Interbeing is our superpower
Ferbuary practice focuses: solidarity, co-regulating our nervous systems with the earth, dwelling in joy, social media breaks
Dear beloved readers,
This past weekend was the mid-way point between the solstice and the equinox - Imbolc, Candlemas, Groundhog Day - a good time for checking in with the aspirations and intentions you made with December magic.
How is it going so far?
As I shared last week, if I had to name January in retrospect, it would be overwhelm, and I struggled with living into my aspirations for 2025. I was still recovering from the respiratory infection I’ve had since November, and my voice didn’t feel up for singing. Too much phone, still.
But, we can begin again.
For the month of February, I am focusing on some practices to counter the overwhelm:
Taking a social media hiatus.
Co-regulating my nervous system with the earth.
Dwelling in joy as much as possible.
Solidarity, by supporting those being directly impacted by current crises.
How are you practicing with the precarity of this moment? What practices are supporting you?
What do you need to stop doing to make space for more of what you want to be doing? Or just making more space?
Where can you practice and remember that you are not alone, that you are part of a vastness much bigger than yourself?
Solidarity
At the moment, I know many people who are being directly impacted by the myriad ongoing crises (California wildfires, anti-LGBTQIA+ attacks in the US, the global fallout of USAID funding freeze, and on and on). I am fortunate to be distant from the immediate impacts, and am trying to support others as best I can, through emotional support, through donations. Solidarity is an essential practice for these times. Solidarity is a practice of interbeing, an expression of knowing our deep interconnectedness and that we can only be well and free together. As Puerto Rican writer, poet, and activist Aurora Levins Morales wrote on Patreon last week, solidarity is how we win, and solidarity is how we get free. We have to try to express this every chance we get in every way that we can.
If you have resources to spare and are looking for ways to practice solidarity, here are a few mutual aid opportunities:
How are you practicing and expressing solidarity in this moment?
If you are being impacted, how can we best support you?
Social media breaks as a practice of renewal
I know a lot of folks are fleeing the Meta platforms in the wake of the recent changes to their hate speech and misinformation monitoring and the rise of the broligarchy. Sometimes, though, you can’t outright leave these platforms. For example, WhatApp is the main way that people communicate in Costa Rica, and most businesses here have Facebook pages instead of websites. If I want to be in communication with people where I live (which I do), I need to be on WhatsApp and Facebook for the foreseeable future (this is true for many places outside the US that WhatsApp is the main channel for communication).
In lieu of leaving outright, I decided to take a social media break for the month of February to support my practice of devoting my attention to things that are life-giving and joy-enhancing. I imagine like you, dear reader, social media is a mixed bag, and can meet my need for connection while also toxifying my life and stealing my attention. Social media is not engineered for us to be in right relationship with it - it is, by design, addictive and meant for us to keep scrolling and clicking. Periodic social media breaks help me restore some balance in my life, give me a little more spaciousness to reset the relationship to it and reminding me of where else I want to be putting the valuable currency and energetic exchange of my attention.
If you need a break, take one.
Or, is there something else you need a break from, that taking might be a gift for yourself?
How are you grappling with and navigating your use of these technologies amidst the current political climate?
What might you practice letting go of to make space for more of what you want?
Co-regulating my nervous system with the Earth
We were at the beach last weekend, and the gift of waking up to the sound of ocean waves and its vastness reminded me that I need to practice co-regulating my nervous system with the Earth. This is an antidote to overwhelm. Returning to what I wrote about this last summer:
Much like a parent needs to stay calm to help co-regulate with their child when they are upset and dysregulated, so can we co-regulate with our Mother Earth. The earth is our parent, and we are the earth, and our nervous system is part of this deeper, more expansive intelligence. Our own emotions can be overwhelming, and when we can remember we are a part of this wider whole, the earth can help hold them with us, making them lighter, helping them dissipate, helping us regulate.
The function of the nervous system is to send messages back to the brain to tell our bodies what to do. If we can imagine our nervous system to be larger than ourselves, extending into the earth, perhaps we can tap into the wider deeper and wider intelligence we are a part of, receiving signals about how to be in better relationship, how to take more skillful actions.
When I am experiencing an emotion that feels too big for my body, that feels like it is crushing me (as January month felt), I can remember that I am a small part of a much larger whole, and the whole can help take care of me. I am not in this alone, and there are forces much larger that I can tap into for support, right in front of me and all around me.
We don’t need to travel far to access this co-regulation. We can connect with our breath, the ground beneath our feet, and the sky above us to remember this vastness, and remember that the earth is here for us.
Dwelling in joy
In the Plum Village tradition, we have a practice of watering seeds of joy. I described this practice in my post on attention as reciprocity:
Another practice I love that I’ve learned in the Plum Village tradition is watering seeds of joy and happiness (and any other feelings you want to experience more of). The practice is simple, and based on the understanding that we all contain all the seeds or mental formations in our consciousness, such as happiness, joy, fear, anger, etc. As a practice, we try to avoid watching the seeds we don’t want to water- not watching toxic TV shows, for example. And we actively try to do things that water what we do want to water- things that bring us joy, for example. When you have an experience of one of these feelings, you try to notice and dwell in it - not in a grasping or clinging kind of way, but in a dwelling and appreciating kind of way. These are subtle differences, and it’s a rich practice.
Dwelling in joy means actively seeking it out, noticing it when it arises, and staying with it when it does. It’s taking an extra few breaths with the bougainvillea flower when I notice its beauty, or giving my full attention to how much I love coffee while I am drinking it. It is a reminder that amidst the overwhelm, joy is available in every moment. When it feels like the overwhelm is all there is, joy reminds me that there is another truth, another place to put my attention. It doesn’t mean the overwhelm goes away or isn’t there, but it helps it dissipate a bit, a reminder that these experiences can co-exist, and that it’s not just all overwhelm. Amidst the overwhelm, there is joy.
The forces of domination thrive on the delusion of separation. These systems and the people running them want us to feel separate because when we do, we are powerless. Overwhelmed.
They also would like us to be stuck in a state of overwhelm and caught in the drama, and forget that the beautiful world is worth fighting for. That the Earth is our mother, our caregiver, and deserves our love, devotion, and care. That other ways of being exist, other worlds are possible, and the beauty and joy are what will ultimately get us there. And that we can only get there together, in solidarity with one another.
At the core of all of these practices to counter overwhelm is remembering our interbeing: our interconnectedness, remembering that we are not alone and we are part of a vastness much larger than ourselves. Remembering our interbeing is our superpower. Every moment we can remember this, practice it, act like it, we are creating a better world for us all.
Sending you my solidarity, love, and care, and wishing you glimmers of joy out there,
Stephanie