Description
We are living in a time of unprecedented loss and destruction, a polycrisis fueled by collective intergenerational traumas. Our society has few places where we can sense how our sorrows are entangled and cannot be carried alone. And few times when we can be with anger, ache and anxiety, without trying to fix it or avoid it. Holy grief! It is sacred wounds of collective trauma.
Collective trauma calls for collective naming, sensing and witnessing, in a grounded, compassionate container. By using engaging, embodied methods from the Presencing Institute, Thomas Hubl, Joanna Macy’s The Work That Reconnects, Francis Weller, Gabor Mate, soulcraft and authentic relating, we will play with the social field of the Earth dreaming of a more beautiful world into being.
“Imagine the feeling of relief that would flood our whole being if we knew that when we were in the grip of sorrow or illness, our village would respond to our need. … The indigenous thought is when one of us is ill, all of us are ill. Taking this thought a little further, we see that healing is a matter, in great part, of having our, connections to the community and the cosmos restored. This truth has been acknowledged in many studies. Our immune response is strengthened when we feel our connection with community.”
― Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
We will touch upon
- ways to resource ourselves enough to be able to connect to our bodies and feel,
- ways to reach to others to mourn as a collective, and co-regulate
- ways to use art, ritual and symbols that make it easier for the reptilian brain to process,
- ways to create trauma-informed safe spaces that gradually allows ourselves to touch discomfort and pain
- ways to think about and move in relation towards the polycrisis and our sense of self.
Read some more on my reflections on mental health here, and social change here.
