We at Wild Wisdom will be offering a womxn's quest over summer solstice.  This includes 3 days and nights of a "solo," although you are surrounded by the wild ones.  This will be our fourth time up in the Trinity Mountains offering this transformational experience at this potent and verdant time of year.  

Each year the beauty and profundity of my experience there, at the height of summer, continues to feed and inspire me throughout the year, like a slow stream running from the mountains into my life.  

If you are needing a perspective shift, re-connection to yourself, spirit, and the wild ones, and are ready to take a leap into a loving and daring container, come join us!   Reach out for any questions. 

Honored to delighted to be co-guiding with friend and wise woman Caitlin Rose Wild.

www.wearewildwisdom.com

@Antonio Aversano

Something that I see as one of the bigger struggles of living in modern culture is learning to live and work within our capacity.   I have been a part of so many projects (mine and others) that had a beautiful vision and yet exhausted everyone involved bringing it into creation.  Eventually the question is asked, is it worth it?  Is the vision more important than the day to day wellbeing of the people involved?  And, can we build something with the utmost integrity, if the nervous system of the individuals and collective is stressed and distressed?

What is clear to me, is that when we work beyond our capacity for too long, we inevitably cause harm to ourselves or others.  Balls get dropped, emotional connection becomes the last priority, and people feel ignored, run over, or used. 

I see this balance being a dance that I am in every day, that I support clients with, that I watch my friends, teachers, and family, all struggle with.  

The physical world runs on energy.  The amount of energy in a system is what allows creativity and change to happen.  As always, when I am seeking to understand a common human problem, I look to the natural world.   Can the natural world exist on unearned energy?  What happens when an animal, for instance, is forced to use energy beyond their ability to input energy (food)?  If this happens for too long, death is on the horizon.

If we really start thinking about where all of the excess energy is coming from that enables the life-style that many live in the United States, we start to see that it depends on the building of this country by the stolen energy/labor of African slaves and more currently, underpaid workers here and abroad in “developing nations.”  In addition, humans have developed an amazing capacity to enhance and use stored energy… including fossil fuels and caffeine.  All of this borrowed and stolen energy has allowed for the industrial age and the rise of massive civilizations, urbanization, and exponential growth.  And yet, amongst all of the beautiful things it may have created, this industrial growth has led to massive starvation, global climate change, intense war and violence, and a generally dysregulated nervous system of most people on earth. 

When we consistently move faster than the speed of our natural capacity, our nervous systems go into a low grade fight or flight.  We stop being able to be present, have moments of delight, or take time for our nose to drown in the smell of a beautiful flower. 

So how well is it really working to run ourselves on what we might call “unearned” energy.  Our bodies know well what our capacity is.  They will tell us when we have overdone it, and if we are listening closely, will tell us BEFORE we say yes to something whether it is within our capacity.

A useful skillset that I’ve learned is to “measure” any given choice we are presented with.  First, put attention on yourself.  Then put a small amount of your attention on the choice in front of you.  Don’t leave yourself to measure.  Stay in your body.  Let the information come to you.  Somatically or energetically notice how the choice in front of you registers in your body/mind.  Notice where the mind might have preferences or habits, and then bring yourself back to what your body is telling you.  Play the game of trusting what you hear before bulldozing over it. 

I love and admire the work of Tricia Hersey of The Nap Ministry, where she talks about rest as resistance, “rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism.”  Reparations are needed, en masse, to repay the debt accrued from black folks and all BIPOC on these lands, for the massive energy that has been stolen.  

So, we’re in a big pickle that I think we can only solve one breath at a time.  We’re not going to turn this around overnight for ourselves or the world.  We are still living in a world that demands a lot of us.  Parents are still raising kids in a system that does not support families.  Workers are still being seen as pawns to build up the wealth of the 1%.  We each still need to make ends meet in a capitalist system not designed to support all.  

And yet, what small ways can we remember that big is not necessarily better?  Can small be good, small be all (adrienne maree brown)?  Maybe the project you are working on can focus on where the least input meets the most impact?  Where is THAT sweet spot?  Where can you experiment with your no as a way of supporting the underlying yes to your body’s wisdom, for the wellbeing of the greater system?  How might we cause less stress and less harm if we are honest about our capacity, or the capacity of any given system we are a part of?  How might each of our lives change, and society as a whole change, if we only used earned energy, and only worked within our actual capacity?  

@Antonio Aversano

Where do I have agency to make change today?

Personal agency is the best.  We love it, we want it.  Often, we have more of it than we think we do.  Sometimes when we have it, we don’t use it.  When we don’t have it, we want it, more than anything.  It is so valuable that it is the primary weapon used to oppress.  It is the first thing taken away from people who are targets of systemic oppression.  

Any areas of life where we have personal agency give us the possibility for personal power.  When we claim every ounce of personal agency that we have, we become powerful.  

When we are powerful we are demonstrating that we have the power to change, the power to enact, bring to life, let die, transform, heal and create beauty.  Even in cases where personal agency is extremely limited because of outside factors, there is almost always a small way we can demonstrate our power - sometimes it's literally taking a conscious breath. 

These are two questions I have learned to ask myself most days of late.  

1/ Where do I have agency to make change today?  

2/ Where am I feeling stuck or dis-empowered?   Even if I don’t have the power to change the entirety of the situation - What small thing do I have agency over that I have not yet utilized?  

It’s a fun game.  What small thing can you do today to enact your personal agency?  Maybe there’s a convo that’s been needing to happen for a while, a sign up for that yoga class, taking on a new recipe for dinner tonight, or a phone call about a collaboration you’ve been meaning to make.   Decide what it is and just do it!

Today, I went swimming, even though it was raining, and i set aside 20 mins to write this post, that i’ve been thinking about for weeks. 

The great thing about this question is that it doesn't have to be anything grandiose, and yet it CAN be!  The more I ask this question and follow through, the more each moment, and my life becomes aligned with who I truly am.

@Antonio Aversano