remembering ourselves as nature

Embodiment

Resting your full attention in your body is something all of us animals are born with, but we can quickly lose that, or if you have a traumatic birth, maybe we don’t even begin with that. But it is an innate ability so we can get back to it – sometimes depending on our levels of trauma, conditioning, colonization and other factors – it can take a long time and in some cases a lot of therapy to come home to our body.  This is a necessary factor of being able to connect with our environment and remember ourselves as nature.

My own journey with embodiment has been slow! To say the least – I felt like I was on the wrong planet most of my life until I went through the ritual of giving birth.  This was a ritual that was led by my bodies intelligence, and opened the window to the incredible and ordinary wisdom we walk around in every day but often fail to acknowledge or be aware of – much like the earth that provides everything for our existence. Alongside of that has been 30 years of meditation, various therapies,  a lot of creativity and years learning directly from the earth to remember myself as nature and be able to share this knowledge with you and hand pick the most effective to share with you.   

BODY SCANNING

Consciously connecting attention, breath and body is the foundation.

Stop. And feel the air going into your lungs.  No effort required. Taking a slightly bigger breath allow your attention to spread out a little further than your lungs, maybe it moves into your gut.  I invite you to keep breathing in a natural way and taking that attention one breath at a time, deeper in a downward direction until it reaches your feet. Spend a few breaths, inhaling into your feet (obviously your feet are not lungs, this is metaphorical and to bring your attention to using your breath into your feet.) and exhaling tensions.  You are invited to then start bringing your attention up your body - direct your breathing + attention into lower legs, knees, upper legs and so on taking as much time as you like, or maybe you just start doing one breath into each body area.  When you have reached the top of your head, relax into full body breathing - seeing you can be aware of your whole body at once, breathing in, breathing out.  Rest in this as long as you like.  Notice what it feels like to have all (or most) of your attention in your body.

Tips: don’t push it, this is a relaxation exercise so if you find it frustrating, just drop it and come back to it some other time.  Consider if there are other times or activities that happen in your life when you have felt that full body attention.

BEFRIENDING A PLANT:

Have you noticed a plant that might have just popped up out of nowhere around where you live? or do you take a walk and maybe a particular plant often catches your attention.  This can be viewed as an invitation from the plant world to connect. 

Plants generally love people - they provide so much for human’s - air, food, shelter, clothing, entertainment, beauty, medicine, healing.  They provide all this, and we usually take it for granted and don’t give it a second thought.  But there is so much more to these sentient Beings, the Old People considered them Teachers and wisdom holder’s and

it is exciting to see some of that wisdom resurfacing and being shared in the world - it is really needed. 

When you have identified a plant you would like to build a relationship with, take a small offering - could be some water, a piece of your hair, some tobacco, or something organic that holds meaning for you.  Approach the plant and introduce yourself out loud and ask for permission to sit with it.  Permission usually comes with a feeling - a feeling of rightness.  if you feel uneasy or start getting bitten by ants, then not today! Permission is important in a colonial world where we have been conditioned to take whatever we want without asking or acknowledging - this is NOT right relationship.  So, I realize it can initially feel awkward and strange, but I can’t stress how important it is to change the way we habitually interact with our eco system, and it does become more natural with practice.

Once permission has been established you can make your offering and acknowledge the welcome of the plant.

I invite you to use the embodiment exercise above to be fully present in your body and bring your attention into your heart area.  Breath from the heart and exchange breathing with the plant of your choice.  Pay particular attention to feelings and sensations.  Stay in this connection as long as feels natural.  When the meeting concludes, thank the Plant and notice how you are feeling.

These two exercises are deceptively simple but powerful and have the capacity to healing and relaxing.

I hope you find the instructions clear, and if you ever want to share your experiences - I would love to hear you go.