Somatic Sustainability

Human, we are complex open systems interwoven into other complex open systems, themselves interwoven as well. We are in constant inter-action, inter-relation, inter-connection with the people, things and systems with which we live. Separate and all part of larger wholes there is constant tension; a desire simultaneously pulling us to separate and connect.

We locate and make sense of the world through our selves, our bodies. Our bodies hold us, contain us, some people would say-restrain us. Our histories as humans are etched in our bodies: scars, a limp, one hip higher than the other, tight shoulders, nervous energy, fight or flight. Our lived history lives on within us and…the body never lies.

The next time you think about sustainability think about how you sustain your self, your body. What is your relationship to this living vessel of skin, blood and bone that sustains you? How aware are you of this body that is keenly aware of you and the world around you? What memories and emotions are living in that knot of muscles in your shoulders? How did that knot get there? What would happen if that knot came undone? 

Separate from and together with our bodies, our selves.

By the time we acknowledge and say we are “stressed” our bodies have known it for a long time. By the time we acknowledge and say the oceans are getting warmer, the oceans have known it for a long time. Just ask the coral. Just ask your body. Complex open systems: always in motion, in continual response to other systems. Like dancing.

Something compels us to move, to talk, sing, run and eat, to write. We know more than we think. We know. Just ask your body.

 

Tags: somatics, sustainability