of the Earth, the more at ease I am in my own skin.
Since the inherent frequency of the earth, known as the Schumann Resonance, is 7.8Hz (7-13 Hz) a person's brain waves resonate with that frequency and it has been shown in scientific studies to be an essential requirement for physical and psychological health. Since there are so many extraneous ELF frequencies in the earth's atmosphere at this time, these frequencies can cause a drowning out of the natural Schumann Resonance. Being where this resonance is strongest helps to recover autonomic nerve balance, remove stress, and intensify concentration.
So, if we really want to heal ourselves and the Earth let's create gardens--reverently and with the same attention we would afford our most beloved. The Earth is our home, our mother, our bodies--literally. She feeds and clothes us and we are made up of the same proportion of salt water and minerals. We have paid too little attention to this type of bonded relationship and are feeling the pain of disconnection and isolation.
The separation has altered our thinking in ways that are confused. For example, breastfeeding went out of fashion in the 50s and was deemed to be beneath the modern woman. Not only did this undermine the immune systems of the infants deprived of this perfect food, but it also created a generation of people who have trouble bonding because they didn't get enough Oxytocin, the hormone and neurotransmitter known as the cuddle hormone, which is transfered through breastfeeding. Thank goodness there is a return trend to valuing the inherent benefit of using the gifts, such as this, that nature has given us.
Also, providing children with all of the "stuff" that seems essential these days, i.e., cell phones, iPods, X-boxes, cars, you name it, will never give them what they really need. In my opinion, that is a sense that they are an integral part of something profound and holy; and that their families and communities will be there when all the rest falls away.
I love the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Following is a quote that speaks to the need to connect to what we know in our bones as an essential for evolution:
"In the world, nothing could ever burst forth as final across the different thresholds successively traversed by evolution which has not already existed in an obscure and primordial way."
Since the inherent frequency of the earth, known as the Schumann Resonance, is 7.8Hz (7-13 Hz) a person's brain waves resonate with that frequency and it has been shown in scientific studies to be an essential requirement for physical and psychological health. Since there are so many extraneous ELF frequencies in the earth's atmosphere at this time, these frequencies can cause a drowning out of the natural Schumann Resonance. Being where this resonance is strongest helps to recover autonomic nerve balance, remove stress, and intensify concentration.
So, if we really want to heal ourselves and the Earth let's create gardens--reverently and with the same attention we would afford our most beloved. The Earth is our home, our mother, our bodies--literally. She feeds and clothes us and we are made up of the same proportion of salt water and minerals. We have paid too little attention to this type of bonded relationship and are feeling the pain of disconnection and isolation.
The separation has altered our thinking in ways that are confused. For example, breastfeeding went out of fashion in the 50s and was deemed to be beneath the modern woman. Not only did this undermine the immune systems of the infants deprived of this perfect food, but it also created a generation of people who have trouble bonding because they didn't get enough Oxytocin, the hormone and neurotransmitter known as the cuddle hormone, which is transfered through breastfeeding. Thank goodness there is a return trend to valuing the inherent benefit of using the gifts, such as this, that nature has given us.
Also, providing children with all of the "stuff" that seems essential these days, i.e., cell phones, iPods, X-boxes, cars, you name it, will never give them what they really need. In my opinion, that is a sense that they are an integral part of something profound and holy; and that their families and communities will be there when all the rest falls away.
I love the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Following is a quote that speaks to the need to connect to what we know in our bones as an essential for evolution:
"In the world, nothing could ever burst forth as final across the different thresholds successively traversed by evolution which has not already existed in an obscure and primordial way."
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Can an Internet Community Meet Deeper Needs?
A friend recently invited me to be a part of a social networking site he is redeveloping. There is a lot of interaction between people on the site to evolve it in very creative ways.
He posed the question: Do social websites feel cozy, safe, or sacred?, to which I responded:
While I appreciate the opportunity to network with awesome people I may not connect with otherwise, virtual connections are for me not "cozy or sacred" --they are second-best attempts at real human connection. Often times the most powerful way for me to be with someone else is in silence . . . sharing an experience. I love being with the Earth, hugs, gazing into someones eyes, feeling their energy. These things aren't possible on the web.
Everything has its perfect place. I appreciate the possibility to share ideas here, particularly with people in places around the world that I have no real perspective on.
What I find interesting about this site (http://dev.avanoo.com) is how I can wander around the "places" to go or "things" to do and have fun sharing random thoughts that are stimulated by the theme areas. And, hey, people respond. I will have to say that if anyone can make the internet feel "cozy," I think my friend can. I will be interested to see where he takes this.
He posed the question: Do social websites feel cozy, safe, or sacred?, to which I responded:
While I appreciate the opportunity to network with awesome people I may not connect with otherwise, virtual connections are for me not "cozy or sacred" --they are second-best attempts at real human connection. Often times the most powerful way for me to be with someone else is in silence . . . sharing an experience. I love being with the Earth, hugs, gazing into someones eyes, feeling their energy. These things aren't possible on the web.
Everything has its perfect place. I appreciate the possibility to share ideas here, particularly with people in places around the world that I have no real perspective on.
What I find interesting about this site (http://dev.avanoo.com) is how I can wander around the "places" to go or "things" to do and have fun sharing random thoughts that are stimulated by the theme areas. And, hey, people respond. I will have to say that if anyone can make the internet feel "cozy," I think my friend can. I will be interested to see where he takes this.
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