Slow Down, Breathe Deeply, Heal Your Spirit
New Year’s Reset- It’s Not Your Fault The World Is Crazy
As part of our Resistance Chicks family, you guys often submit works to us that we would like to be able to highlight and share with the world- we are kicking that off with posts by a long time viewer, Economic Democracy. We feel sure you will enjoy his in-depth coverage of many current events. However, he askes us to debut with a post that will encourage and uplift going in to 2022!
Special Guest Post by Economic Democracy
Friends,
Before my comments on the themes in the subject, a quote (or poem) found online without listed author:
STOP
You are not a machine
Your natural genetic design does not tolerate 2-4 hours of travel per day,
8-12 hours of slave labor
5-6 days per week for whatever monetary compensation on 5-6 hours of sleep
In a system built on penalistic principles and a life under judgmental surveillance.
Like it or not
You are human
Stress, harassment, constant financial worries,
Fear and a sense of inadequacy destroys the health of any human
This is a scientific fact.
So why is it we accept and tolerate a system
That in actual reality demands that youerase your needs
And in effect commit a slow joyless suicide
for someone else’s profit?
You have a choice
Stop pretending you don’t
Notwithstanding the ending of that poem, this email is not to wag a finger about “Stop pretending” but to try to give some hopeful and helpful tips or just thoughts and ideas..To those who say “it’s not our fault the world is so broken, but it is our responsibility to mend it” — I quite agree. That mending often has to start with helping heal ourselves first, though. My last two times on an airplane were 2017 and before that, 2006, but almost all of us recall Airplane flight attendants’ instructions are to “put your oxygen mask on first” and that’s because otherwise we might pass out before we can help others.
We all need to regularly take time, and make time, to put on our spiritual ‘oxygen masks’..
Each of us must discover and re-discover and deepen our understanding of what heals us — it’s a lifelong journey
Dr. Emmett Miller, M.D., reminds us to value both the differences between us, and to value the similarities.
I have for some years now, noted and said that we all tend to underestimate both our similarities (forgetting how much we have in common, ‘even’ with people who on the surface seem so different) and equally underestimate our differences (even people who are very similar, will have profound differences under the surface. Heck, even while deep threads of commonality usually exist between our past, present and future selves, we’re still ‘different’ people as we change over the years) and what best helps one person, will be different for each of us.
Nonetheless, in the spirit of our profound human universal commonalities and just to get the mental ball rolling, here are some suggestions or just suggestive phrases:
** A warm or non-painfully hot cup of herbal tea — maybe a variety you have at home but haven’t used in a while — or one you can find at the store
** Time away from friends and even family — alone time — outside, or if need be, in a room, even if just for a short time, once or a few times a day, to breathe and relax (look up breathing methods/vids if you like; or look up Progressive Muscle Relaxation, a great technique to have)
** Soaking in a nice hot bath — with a great book
** Soaking in a nice hot bath — no books or other distractions — just time alone with your thoughts — or no/few thoughts — trying to remember there are other times for planning and worries — and that putting mind in neutral and just Being time, in the long run helps us
** Gentle exercise at home — our bodies are not steele machines, and not to push ourselves too much or too hard — our body will tell you what’s “not to hot, not too cold, but just right” if we listen to it.
** Enjoying a walk during the limited daylight hours — the artistic genius of the intricate shapes of bare trees — or flowers or other parts of nature
** Enjoying a walk at sunset/dusk/night…the light you see from stars may have traveled trillions of miles (1 light-year is about 5.9 trillion miles) but has reached your eyes all the same 🙂
** Or that beautiful moon, even a sliver of it. Do you know how many Earths would fit between the Earth and the Moon? Just about exactly 30, using the average distance. Measuring the distance to the moon not in miles nor in light-seconds but in how many Earth-widths, makes a lot of sense in many ways. Mentally divide that distance into 3 segments. Now imagine 10 beautiful glass marbles, back to back, in each 1/3…each one behind the other, each one Earth sized, but looking smaller to your eyes as it recedes towards the Moon. Feel how connected you feel to the Moon, the cosmos, and especially to our Earth.
** Discover the art of massaging the palm of each hand with your other hand or with its knuckles; same with soles of your feet
** Or use a wooden massager
** Enjoy stimulating music when you wish — but take time to specifically seek out relaxing music, even if it’s been a long time since you’re enjoyed (or you’ve never enjoyed) that type of music. And/or seek online Nature Sounds audios. I will confess to enjoying some Enya. And pieces like Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygene; part 4 especially, it’s on youtube; and Dr. Miller’s relaxation/mindfulness audios, both full programs and some no-cost ones on his website; and while there’s some superficial ‘Ambient’ category music, there are some precious gems to be found if you look for them. Your tastes may differ; likely will differ; yet Music is a wonderful gift.
Other worldly, because we didn’t need to have bodies/minds capable of such profound and even ecstatic joy and pleasure and soothing relaxation merely through electrical signals in our brains directed there by ears reacting to mere pulses of air vibrations; or else, we did ‘need’ such things to make it as a species; that would be no less magical and inspiring! (Resistance Chicks note, we enjoy Pandora channels of the Piano Guys and Instrumental Hymns)
They say “music soothes the savage beast” — but we all have an ‘animal’ inside that wants to just have its head gently stroked as it sits or lays down to unwind from all the rushing rushing rushing busy-ness of this world.
** Look at the palm of your hand. Slow down and (without anyone around if you’ll feel self conscious about it) really look at it, as you gently and very slowly, partly open and close your hand, like a flower. See its elegance, the elegant beauty in every body at any age of being alive — and of the beauty that is the palm of the human hand, its curves, the gentle little pockets, the intricate lines.
“To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded“
-Often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson but QuotesInvestigator.com indicates, seemingly a hybrid of two initially similar but increasingly diverging quotes, one by Bessie A. Stanley and one with Albert Edward Wiggam claiming an abridged quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson).
** You are unique; no one in the billions of years of the history of the cosmos was ever exactly like you, nor will be. And even the “different” you of yesterday being slightly different than that of today, is part of the harmony.
“You’re an interesting species, an interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams — and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone. Only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we found that makes the emptiness bearable, is [love]” -Alien being to astronaut Dr. Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway, in the film Contact (1997)
We all feel so very, very small and tiny and feel like tiny little boats in an immense, immense ocean — and in many ways we are. But equally or more importantly, we are also precious. A tiny diamond (or 8 billion human-being ‘diamonds’ on Earth, not to mention our nonhuman companions in animal kind) is no less precious just because the diamonds are an infinitesimally small fraction of a cosmos filled with dead inanimate matter, too.
Our size is not our value. Our feeling helplessly small in the web of human society, too, is rooted in some truths; none of us has a magic wand to make all wars — or all poverty/hunger/homelessness or other brutalities we could mention — go away. But we can each do our part, as the Helen Keller quote often in the closing quotes reminds us. We must remember that, quite often, we must first nurture ourselves — and get enough sleep (not just “sometimes”) and enough daytime rest/daytimes slowing-down time, even if only one or a few minutes, to take care of ourselves — then our uniqueness can do what it’s here for.
We all make mistakes and must learn to forgive ourselves so we may forgive others, and also to forgive so we can grow and more on and improve and change and evolve so we can move on to better things more in tune with our values. That is our journey…wishing you a great one, but first:
Outro…a poem by an unlikely person..
Here’s another poem, one I saved some 15 years ago, a poem by Jan Lundberg, of the ‘famed’ wealthy oil price analysis family who went the other way, wants organics not oil, chose to replace driveway with a garden, not owning a car last I checked etc(can’t recall if they were disinherited, but definitely opposing Big Oil that most of family is for and with)
THIS IS NO WAY TO LIVE
by Jan Lundberg
Living by the clock.
Eating by the clock.
Clocking your speed down the deathway road.
Surrounded by walls.
Buying things you need that you could have and should
have made or grown.
Not having money to buy the things you need and not
having land that can provide them.
Being told what to do and think by authorities who
serve the rich.
Being subject to innumerable laws designed to control
a rising population.
Getting cancer from chemical exposures deliberately
allowed into the air, water and food.
Paying pharmaceutical companies for questionable cures
when the drugs are just more fossil fuel
derivatives like the chemicals that gave you cancer.
Watching a hard-working society bleed to death from
wars and karmic costs of killing millions
of innocents abroad over the decades.
Being isolated so much that material things serve as friends.
This is no way to live. The list can go on forever, such is the moral
bankruptcy of our “leaders” and the failure of an educational system
that requires mainly conformism.
This is not a “This is how to live.” But think on these things:
Growing more food locally, for everyone.
Taking care of the land, air, and water as if they are ours and our
ancestors’ and descendents’.
Deciding for ourselves what is right, when it comes to action on any
issue.
Making decisions via consensus and not marginalizing or excluding a
segment of the population.
Spending our money in our own economy instead of sending wealth to
corporations in Detroit or “Delaware.”
Having time to spend with your family, friends, and doing what you
want to do.
Educating your own children. Having your parents and grandparents
around to help teach.
Painting or writing your masterpiece.
Singing your song, sharing your poem.
Healing the land as you heal your body.
Loving all whom you chose, if welcome, and restricting no one from
freedoms such as loving.
Taking responsibility for your own life – making your destiny – by
living your adventure.
Learning whatever you can and applying it.
When there is no TV and no petroleum, the above changes can and will
be carried out and not just thought upon.
The entire socioeconomic system is a fraud if it serves up cancer on a
bun: Billions and billions of units “served,” manufactured, broken,
land-filled
It’s too little too late for recycling as a solution to maintain our
present habits. Best get outraged and walk out of the fast food
“restaurant” before allowing one more of your hard earned dollars to
be misappropriated. May love and peace come to you.
–Jan Lundberg
And two much shorter ones in closing:
Gardeners Of Peace
By Donna Phillipe Johnson
We sow seeds of love, to bless the world.
We cultivate quietness, a place to rest.
We create beauty, a place to nourish the spirit.
We practice forgiveness, to release our brothers.
We walk in silence, to heal the mind.
We sing songs of praise, to soothe the heart.
We purify our bodies, that we may serve the Light.
We live simply, that we may experience freedom.
And a generation earlier in 1968, this one:
The Peace of Wild ThingsBy Wendell Berry (born 1934)
When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,I go and lie down where the wood drakerests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.I come into the peace of wild thingswho do not tax their lives with forethoughtof grief. I come into the presence of still water.And I feel above me the day-blind starswaiting with their light. For a timeI rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Never mind that today we know many non-human animals do plan ahead and dream dreams in their sleep; and hard to believe a Zebra doesn’t have PTSD if yesterday a last minute kick by its rear legs got the lioness off her while the week before that she saw another Zebra known for years, torn to shreds by that same lioness and her group; never mind that; it’s the thought that counts. Mindfulness is something we can all practice:
The world will not heal as well if we focus too much time and energy on every terrible thing that happened in the past or every terrible thing that may happen in the future. I’ll post more quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh’s micro-books in the coming weeks/months, but you already have tools at your hands, and in tools in your very breath, that can connect you to the magic of mindfulness, to the magic of the present moment. We can all, and should, spend some moments every day, even in busy times, and even longer times each day when on break from work, to reconnect with the present moment, and help heal ourselves.
Warm winter well-wishes to you all (and warm serene soulful summer-season greetings to our friends “Down Under” on the list)-E.D. #”It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.” -Helen Keller
“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do.” -Helen Keller
“To know, and to not do, is to not yet know.” -Author unknown, cited in Deep Healing by Emmett Miller, M.D.
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.”
-Rabindranath Tagore
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion” -The Dalai Lama
EconDemocracy has been an ally and friend of Resistance Chicks since way back in 2016..a time when The Powers That Be almost got away with (but failed at) stealing the election from Trump..and succeeded in stealing the nomination on the other side from Bernie..and at a time when (as Trump noted) many Bernie voters had a lot in common with MAGA: Opposition NAFTA&TPP; Against Endless and Regime Change wars..against censorship of themselves or anyone else..for sensible infrastructure and for brining American jobs/manufacturing back..some key commonalities with MAGA.. EconDemocracy (E.D.) indeed spoke out against NAFTA in 1993, yes they’ve been around the block a few times..back then it was considered ‘far left’. E.D. also spoke out against the Clintons in the 1990s (and in 2016 created LesserEvil2016.com) spoke out against both the Bush/Cheney disastrous war in Iraq, and against the Obama/Biden/Hillary disasters and Deep State pro-jihadist terrorist wars on Libya and Syria– which (along with Bernie fans being viciously attacked and censored, too) helped E.D. and Resistance Chicks find one another. E.D. believes on respectful dialogue, “agree to disagree/go our separate ways” where there are differences, and most of all, given how the Evil Left Establishment is in league with the Evil Neocon Right/Pro-NAFTA&TPP Right/Deep-State-Loving-Right, we of the sane grassroots anti-establishment citizenry (Left or Right) must UNITE on areas of agreement, and can all learn from one another, even without agreeing on everything. We’ll be stronger and more powerful as we face our enemies, BigTech, censors, The Military Industrial Complex, the commodification of everything including life itself, and the Corporate takeover of the world. Instead we can fight for people over corporations, for organic food and organic living, and for peace, liberty, and love over hate.”