Align Your Orbit #82 - Mind the Interface
Align Your Orbit is a series of philosophical and somatic experiments to guide intentionality and impact. 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.
The line of separation between oil and water is called the interface and calls to mind the ways we navigate between our experience of reality and everyone else’s. Coupled with shifts in how visibly we are each called to operate, there are many planetary transits causing revolt from the recipes and balms that used to work. The body feels these energetic shifts first, and they are not always noticeable from the outside. That doesn’t mean they don’t take up bandwidth.
Trust your inner world as you leave the judgments, reflections, and criticisms of others to tumble out beyond you in the field. This is not the time to drink in the perspectives of others—only you can honor your own. Witness yourself and seek opportunities to be extraordinarily present. This exact moment will never come again.
Experience these experiments as a playlist!
New Experiments
1. validate yourself – Trust your own discernment of what is biochemical and what is rational. Neither is more or less true than the other—they are both valuable sources of information. Practice your own internal balance between body and mind, physical and spiritual. These are your axes to play on—no one can take them away from you.
Challenge Mode: Our modern world provides so much capacity for visualizing the inside on the outside, but it has the downside of making it harder to trust our own interoception. Seek your own sense of how you feel, how well you are, and what you need before you seek an external authority. You know your body better than anyone else. The map is not the territory.
2. allow mistakes – Somehow, we have forgotten that mistakes are the best way to learn. As a culture, we cancel, criticize, and cut out people at the first slip up. We hold ourselves to impossible standards and create conditions for self-critics to run rampant. This cycle, hold stumbles with tenderness and see them as gentle teaching moments. Every interaction is an opportunity for healing.
Challenge Mode: If you’re feeling low this cycle, you’re not alone. Harvest and completion of large projects can cause a postpartum phase while your body recovers and resets your baseline. This, too, is normal. Be gentle with yourself. There is no need to push yourself during this time. When the next phase is ready, it will seek you out. Trust in the pattern—your body knows when you’re ready to fruit again.
3. be the slow down – There’s never going to be less going on. If you want the world to slow, you must be the one to set the pace. Refuse to quicken your step across a crosswalk. Take your time choosing your vegetables. Walk more slowly through the forest. If someone needs to go faster, they can work around you. You are not responsible for the pace of others. And if you don’t feel like keeping up, don’t. Your willingness to be different gives others permission to rest. This is revolution.
Challenge Mode: Given the high-speed nature of everything these days, it’s easy to feel that we don’t have time for spiritual practices. But, remember, this is what gives you life and reconnects you with existence. Your regular practices of sharing news with the Earth, respecting all non-human beings, reimagining prayer, and tending to the body never lose their value. They are always there when you are ready to return. Pick them up. Prioritize them. The time is now.
4. stretch your skillshare – Everyone has something to teach you, and you have something to teach everyone you meet. Invite others to share their favorite stretch as an icebreaker. Create the space to dance spontaneously. Exercise your vocal cords with a call and response. Share tools, not solutions.
Challenge Mode: If you’re afraid that others will misunderstand you, ask yourself what you’re actually afraid of. Why do you crave control over the opinions of others? If there’s a need that’s not getting met, approach within yourself with curiosity and gentle compassion. Remember, this is also useful data.
Andra’s Recap of Tap the Root
The experiments for the previous moon cycle included inviting multiplicity (challenge mode: the land speaks differently to each person), dismantling hierarchy (challenge mode: seek people who challenge you), bringing your body with you (challenge mode: pivot to use less muscle), and playing in the field (challenge mode: celebrate the unique ways you impact a space).
One of the biggest places I’ve been experiencing dissonance in is with the difference between my rational experience and my biochemical one. My partner found out that they are pregnant this month, which has been sooooooooo exciting, and I’m noticing some changes in my own body and reactions. For instance, I feel a primal urge to protect them that seems above and beyond my rational mind. I’ve done what I can to honor where the biological impulse is coming from and gentle unblend from it when it isn’t necessary or helpful.
But, it is sometimes a fun game to play.
In acknowledging that the land speaks differently to every person, I’ve held a lot of space for people to consider what it actually means to listen to the land and how to communicate what they hear. One of the most sacred experiences for me this month was to go volunteer at Tryon Creek State Park to do some native seed collection. They began with the honorable harvest by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and it was so special to walk through the forest slow and steady, introducing ourselves to the plants and asking for some of their seed. It reminded me that, while we need to make space for dissonance, there is value when we come together with a share understanding of how to engage.
This cycle, I pulled no punches in the way I was calling out unreasonable power dynamics, especially professionally. I’ve found that I have tremendous difficulty operating within low-integrity spaces, especially in organizations where I am otherwise very aligned with the mission. After moving through several conflict resolution conversations with the people in leadership, I made the decision to put in my resignation notice last week. My body had started revolting and had a major stress reaction. For me, that was a sign it was time to go. I hope that, after I provided some exit feedback, they will be able to make changes.
I probably could have done more to seek out feedback from people who challenge me. I did, however, interact with my family of origin, so some of those reflections were present regardless, and I think I moved through them with grace and understanding. I did get some feedback from someone I have had disagreements with, and they said I need to be more imposing and assertive, so there’s that.
Exercise was, admittedly, difficult this period on account of the heat, travel, and my partner’s pregnancy fatigue. It seems like it’s been a time to rest and cuddle and bask in the celebration of this unique moment of time. But, I did get to do some acroyoga with my sister, and that was really fun. A highlight to be sure.
This cycle I realized that I am already quite good at pivoting to use less muscle, and now I actually do want to engage my muscles. While I am grateful that my default is to create ease in the motions my body goes through on a daily basis, I’m ready to challenge myself in those ways.
The constellation altars have been very helpful at visualizing a particular problem, and honestly, I do credit our constellation altar for the pregnancy success in a lot of ways. I also spent some time with a friend making a very large land-based altar near the creek I’ve been tending, and it’s been lovely to engage collaboratively in that practice.
In celebrating the ways I impact a space, I got to run a lot of experiments as I traveled via bus and train to Arizona from Portland and back. Seeing the ways the way I dressed, spoke, paid attention, or disengaged affected the people around me was fascinating. I was grateful both for the ways I could disappear and for the ways I could settle tense situations. I enjoyed moving through so many modes of being in such a short period of time.
I hope you enjoy this cycle’s experiments! Remember to flow and let it all roll right off you as you move through.