EFT, also called Tapping, is a great mind/body tool that’s been shown to alleviate stress and change stuck emotional patterns in our nervous system. In this video, Christine Penner Polle, climate-concerned mom and author of Unfreeze Yourself: Five ways to take action on climate change NOW for the sake of your family, your health, and the planet offers this simple and effective method of stress-relief specifically for other climate-concerned parents, grandparents, and young people.Clearing out the stress and fear and anger allows more room for joy and love, which is what we need more of as we heal the planet.
To find out more about the science behind Tapping to go EFTUniverse.com.
“Our true home is in the present moment. The miracle is not to walk on water. the miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment. Peace is all around us – in the world and in nature – and within us – in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed. It is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of practice. We need only to bring our body and mind into the present moment, and we will touch what is refreshing, healing, and wondrous.”
Today is 10-10-10, and all across the world millions of people are getting to work on climate change, and sending a message to our politicians – “We’re getting to work, what about you?”
In the spirit of global connection, people are invited to take 10 minutes at 10:00 today to pray, chant or meditate for healing of our relationships with each other and the earth. More links:
And don’t forget to go to 350.org to check out the latest pictures and updates on the 7347 events happening around the world, where people are getting to work on climate change. And while you’re there, click on their “call your leaders” widget to get the number for your elected officials. Then, pick up the phone and call them, to tell them you’ve gotten to work on climate change, now it’s their turn.
Right now at The Forks, a place where people have been gathering since time before memory, things are happening that hold out hope for the rest of the world. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) chose this spot, where the Red and the Assiniboine Rivers meet in the prairie city of Winnipeg, to hold its first of seven National Events over the next five years. For four days this week, First Nations, Metis, and Inuit survivors of Indian Residential Schools and their families, as well as former school employees, are gathering to share their experiences with the TRC. Other Canadians are welcome as well, as the mandate of the Commission includes telling Canadians about the history of the Indian Residential Schools and the impacts it has had on Aboriginal children who were sent to the schools by the Canadian government. Commissioner Mary Wilson says:
“We can all learn from the lessons of the past, and walk toward respectful relations for the future… for the child taken, and the parent left behind.”
Wednesday night my partner and I were in the crowd of 18,000 as Buffy Sainte Marie and Blue Rodeo played an outdoor concert. The highlight for me was when Aboriginal leader and former MLA Elijah Harper addressed the crowd after a performance of “Fools Like You”, a song Blue Rodeo wrote about Mr. Harper and the Meech Lake Accord, when he stood up for his people and single-handedly blocked a vote in the Manitoba Legislature that would have bypassed public consultation on a major constitutional change (click here for more info on this chapter of Canadian political history). Mr. Harper, a survivor of residential school himself, spoke of reconciliation, saying “We’re on a journey of hope and healing…Forgiveness is the most important thing.”
I spent more time at the Forks on Thursday morning, and was privileged to watch the Pipe Ceremony and Four Direction Drum calling. I then spent time in the “Learning Tent” where Chief Robert Joseph, a hereditary chief of the Gwa wa enuk First Nation in British Columbia, led a healing circle. He shared his story of healing after spending 10 years at St. Michael’s Indian Residential School at Alert Bay on the central coast of British Colombia as a boy. Chief Joseph emphasized the spiritual nature of the healing that is needed, and invited everyone to become ambassadors of this reconciliation process:
It begins and ends with you, with individuals. We can change. We have the will, the power, and the spirit. We can leave here with new hope and a new vision of wellness for all people. We dare to look at a different future, a different kind of relationship. We can make every place sacred on this Turtle Island.
I have come away from this time at the TRC events humbled by the graciousness of the Aboriginal people and their leaders, and filled with hope that this continent’s First Peoples will lead the way to healing our relationships with each other and with the earth. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is traveling the country for the next five years with its message of healing and forgiveness. Five years is about the time we have to dramatically change our relationship to the earth, before we have irreparably damaged our Mother. We are doomed if we can’t change our Western/European mindset, that of the colonizer and dominator, which has got us into this sorry state of affairs. It’s this kind of thinking that says making money is more important than being good stewards of the earth. If we can adopt a more indigenous way of looking at the world which recognizes that we are part of the interconnected web of life, and all life is sacred, then there is hope. This view of the world is what I saw in action this week at the Forks. In spite of their lands and way of life being taken, in spite of their children being stolen and abused, the Original Peoples of this country are still willing to extend a hand to their colonizers and abusers and walk together towards a different future. I am humbled and awed. Meegwich, from the bottom of my heart.
Former St. Micheals Residential School Alert Bay. Photo - Iwona Kellie
Good Friday is the day set aside in the Christian calendar to meditate on the death of Jesus on the cross. Millenia later, we are crucifying Mother Earth with our toxins, our garbage, our greed.
“The Earth can heal herself; we just have to stop making her sick!”
