Mutuality
The first assumption of developing a collective is mutuality. Recognizing that we are not two, we are both connected and separate. That there is not one “nervous system, collective consciousness, etc. There are just not two.
“Remember a time when you were trying to do something that was hard for you, something that really mattered but it was a risk, and where you could easily give up. See if you can remember one person who really showed up for you, believed in you and took actions that genuinely gave energy and momentum to what you were doing? It can mean everything at the right moment – change destiny. It’s profound how our real love and support influences each other. We affect each other – we are “tied together in a single garment of destiny” – we need each other to move to the next level. There’s no way around it – thank God..”
Belonging
FINDING YOUR PLACE
How, where, and to whom do I belong? What IS Family?
I guess the answer to that question depends partly on the environment you grew up in. To some people it is an experience of a warm, safe, nurturing place. A place where the nervous system can relax and there is enough stimulation to maintain curiosity about the world. It is nourishing. Hope lives there.
For others it is living in a chaotic environment where there is not enough to eat, there is little shelter, it is dirty. Fear lives there.
There are varying degrees of both thriving and survival, according to our old friend Maslow.
Maslow Hierarchy of needs
All of us live somewhere on that spectrum of survival. When it all comes down to it though, an overtaxed, relaxed, or under stimulated autonomic nervous system stems from the regulation of the autonomic nervous system.
The amount of recovery needed after “an assault” trauma or health is dependent on the intensity, duration, and variation of the energy of the nervous system.
These energetic variations form certain patterns and waves which become "structures" of energetic density in a living world.
What kind of structures are created in the human body from these energetic variations? How is this passed on in families? In cultures? What kind of patterns or symptoms does this create in the human body? How do clusters of symptoms show up in our world?
We know that some forms are more resilient than others. What makes that so?
This is the basis of science. Studying the patterns. The way they move and change. These are some of the questions we will be pondering on this site, in our projects, and in our groups, "It is 'JUST' a Conversation."
Creating Structures of Relatedness
THE ART OF TELLING YOUR FAMILY STORY
The basis of art is to tell a story about the phenomena of movement, stillness, and change. To notice the patterns and paint a picture so that others can understand it. To create a felt sense of it.
The stories we choose to tell, are the ones written into the body through these energetic movements. How many shapes can the body make? How much energy is allowed to move through it? How does that change the space and the world we live in?
What sounds come through our lips? What words do we choose to talk about the experience of family? What do we believe about what we see and feel? How do we discover and express truth?
I can only tell you what I re-member about my family when we meet. In that meeting, is where all conversations begin integrating into our Inter-generational DNA.
Holding grief and loss within a Loving Container
CREATING BALANCE
Holding the beauty and the difficulties of LIFE. How do we learn to hold love and fear at the same time? How do we absorb the "shocks" life brings us and allow them to pass through us and remain grounded in our bodies while we develop a deeper intimacy within ourselves to connect with one another?
We are all craving the kind of deep communion and love that will transform our world into a place where we can honor both our individuality and our union.
“My body’s been touched a thousand or more times but I am craving something so much deeper than that ~ I desire to be felt, right down to the core of my soul and the corners of my heart. That’s what love is about isn’t it ~ cracking yourself open to the possibility that it could change your life.”
— -Nikki Rowe
