Posted on No Comments on Earth day Celebration – How art sustains the roots of modern culture

Earth day Celebration – How art sustains the roots of modern culture

My friend and local sculpture, Lauren Trimble, paired with the budding yoga  and community space [ahimsa] in Mile End for an evening of Art & Music: Artic! this Friday night in celebration of earth day.  I was graciously invited to sell and sample some of  Sustainable Healing’s herbal delights.  Thanks folks!   We all envision this to be a celebratory and mindful event, in line with the ethics of Lauren, [ahimsa] and Sustainable Healing.  With the idea of taking things a bit further  I  wanted to ask Lauren about art and it’s relationship with sustainability in our culture.  What is the value of art in a world with so much stuff already?  With over-consumerism  finally becoming not-so-cool?  How do we rationalize buying art or making art in modern day-eco-conscious-no-plastics-leave-no-trace-isms?

Earth Day has become quite the marketing tool in the past ten years, now with multiple websites luring you to events all over the globe.  So I think it’s nice to get back to our roots so to speak and at least try and contemplate some important  and new ideas of why we are celebrating earth day in the first place.  So this one is a bit longer than usual, but give it a chance, there’s much food for thought!

Some brain food from Lauren:

What was the inspiration for combining your vernissage with music and an earth day theme?

“The event really evolved by circumstance. It was Miranda’s idea of the art and music combination for March, that soon had to be April seeing as we needed to find musicians and had no one in mind.  The fact that Earth Day was also my birthday, a Friday night and in April we just went with it. Seeing as [ahimsa] is based on sustainability and non-violence and has gone through some amazing transformations such as the medicine wheel ceremony to create sacred space, it is very, very cool that it is now hosting an Earth Day event.  We will be posting the Earth Charter for everyone to read, and have a place where people can make some conscious affirmations for the Earth.  And the Buddha and torso sculptures I make also fit well with yoga, ahimsa and Earth Day.  The Balkan music to be honest, is for the sheer joy of that kind of music.”

What’s the deeper relationship for you between art and sustainability in our culture? (besides the obviousness that you work with clay and it’s durable earthy-ness!)

“I love saying that clay is, in essence, dirt and that it is one of the oldest materials used to make objects for ceremony, beauty and art. However, beyond that, I feel that art is the place where we put ideas, dreams, thoughts and criticisms.

Art is a creative act directed by mind and heart (the creative element), and according to some, including myself, by external muses and spirits (someone else’s or something else’s heart or spirit).

Art is also the main basis for how we define culture. It is the expression of a culture as much as language is the matrix. Even if art as a critique tries to tear apart culture, or change it or even mock it.  Looking at our own culture, it is easy to see that designed art for marketing intention has taken over our visual landscape and therefore takes on the dominant role of art that we experience.

Is this sustainable over the long term, will people continue to allow their visual senses to absorb up to 5000 advertisements/designs a day in large, urban environments?

It is not hard to understand how input in leads to input out when considering that the brain, in my opinion, functions as a computer. It does not actually create but merely organizes and stores information for use when it is needed. So the dreams and ideas we reflect back into our culture when our hearts are not engaged and when we are not inspired by love, are ones of a marketing stratagem, whatever that implies in our Post-postmodern era!

When I look at most contemporary installation art, the emphasis is on the idea or concept and the medium is only a carrier of that intention. Art is capable of transmitting itself through endless mediums, even those we are trying to reduce or avoid such as plastics, so if the materials are only temporary, and the art itself is only temporary, this is often overlooked as long as the desired effect is performed. The artist then creates a moment in time to be absorbed and felt and that unless it is documented by photography or video, will not last.  It is then thrown away because the construction is usually such that it is not in fact meant to last or it is stored in some unfrequented place to make room for the next installation.  What does this say about the sustainability of the idea, of the lasting impact of the dream?  How can a culture grow and flourish when its roots are never planted and kept in view to grow with the light?  Is it any wonder we all have the sense of constantly starting over or even of making it up as we go along?

I feel the more we leave art to become a mechanistic production of advertisements and the less we support and invest in art created by the heart and created with the intention to last over time, we are in turn making our culture less nourishing and possibly even toxic.  We are forgetting something important about how our collective dreams and ideas can thrive and be sustainable in the long term and continue to grow and evolve for the coming generations.”

mmmm. good food for thought.  How does art weave sustainably or not into your life?

Join us for more juicy conversation & awesome Balkan Gypsy music!

Friday at 8:30pm at [ahimsa]

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Posted on No Comments on Qi Gong (or: What is an inanimate object, really?)

Qi Gong (or: What is an inanimate object, really?)

A couple of weeks ago I took time to have what turned out to be an amazing phone conversation with Paul Fraser,  qi gong teacher, practitioner, healer.  He doesn’t really know this (yet!) but it really helped me turn my week around.

It was one of those conversations that could so easily have been “let me go on and on about myself for that free promo of my course and work” and instead it was a deep and sweet reminder of the underlying connection between us all, and a couple of weeks ago I really need this reminder.

The idea was:  I wanted to see if I could authentically, ethically recommend this fellow as he is teaching a full medical qi gong training here in Montreal for the 2nd time starting in February.

In brief: Take this course! This fellow is an amazing teacher. I can now say that if you are interested in qi gong, check out his  free lecture on February 24.  And even see if the weekend trainings are for you.

So what is gi gong? And even more juicy:  Why might you want to practice it?

Gong: work, movement, act, cultivation,  done with devotion over a long period of time.

Qi:  energy, basically anything that promotes, protects, nurtures life.

In Paul’s words:  (because I wanted him to tell me why it should even be in a blog about sustainable healing!)

“It’s probably one of the most sustainable systems of medicine there is:  if it’s done properly there are no risks, no side effects, no waste and no equipment. The power source is Universal Energy (QI) and there is an unlimited supply. The practice of cultivating this Universal Energy brings the practitioner into a deep state of calm, with an expanded awareness of the inherent Life in all things.”

And here is the really juicy part:   “This helps to foster a type of reverence for the Natural World, it’s inhabitants and their relationship to one another.  Feeling the deep connection of all of us to one another, to our planet, and even beyond, tends to make us more cooperative and respectful.  More than just an idea or theory, it gives us the experience that we are all in this together.”

This experience that we are part of something, or even just part of the whole, is one that we all seek, no matter what culture, creed, or healing art you practice.

As Paul so aptly puts it:  “ Practices like these could well be our saving graces as human beings. Helping us to move past our primal fear towards the point of recognition that we are different manifestations for one divine organism.”  We might have enough experiences of this we may begin to wonder:  “what really is an inanimate object?”  The lines begin to blur.  yay!

A great practice for us urban dwellers where everything seems disconnected and concrete at times. or most of the time?

This is reassuring in itself, when I am reminded of the great qi gong/yoga divide in my city (and most likely everywhere?).  We are all practicing the same thing here folks!

A sense of oneness, wholeness, samadhi, whatever you want to call it, and however you want to practice it:  little glimpses of this are what we keep going back to these practices for, whether it is qi gong, meditation, yoga, asana, a run in the woods.

We gently and furiously swing from isolation to communion in our lives and the sense of connection we can tap into with a practice like qi gong keeps that pendulum going at a more even rate.

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Posted on 1 Comment on Conversation

Conversation

The need to question and contemplate and continually re-evaluate is where the change and enlightening revelation come from. Everyday.

Communication about how we feel, why we choose what we do and what it all means: this is the means to healing and changing the social, economic, environmental imbalances all around us. It all begins and ends with self-reflection and sharing, this is real community building.

I like this: communi-ty communi-cation. They both have the same Latin roots “com-mun” or “cum” meaning together or with each other, and “munus” meaning gift or offerings. Very cool.

“Resolution begins within the Self”, or so Thich Nhat Hanh aptly reminds us. This begins with dialogue. With ourselves, with each other.

I focus on this type of dialogue when I work with clients. If you have ever had a session with me, this is the starting point: beginning the dialogue with yourself, what is your body communicating to you, right now? Take some time with your breath and LISTEN.

So a great place to start and, easy to say, but do we do it? Well of course not all the time! Human beings such as we are, but I want to try and I want to surround myself with folks who want this as well. Once we start getting to know ourselves so to speak, on a fairly regular basis, it becomes much easier to begin sharing, dialoguing with each other.

This is the sustainable platform from which we plunge deep into the choices we make everyday. Why sustainable? I think it is because we can not merely claim ourselves “holistic” “healthy” “eco-friendly” “green” “ethical” “yogic minded”. For me it has to run deeper than this.

Just choosing an action, an exercise, a lifestyle and latching on to it, without any personal inquiry into why or how this impacts our every moment actions, makes these motions merely that: a motion, without a deeply personal thread running through. All of these “labels” by their nature require us to be constantly self-reflective and to share with others our thoughts, experiences, doubts, revelations, and hopefully our willingness to evolve, to adapt.

Here are some folks who I feel are inspirations:

Yoga Community Toronto. It seems so simple, the idea, let’s just get together all the amazing people in our local community who are doing amazing work already. But yet! It’s almost revelatory because it’s just not happening all that much, yet….. Just this past weekend was the Yoga Festival Toronto and to be truthful I did contemplate going but I had to resist and continue working on projects here, right in my own city, my own community, my own home, and truthfully, in my own being. This felt right to me and I think that the beauty of what the organizers of the this festival are fostering is something that we can all learn from and transpose to our own local communities. I think we really can be inspired from a distance and then act wherever we actually are. Check out their manifesto, it’s truly beautiful and inspiring.

University of the Streets Café. Have you been yet? These local events are happening all over the city, and the whole point is: yes! You guessed it: Conversation! Amazing, so simple, but yet so effective! From travel, to transition, to letting go, to storytelling, to education impact, to food issues, discussions focus on what’s affecting our lives in our community around us. Get people talking, sharing about important, current, even trendy issues and boom! Things start happening. I love it. The new semester starts up sometime in September.

More inspirations to come! What are yours? What conversation do you want to have?

So here’s my mission: Be Brave! It’s not easy to converse about things that are “difficult” or “controversial”, just like it’s not “easy” to really feel what’s going on in my body all the time, sometimes it’s uncomfortable, but I care about myself, my body, my everything, and my community, so I take the time. In the end it’s worth it.

The need to question and contemplate and continually re-evaluate is where the change and enlightening revelation come from. Everyday.

Communication about how we feel, why we choose what we do and what it all means: this is the means to healing and changing the social, economic, environmental imbalances all around us. It all begins and ends with self-reflection and sharing, this is real community building.

I like this: communi-ty communi-cation. They both have the same Latin roots “com-mun” or “cum” meaning together or with each other, and “munus” meaning gift or offerings. Very cool.

“Resolution begins within the Self”, or so Thich Nhat Hanh aptly reminds us. This begins with dialogue. With ourselves, with each other.

I focus on this type of dialogue when I work with clients. If you have ever had a session with me, this is the starting point: beginning the dialogue with yourself, what is your body communicating to you, right now? Take some time with your breath and LISTEN.

So a great place to start and, easy to say, but do we do it? Well of course not all the time! Human beings such as we are, but I want to try and I want to surround myself with folks who want this as well. Once we start getting to know ourselves so to speak, on a fairly regular basis, it becomes much easier to begin sharing, dialoguing with each other.

This is the sustainable platform from which we plunge deep into the choices we make everyday. Why sustainable? I think it is because we can not merely claim ourselves “holistic” “healthy” “eco-friendly” “green” “ethical” “yogic minded”. For me it has to run deeper than this.

Just choosing an action, an exercise, a lifestyle and latching on to it, without any personal inquiry into why or how this impacts our every moment actions, makes these motions merely that: a motion, without a deeply personal thread running through. All of these “labels” by their nature require us to be constantly self-reflective and to share with others our thoughts, experiences, doubts, revelations, and hopefully our willingness to evolve, to adapt.

Here are some folks who I feel are inspirations:

Yoga Community Toronto. It seems so simple, the idea, let’s just get together all the amazing people in our local community who are doing amazing work already. But yet! It’s almost revelatory because it’s just not happening all that much, yet….. Just this past weekend was the Yoga Festival Toronto and to be truthful I did contemplate going but I had to resist and continue working on projects here, right in my own city, my own community, my own home, and truthfully, in my own being. This felt right to me and I think that the beauty of what the organizers of the this festival are fostering is something that we can all learn from and transpose to our own local communities. I think we really can be inspired from a distance and then act wherever we actually are. Check out their manifesto, it’s truly beautiful and inspiring.

University of the Streets Café. Have you been yet? These local events are happening all over the city, and the whole point is: yes! You guessed it: Conversation! Amazing, so simple, but yet so effective! From travel, to transition, to letting go, to storytelling, to education impact, to food issues, discussions focus on what’s affecting our lives in our community around us. Get people talking, sharing about important, current, even trendy issues and boom! Things start happening. I love it. The new semester starts up sometime in September.

More inspirations to come! What are yours? What conversation do you want to have?

So here’s my mission: Be Brave! It’s not easy to converse about things that are “difficult” or “controversial”, just like it’s not “easy” to really feel what’s going on in my body all the time, sometimes it’s uncomfortable, but I care about myself, my body, my everything, and my community, so I take the time. In the end it’s worth it.

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Posted on No Comments on Turn Off Your Computer!

Turn Off Your Computer!

So I’m on line a lot. A whole lot. And today was a day of getting down to some planning of events and workshops for the Fall “semester”, or so I thought. A productive day for sure, meetings and schedules getting solidified, workshops taking more concrete shape. But do you ever have one of those days, where no one that you really need to hear form is emailing you back? Where your computer world just sloooows down? Facebook is quieter than normal, the inbox is full, but only of spam, does this ever happen to you? Well, today was that day for me, and I couldn’t help myself: I just kept on checking. Kept on going back to my laptop. And my laptop by the way! I love it! Truly. It’s sleek pseudo-enviro-friendly-aluminum-macbook pro-unibody, and long lasting battery, make me feel better about using it a lot. And don’t even get me started about my ical! But when nothing’s going on, why can’t I just take the hint and turn it off? Isn’t this is the more sustainable choice that praising the more earth friendly features of my closest computer friend? It may have taken me all day to learn this but I can take a hint. Really.

So I’m on line a lot. A whole lot. And today was a day of getting down to some planning of events and workshops for the Fall “semester”, or so I thought. A productive day for sure, meetings and schedules getting solidified, workshops taking more concrete shape. But do you ever have one of those days, where no one that you really need to hear form is emailing you back? Where your computer world just sloooows down? Facebook is quieter than normal, the inbox is full, but only of spam, does this ever happen to you? Well, today was that day for me, and I couldn’t help myself: I just kept on checking. Kept on going back to my laptop. And my laptop by the way! I love it! Truly. It’s sleek pseudo-enviro-friendly-aluminum-macbook pro-unibody, and long lasting battery, make me feel better about using it a lot. And don’t even get me started about my ical! But when nothing’s going on, why can’t I just take the hint and turn it off? Isn’t this is the more sustainable choice that praising the more earth friendly features of my closest computer friend? It may have taken me all day to learn this but I can take a hint. Really.

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Posted on No Comments on "Quote Of The Day"

"Quote Of The Day"

I just re-joined facebook recently and I am still struggling with the whole “status” thing. When, if, what, how. Or not. And then I came across this really great quote which put my feelings about bodywork, yoga and teaching into a not-too-wordy phrasing. And now, of course, I am plastering this awesome quote everywhere.


“What we’re teaching in massage (bodywork) and counseling is refining our capacity to be sensitive to another’s state by being continually vigilant of our own.” -Constance Buck

Whoa! Sustainable or what? For me this is it. It’s work to be truly vigilant of our own state, real work, no question about that. And mainstream north american culture (where I live!) definitely does not support this type of vigilance. Feed the masses, dope ’em up with feel good, forget everything, cushy couchness of don’t-worry-just-google-it. Which was my initial resistance to the whole blog thing in the first place. I mean, seriously what can you really trust on the internet anyway?

Nonetheless, I forged onward, mostly because of the very sentiment of today’s quote: If I am as vigilant as I can be (keeping in mind my humanness!) then I am doing healthy, sustainable work with my clients and students.
I want to reflect back this concept to them. How can any of us in the field of complimentary medicines truly be there for our clients if we are not continually there for our own selves? Simply, we can not. We must continually do our own work and continue our own studentship. And never forget that we too need help!
For me the sustainability lies in my ability to continue this presence and vigilance in my own life and impart this to clients and students, so that they can do this for themselves and not be dependent on my sessions or classes indefinitely.
This is the sustainable gift: to foster self-awareness
This is the gift that lasts, this is seed saving, this is reducing our footprint, this is mindfulness, this yoga, this is meditation, this non-violence, this is yamas and niyamas, this is presence.
For me.

I just re-joined facebook recently and I am still struggling with the whole “status” thing. When, if, what, how. Or not. And then I came across this really great quote which put my feelings about bodywork, yoga and teaching into a not-too-wordy phrasing. And now, of course, I am plastering this awesome quote everywhere.


“What we’re teaching in massage (bodywork) and counseling is refining our capacity to be sensitive to another’s state by being continually vigilant of our own.” -Constance Buck

Whoa! Sustainable or what? For me this is it. It’s work to be truly vigilant of our own state, real work, no question about that. And mainstream north american culture (where I live!) definitely does not support this type of vigilance. Feed the masses, dope ’em up with feel good, forget everything, cushy couchness of don’t-worry-just-google-it. Which was my initial resistance to the whole blog thing in the first place. I mean, seriously what can you really trust on the internet anyway?

Nonetheless, I forged onward, mostly because of the very sentiment of today’s quote: If I am as vigilant as I can be (keeping in mind my humanness!) then I am doing healthy, sustainable work with my clients and students.
I want to reflect back this concept to them. How can any of us in the field of complimentary medicines truly be there for our clients if we are not continually there for our own selves? Simply, we can not. We must continually do our own work and continue our own studentship. And never forget that we too need help!
For me the sustainability lies in my ability to continue this presence and vigilance in my own life and impart this to clients and students, so that they can do this for themselves and not be dependent on my sessions or classes indefinitely.
This is the sustainable gift: to foster self-awareness
This is the gift that lasts, this is seed saving, this is reducing our footprint, this is mindfulness, this yoga, this is meditation, this non-violence, this is yamas and niyamas, this is presence.
For me.

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Posted on No Comments on Oh Dear! Not another "Self-Help Blog"!

Oh Dear! Not another "Self-Help Blog"!


Welcome! and be forewarned for many more exclamation marks to come.
What does this even mean? Sustainable You? It can mean so many things, sustainable is such a trendy hipster phrase these days, which is cool, but really at the root of living sustainably is getting to know yourself (and others and the rest of the natural world), which is also cool. And it’s what I am into.
So here will be many things that I find are sustainable and why. Things that help me to connect and re-connect to my community, the earth, and mostly myself, ’cause it all starts there.

So, yes, in essence another self-help blog. What can I say? and really, what can you expect in 2010, anyway?
Self-help is where it’s at. Help yourself first, get out of your own way and out into your world.

And it’s not all new-agey, green, pseudo eco-chic, locavore, organic goodness by the way. Sometimes all these words are not all they are cracked up to be and we’ll check out why.


Welcome! and be forewarned for many more exclamation marks to come.
What does this even mean? Sustainable You? It can mean so many things, sustainable is such a trendy hipster phrase these days, which is cool, but really at the root of living sustainably is getting to know yourself (and others and the rest of the natural world), which is also cool. And it’s what I am into.
So here will be many things that I find are sustainable and why. Things that help me to connect and re-connect to my community, the earth, and mostly myself, ’cause it all starts there.

So, yes, in essence another self-help blog. What can I say? and really, what can you expect in 2010, anyway?
Self-help is where it’s at. Help yourself first, get out of your own way and out into your world.

And it’s not all new-agey, green, pseudo eco-chic, locavore, organic goodness by the way. Sometimes all these words are not all they are cracked up to be and we’ll check out why.

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