Align Your Orbit #71 - Re-source
Align Your Orbit is a series of philosophical and somatic experiments to guide ourselves toward intentionality and impact. Synthesized after years of conversations and now with inspirations from MidJourney, we’re fully embracing our cyborg natures. Find delight in these journeys of exploration. If you would like to receive these offerings as an email on the new moon, sign up here.
As the mycelial network of regenerative communities continues to grow, dreamspace becomes dense with information, energy, and sustenance. Drink deeply of this well whenever you have access. Seek new relationships with greenspaces around you and ask how they want you to interact. Listen for the answer.
Humans are beings of movement. We are the earth’s hands. You are called to use your own to nourish the landscape. Accept the gifts offered in return.
((Playlist is on hiatus this month. Check back in on the next new moon.))
New Experiments
1. between land and sky – One of the simplest and most accessible ways to rejuvenate your energy is to remember that you are a conduit between earth and air. Your feet and head pass information into these greater processes, and that flow goes both ways. When you feel stress, stop and feel your feet against the earth. Raise your hands into the sky. Allow yourself to be held and nourished in their combined presence.
Challenge Mode: Giving gifts to the land need not be complex. Your urine contains phosphorus and nitrates that many soils lack. Finding places to offer your body’s water to the land saves water and electricity. Explore spaces that allow you to fully interact and contribute to the land. Offer the earth a part of yourself to remember you are not separate.
2. wind the path – One principle of permaculture is to implement slow, small solutions and watch the outcome closely. Inside the dominant culture’s insatiable need for convenience, this approach takes more time and energy. Remind yourself that winding paths in creeks and rivers allow for more water to soak into soil. Your energy need not become runoff.
Challenge Mode: As a being, you have many resources to manage. Explore how it feels to be precise about which resource you presently lack. If you decline to go to an event, are you low on time, energy, or interest? Feel into the places where this radical honesty is difficult and offer grace to yourself for your gentle navigation of the world.
3. we are each downstream – Everything we do affects everyone else, and we are affected in turn. Knowing this, it is tempting to control others’ ability to act. Instead, if you are experiencing friction with a being who might cause harm, ask what the hidden need is. Even invasive species are filing a necessary niche in the ecosystem. Widen your lens and approach with compassion.
Challenge Mode: When someone approaches a group with a dissenting opinion, their objection and ability to withstand groupthink is a gift. Honor this differing perspective first and foremost. Use this moment as a catalyst for group cohesion, community, and communication. Allow for disagreements to take more time. Take a breath as you value this participation.
4. as we recycle breath – When your body and your subconscious communicate and are in alignment, there is peace. Experience the edge of that friction with breathwork. Feel into the moment your lungs ache for air and gently coax your body into relaxation instead. You have everything you need around you. You are safe. You are held. Your lungs are allowed to be empty.
Challenge Mode: The first time you do a stretch, it aches and maybe even feels awkward. Returning to a pose after time reminds you of your stiffness. Practice doing the same stretch repetitively during your movement practice, observing how it feels to deepen the movement with each repetition. Give your body time to expand into the sensation. Offer yourself patience and understanding.
Andra’s Recap of What We Bring Back
The experiments last cycle included healing yourselves through the perceptions of others, honoring the process of becoming, calling in the entities, and feeling into the full well of your own capacity.
This month, I had the tremendous privilege to visit Lost Valley Education Center and Meadowsong Ecovillage in Dexter, OR. I met so many incredible people dedicated to sustainability and love of the land. During my time there, several people asked me, “may I offer you a reflection?” as a means of providing me with commentary or feedback about their experience of me. I always felt like I had the capacity to say yes, and those felt like fruitful and nourishing exchanges. I also soaked up so much learning about permaculture, non-violent communication, sociocracy, and sustainability, which has changed me and where I want to go from here.
The challenge mode there was to touch others like I want them to be free. The place that came up for me most was during an experiment in contact improvisation, which is a dance style where you “never stop leaning in” to the other person, whether physically or energetically, and you see what wants to happen. It is playful and sometimes silly but has always been freeing in the ways that it encourages novel forms of movement in the body.
I was, as I had hoped to be, humbled in my trip to Lost Valley. The people there knew so much about forestry, animal stewardship, gardening, and permaculture. I didn’t berate myself about my lack of understanding. Instead, I treated it as an enormous opportunity to learn and asked incessant questions about anything that lit my curiosity fire. It was absolutely glorious.
Speaking from my own perspective has been very present, especially as I navigate a few deepening friendships. But, after training with non-violent communication, I have found myself craving more ways to instill non-violent listening in myself. I am quick to make judgments, and instead, I want to listen and allow a person to speak without assuming what their needs and emotions are outside of their frame of reference.
During our class’s first meditation at Lost Valley, the instructor invited us to name the guides we were bringing into the space and the land connections we had. I spoke about my Czech ancestry and also called in my cat, Lotus, who has felt like a watchful and supportive spirit. Additionally, I called the plant spirit of purple dead nettle, as that plant has created many blessings for me and my rabbit, and it is beautiful as well. And, throughout my experience at Lost Valley, I felt as though the healed spirit of my father was present. There were many gorgeous and synchronous moments that felt extremely potent. It has been good to have a couple deeply positive signs from him after a month or so of confusion with him in my dreams.
At Lost Valley, our class had the opportunity to make hawthorn berry syrup, and as we harvested the berries, we sang to the tree as a means of giving a gift. Each of us started making sounds together, and I eventually added in some words for us to sing. It was deeply powerful and blessed the medicine we each made and took home.
While my time in Dexter was very full, I didn’t feel like I overexerted myself. I followed what was nourishing and said no to excursions that felt outside the scope of what I had come to experience. I deepened connections with many of the residents in Lost Valley and offered my wisdom, observations, and physical labor freely and abundantly while receiving more gifts than I could name in return. I felt energized even though my schedule was full each day.
In terms of exploring the fringes of experience, the most potent moment for me this month was my first experiment with rhythmic group breathing and breathwork. After an hour of intense breathing and breath holds with the shared group breath, I cried quietly for at least 30 minutes. I was moved and empty and full all at the same time in ways I’m not sure I can describe. Never have I spent that kind of time with my lungs, especially not in a group. I will be seeking out more of these experiences going forward. They are magical.
Thanks for reading and for trying on these new moon experiments!