I hope thoughtfully and deeply engaging with our bodies feelings and sensations (our body fear) might awaken us to the myth of safety or security in our current economic structures, and the “unavoidable” doom of a future we have no say in.

So. Many. Of. Us. Over 62% of youth feel anxious about climate change (Schechter et al., 2023).

When I was a child I had a recurring anxious thought about the end of the world coming about through flood, through natural disaster, energy systems collapse. I would try to comfort my self in the dreamy anxious thought by pacing underneath a street light on a paved road…until that went out too.

Because our linear waste systems a.k.a. the status quo in “developed” countries have to change in order to save our planet, our day to day lives have to change too.

If you have been feeling the frustration and hopelessness around tiny acts like saving water where you can and recycling your glass bottles…I’m so with you. Tiny K was there too. She was afraid of our earth being inhospitable.

The looming fear of our earth body collapsing under the pressure of colonialism (industrialization) mirrors my fear of my personal body’s sensations.

I have IBS which means my gut is hypersensitive to the movements of digestion and it reacts without my conscious mind feeling panic.

My body is afraid of itself.

I have family history of stress induced heart conditions which means I get palpitations when I unconsciously hold my breath, or when my inner or outer environment is too intense or erratic. The sensation spurs on more fear. 

My body talks and I become afraid.

I am afraid of how my body rumbles with innocent defiance.

I am afraid it means death.

Tiny K was super afraid of death, sickness, and loosing control. Control of the body is the number one fear I have. I have invested a lot of resources into studying somatic movement, trauma sensitive mindfulness, accessible yoga and yogic philosophy— the umbrella of that ancient and thriving care system (albeit most teachings that make their way to our neck of the woods are mighty diluted). I tried so hard to invest in my personal ability to calm my self and to a certain degree it was successful.

But I am honestly burnt out by placing so much emphasis on my personal responsibility to my body and by how disconnected my spiritual and wellness studies left me. If you respond to your own needs half the time and you are able to self regulate great! But what happens when our treatment of our fellow people, all life on earth and the planet itself cause rumbling repercussions? How do we address THAT body fear? When the earth is our body too, when our food and our fellow humans and all life and matter on earth is profoundly interdependent...

How do we meet the collective body fear and listen?

In community. Leaning on each other.

IMAGINE

CREATE

PARTICIPATE

SHOW UP IN ANY WAY WE CAN

To witness, absorb and open to the possibility of Body Peace.

Peace through listening, steadying ourselves and each other. Peace through body and earth connection, ancestral connection, spiritual connection that honours the whole: the history, the reality, and the current experience.

Spirituality that matches our words that gets us out in the world co-regulating in nature and working towards the unimaginable…the trick is to not get lost in the quantity or perfection, but to act in integrity and in the face of genuine connection with each other, the water, the earth and use our power.

See what happens reevaluate try again share honestly hold one another accountable.

Direct each other back to integrity and to wisdom to help and give one another space to heal.  

Reconciling with these interconnecting factors, to me, makes Body Peace feel possible.

Sincerely,

Loving Awareness of Feelings and Thoughts

References

Schechter, D., Rush, H., & Horner, C. (2023). As climate changes, climate anxiety rises in youth. Cbsnews.com. https://doi.org/109571525/1755438_hls/master.m3u8