Leading with our trauma in collective healing, social justice spaces. Reflections on this emergent cultural practice. Invitations I pose to myself on how to support its ongoing evolution

I believe more and more of us are waking up to world around us and the world within us in our own unique ways. It’s why I do the collective healing work I do, to be of service to this awakening in any way I can. Read about my first trip to Tanzania and what it awakened in me: personally, professionally, spiritually. How it made me who I am today.

A convergence of crises is opening a gateway for humanity to evolve towards a more mature, awakened global civilization - if we have tools to work with it. As changemakers, we are conduits for this time of Great Transition. Collective healing is a tool we can use to be those conduits. By nourishing ourselves & the collective.

This transitional time of year in my neck of the woods offers a beautiful balance of releasing that which no longer serves while simultaneously reveling in all that’s been planted and is now being harvested from the season past. Reflections on Autumn’s spiritual offerings.

The age of information and communication technology gives us a growing level of awareness about ourselves as a collective and the challenges we face. What does that do to our collective consciousness, the social glue that holds us together as a society? And how does this relate to collective healing and other tools and support systems we need for this unique point in time and the crisis of consciousness many of us feel?

Emotions are evolutionarily baked into us. There’s an intelligence to them that can be our ally. I share why I value this evolutionary perspective and how it might help us understand the high degree of emotional energy in our collective nervous system right now.

How do you know when you’re feeling a particular emotion? Core emotions live in the body so body-based clues and practices offer us tools to better answer this question. We can cultivate our ability to perceive sensations due to emotions inside our body. We can grow our interoception.

My story of being humbled and taught by yoga. How yogic practices help to cultivate the art of compassionate, nonjudgmental observation. This coupled with emotional literacy is a powerhouse of skills for us feelers. The convergence of wisdom traditions and science is alive and here to support us with the many normal feelings that come with being attuned and of service to the changes going on in our world.

How AEDP and the work of emotions educator Hilary Jacobs Hendel think about trauma: how defenses are born and its relationship with trauma, as well as how undoing aloneness is a crucial entry point for healing, and is something that emotions education offers.

The act of turning inward and exploring emotions is no small feat. Society has taught us to block and misunderstand our emotions. I know it firsthand. Luckily research on emotions abounds! I share my story and why I got trained in the emotions 101 curriculum I did. Sense of responsibility and ethics.

Is the answer so much a “yes or no?” Or more of a “how and when?” Join my new Emotions 101 with Yoga course to unpack and explore this even more.

“The inner experience that we are going through is not an obstacle in the way, it is part of the way.” Thomas Hubl on the war in Ukraine. Reflections on the opportunities we have to heal the collective trauma we hold through neuroscience. How current events are resurfacing painful historical wounds from past conflicts in Europe. Feelings that range from hyper activation to complete numbness all make sense within the context of collective trauma, and all offer entry points to work with.

December’s theme

This month honors the many invitations that darkness offers with a focus on rest for those of us who are experiencing deep fatigue within their creative cycles of being of service to the world. In the Northern Hemisphere, this season of darkness invites deep rest as the cold gently billows in and tucks the land in for its wintery slumber. What is this season offering you?

For the past few centuries, social scientists have looked at rises in collective anxiety as signs that shifts in our social order are taking place. The phenomenon of large groups of people experiencing things like climate anxiety is not only a reflection of changes at the individual consciousness level, but that they also reflect changes at a collective consciousness level. How does listening to our own experiences of climate anxiety help us hear what changes are taking place at a societal level?

November’s Theme

So often when I’m in the midst of transition I want to be on the other side already. Can I slow myself down enough to notice the micro moments within it all? And if so, what teachings lie there that are key to where I’m meant to land next? Exploration at the personal & collective.

October’s theme

In these dynamic times that we’re living in where things are changing at a rapid pace, how can we be in relationship with uncertainty in a way that’s grounding, generative and liberating? As things continue to change, what can we be certain about within ourselves, the Universe, our relationships and the world?

The bad ass field of Polyvagal Theory is giving us more and more tools to better define healing and make a case for why cultivating a relationship with our internal worlds is necessary. Especially the more subtle dimensions. Neuroception - where wisdom traditions meet neuroscience.

September’s theme

As change makers, we go ‘em. Now the question is - what do we do with them? Whether you call it climate anxiety, eco-grief, environmental despair, solastalgia, or vicarious trauma. Join us for this month’s theme on climate feelings to get to know yours more.

In this audio recording I share how I’m making sense of these times that we’re living in. I share the opportunity I see to use collective healing as a tool to facilitate the paradigm shifts we need to address global issues. My exploration is rooted in the question: “What can we take from what we know about individual healing and apply it to the collective?” Share what you think in our free online community.

August’s Theme

Whether the changes you’re tuned into are related to our climate, or to the massive culture shifts that come with technology, or to the pervasive feelings of political homelessness that abound, or to a growing sense of something new that’s right around the corner for us as a civilization…

Being alive these days requires us to have a relationship with newness.