Resilience with a capital R
We are living in monumental times. We are witnessing the breakdown of the industrial growth society that is based on endless growth and consumerism. Ultimately based on disconnection. Human disconnected from themselves, others, Nature, other than human beings and the very cycle of life from the food we eat to the water we drink and the air we breathe.
Part of the Cycle of Life
We are being presented with the opportunity to build a new society. As Joanna Macy calls it, we are in the Great Turning. We are the species who can co-create a thriving, new world based on equitable distribution of resources, justice, and a deep connection to all of Life. We can co-create a world based on those radical ideas of Peace and Love.
Some of the most important qualities we will require to cultivate this Great Turning are generosity, compassion and resilience. Resilience wit a capital R. Here is Andrew Zolli on Resilience thinking.
Moshe Feldenkrais also spoke of resilience. Moshe dreamed in the 70’s and 80’s that his work would affect countless people allowing them embodied awareness of how their internal sensory world could match their external actions. This harmony he termed acture. A state of equal ease to act, think and feel in any direction at any moment without hesitation. With equal ease. This was the basis for true health and empowered action: a state of harmonic resilience.
Nature’s harmonic resilience
Just as Andrew Zolli says, failure is necessary for learning. Moshe used to say about his Awareness Through Movement (ATM) process, “Do the movements poorly.” Study the internal sensation of how you do that poor action in order to truly embody and learn a new option. Otherwise you will mindlessly repeat the same action over and over again. There is no resilience in this compulsion.
Resilient humans have at their core an ability to change without hesitation. With equal ease. Resilience is adaptable, mutable, spontaneous and very vital and strong from those very changing qualities. What a paradox.
Our very nature is resilient. Just like Nature’s nature. Will we look to Nature and back within to cultivate our personal and collective resilience? Without doing so, we appear to be on a path that will not make The Great Turning.
Harsh desert conditions breed a special kind of resilience
Nature gives and takes in harmony. In balance. We can too. Here is a great graduation speech for paradoxical times from Nipun Mehta.
Please join Carrie for an upcoming class or workshop at Feldenkrais and Qi Gong in Seattle. She is leading a Finding the True Nature of Your Sage Within series with the next segment on June 23. You can join in at any time. She can be contacted at (206) 459-1773, http://www.movementfromwithin.net or feldychi@comcast.net.