No apologies for being sensitive to the earth and its suffering

By Jen Peer Rich — If we took a mere 50% of our global weaponry and technology resources and applied them towards sustainability actions, we could live in a much different world. It’s possible to stop kicking the earth in the teeth with destructive behaviors. Why not address the suffering of our species and endless other species? But we don’t. We keep feeding the machinery of separation. And why? … [click on title for the rest of the post]

The abyss is the chasm between heaven and earth, body and mind

In mental health circles the health of the body is often neglected. The body is too often considered secondary, if at all, when people become over-involved in things of the mind. And of course our culture has split the body/mind when in fact they function as one. Becoming aware of my poor neglected body has been critically important in my healing process. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Between Heaven and Earth – Full Qigong Practice Session

Yesterday I did two posts on trauma and learning to heal from that through body practices. I talk about yoga and ecstatic dance in those posts. Qigong is another practice that can help profoundly.

I love that there is simply a huge multitude of methods to heal so that everyone can find what resonates and works for them personally. Of course that is a challenge for (some) professionals who always want to believe that what they have training in is what is appropriate for everyone. This is of course why the mental health system doesn’t work so well. I take great delight in the incredibly diverse healing body/mind.

I’ve been practicing Qigong from time to time lately and really love it too though I am very much a beginner still. It’s an incredibly powerful energy mover and so I do have to take it slow and carefully simply because it impacts the autonomic nervous system so profoundly and that is what is most impacted by the iatrogenic injury I’m healing from (psychiatric drug withdrawal syndrome). Psychiatric drug withdrawal syndrome is among other things also an incredibly traumatic event and therefore a lot of methods that help heal trauma also help heal this medically induced iatrogenic injury. … [click on title to read and view more]

A way to be on this earth and not shy away from the pain

Wow. Just wow! A wave of gratitude arriving on the shores of a radical earth based faith that is lived, a faith that is in and of itself, nature being natural. Nature engages constantly with itself like this.

I’ll share here that there is this heartbreak in me, a general sadness and despair I feel about many of the issues we face as a collective earth and as a human species. The suffering on this planet often overwhelms me. I sense along with many other animals that whether by natural events or by our own human hands, probably a convergence of both, this earth our home and everything that lives on it is in for massive changes and challenges in the next century and we will need new ways to engage on this planet if we are to make it without devolving into a big ugly mess. And yet life goes on! Even if nature shakes off the current natural inhabitants, life will go on in some new way and so we live on endlessly. … [click on title to read and view more]

Earth Trek: The Economics of the Future

Time to think big.
“We have it within our reach–now–to achieve nearly every dream of mankind.” -Gene Roddenberry
A lesson in sustainable Star Trekonomics featuring Charles Eisenstein, George Carlin, Martin Luther King Jr. and a couple captains of the Enterprise… … [click on title for the rest of the post]