Why I do what I do
I've chosen to focus my life on the things that feed and heal me - movement, creativity, connection and nature. I've chosen to focus my work on empowering others to do the same. But my work isn't simply about personal empowerment and healing, far from it; my work is motivated by a recognition that the only way that change can and will occur at a collective level is if each of us takes responsibility for our own personal healing.
The personal is political. Everything is relationship.
When I decide to take responsibility for my own health and healing, it entails adjustments in my relationship with others and the world around me. It can be no other way. My healing requires a recalibration and realignment with the other elements around me.
Everything is connected.
My health and vitality require me to voice my needs and boundaries; they require me to face my hurts and tend to them, rather than seeking to find quick fixes or paper over them. They demand of me to courageously and authentically invite my humanity - my heart and soul - to animate and guide my movement in the world.
To heal I have to challenge inherited beliefs and structures that are causing me dis-ease. I have to take my power (my accountability, my responsibility) back from the people, structures and ideologies that I have given it away to - often out of fear. And I have to give power back to those I have taken it from in efforts to secure myself (often out of fear). In other words, I have to find my place within the greater whole of which I am a part, and I have to choose to face fear with love.
Healing and politics are both about power. The study of politics, is the study of power.
Before I committed myself to wellness and the healing arts, I studied politics and worked in community development. I found joy immersing myself in political philosophy, pondering the way the world works. I discovered that belief and ideology were key determinants in the shape of our political structures and society. I recognised the power of belief. And I also witnessed the power of compassion and forgiveness as core ingredients for the flourishing of collaboration - and collective evolution. (It's absence, resulting in stalemate and stagnancy within a system, i.e. disease.)
Healing at a personal level is also about power. The study and practice of healing is the study and practice of the compassionate and loving application of power - both within and with others.
Politics is power. Healing is power. Both require us to take up our place and accept our accountability for our own bodily systems and the human and planetary system of which we are a part. Personal healing, is collective healing.
And yet both politics and the world of 'healing' have been largely subverted and morphed into something that no longer bears the true marks of compassionate interaction.
We have accepted this manipulation through our complicit actions and silence. We have accepted the subjugation of our own power (and others') through our unwillingness to accept full accountability for ourselves, or to voice our true beliefs and inner knowing.
And hence I have chosen to do what I do. To focus on healing myself, while also supporting others to reclaim their own power and capacity to heal.
The truth is, we're all broken. We're broken together. And it's perfectly okay.
Indeed, it's in the recognition and acceptance of this, that we find the love, peace and safety we've all been searching for. It's in the acceptance of this that we find our connection and place within the greater whole - where things can truly begin to heal.
For too long I've held back words and thoughts like this out of fear. Fear of isolation or judgment or appearing a bit too 'kooky'. No longer. I will no longer remain silent. My belief in humanity, my burning belief in our power to heal and my love for the Earth we walk upon no longer allow me to withhold the words that flow through my heart from the soil we stand upon.
And so, my focus on wellness and creativity in life is not purely driven by the joy and aliveness it offers me (and can offer others) - at heart it is motivated by a deep knowing that personal healing is collective healing; that personal power cannot be tasted, attained or retained without giving to and loving the world and other forms of life around us.
Everything is relationship.
Meditate on these words, let them sink into every cell.
Begin to take back your power and lovingly commit yourself to honouring and nurturing yourself - knowing that by doing so, you will inevitably help others to heal along the way. Begin to take ownership of your own wellbeing and you will, by necessity, begin to honour the Earth upon which you stand, and all of our relations.