“At this late stage baby steps won’t do … we need to leap ... now” – Naomi Klein, Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Sydney. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5LuIAJEFUc
The current global crisis presses in on each of us. The largest movement of displaced people (refugees) since the 2nd WW is a moral dilemma and humanitarian crisis. Are we to be frozen with fear and paralyzed by hopelessness?
I ask myself: "What is the role of this work I do, or this work that we do, in such a situation?" Can shifting states within our bodyminds access action that enables change in our social and political systems? For me this work has always been about moving beyond the personal to the social and political body. We have no time to waste. We are all involved at this moment in history.
There are many invitations to despair. I want this work to be an invitation to incisive action, beginning in our communities and extending out from there to engage with environmental, social and political organizations and change. "The only real antidote to cynicism is activism – to engage” Billy Bragg.
Border control makes us an incarcerated country - defensive - an Australian trait I only understood once I left and experienced other cultures. On top of this, the bullying tactics and ineptitude of our current government offends our intelligence.
When I walk in the bush at Riddells Creek, I feel my blood course through me. Ah, I am alive! Moving is a way to loosen the constraints of populist thinking and political inaction. Practicing care for self and others creates the foundation for living together in the world with dignity and caring for the planet.
I don’t know the answers. Perhaps as Gertrude Stein said, “There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.” Perhaps it is not about answers but about questions. Having the courage to find the inquiry. Engaging in both from within and between our bodyminds, communities, cultures, and countries. It can begin with us.
This work is an in-depth approach to the dynamic bodymind, which then builds the capacity to be responsive to many different situations that impact on our lives. Change is imminent and our ability to deal with change can be profoundly supported by somatic knowledge, understanding and intelligence.