reclaiming indigeneity
At the same time, most of us can trace our ancestry to many different cultures and traditions. Being on a journey of reclaiming indigeneity frees us from centering just one. Instead, we're broadly affirming the life-supporting practices that sustained the vast majority of humanity over time. Reclaiming indigeneity invites us to illume for ourselves how these practices might come forward in this time. Our bodies and our relationship with the living planet become the authority.
it is the work
There was a time when I felt guilty about the practices my body needed to arrive for the day.
Conditioned by an education system built to support compliant and productive little workers, when I wasn’t pumping out the emails by 9:00 a.m., there was a sense that I should probably hide what I was actually doing. I felt this even when I didn’t go into a formal office, even when I worked for myself.
practice: re-meeting your body
Sometimes it feels like our bodies don’t quite fit. They don’t move how we move. They don’t look or we look. It’s as though we’re buried in a sumo suit of flesh and emotions that don’t accurately reflect who we really are. The real you is less messy, more grounded, less anxious and more confident. The real you is comfortable in her own skin.
letting ourselves bend
In watching the storms today, I’m reminded that it is our ability to “not do” that reveals our strength. As the world swirls, we can bravely stand in the midst of all that turbulence and declare this act as simply enough. For marginalized bodies, this in itself is a political action. As Audre Lord reminds us, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
it’s time to be simple
When the pressure is on, when we’re not sure what to do, the mind tells us to act. The body asks us to get still. It is when our world is the most complex that we need to be the most simple. Simplicity allows us to bring our body/heart and mind into alignment so we may be resourced to fully show up for what’s ahead.
your body is your guru
Ground is the place to go when overwhelmed with thoughts and fears. It can hold our confusion with unwavering presence. We can source the earth’s formidable strength to connect with how these qualities live inside of us. In her timeless gaze, we open to the present; we slow down.
success is
We can find the peace we seek when we see there is no there there. When we reach that pinnacle of achievement, when the accolades flood, the applause roars and the dollars pile, the whispers of doubt and fear do not cease. There is story after story after story of this. So, what then? We learn to be with these inconvenient feelings. We feel our sensitivity, entertain that we’re a failure, let our over-active mind tumble us toward every worst-case scenario, and then we breathe.