Entangled: a case for intra-existence

All around us we experience connection. Yet, the old ideas of us, humans, as superior and separate—from others, nature, our bodies and minds—are truly sticky.

We often view disconnected as normal even as we reject it as incomplete and/or inadequate. As Gabor Maté put it:

Even the word “connection” is inaccurate, because it implies that two separate things are connected. The mind and body are not the same, but they are one unit. You can’t have one without the other. There are studies that show, for example, the more episodes of racism Black American women experience, the greater their risk for asthma. The stress of racism actually inflames the lungs and makes the airways narrow.^#

For all of us, it is not only a personal disconnection—disquiet, distress, illness are normal responses to abnormal circumstances.

Gabor highlights a global piece:

Capitalism is the system that we live under, so that’s the system I’m looking at. And for all its economic achievements and scientific breakthroughs—which are very unevenly distributed, with a lot of inequality, which itself is a source of illness—it’s a system that’s based on fundamental assumptions. One is that the profit of the few is for the benefit of the many. That’s not how it is showing up. Also, that people are individualistic and competitive. That’s not our nature as human beings.^#

Agility: Shifting the stickiness

Not our nature but it is still very sticky to think we are only individuals. Experientially, we can shift:

Try Leadership Embodiment for being present and centred, for flow and agility around difficulties. For drawing from all the interactions on us. Post and videos here>

Clarity: in complexity is poetry letting us see what is hidden, what we recoil from. Plus music making these links. And a little of the thinking patterns that go with such insights that I, and hopefully you, find useful. Post and video here>

We’re approaching the solstice, a standstill. This virtual walking meditation is an invitation to feel into that, connect the systems around us, what we do in them and how others, cultures and society influences us too. Play the video here>

Inspiration

With this comes the potential for a little inspiration. Gabor:

Yes, inspiring. For there is a heartening corollary to all the difficult news… no promise of miracle, cures, but simply the recognition that each of us contains as-yet-unimagined possibilities for wellness… If that is true for us as individuals, it must also be true for us as a species. Healing is not guaranteed, but it is available.^#