mindfulness – Thousand Year Picnic

This Five Day Dance Workshop Unlocked Something Deep Inside Me

Earlier this year, I took part in Wavelength: Ways of Waves, a five day dance workshop, in the tradition of 5Rhythms. For five days straight, I danced my soul out of its prison. As crazy as it sounds, I feel like it unlocked some secret power hidden deep inside me.

Have You Ever Walked in the Woods While High?

Have you ever walked in the woods while high?

This Tuesday was my first time. I was a day into my longest ever digital fast…48 hours with no phone, no computer, no screens. Nothing but reality.

I’m still not sure what to call them, even though I’ve been doing them for a while. Retreats to Reality? Screencations? Whatever they’re called, they’ve been great for my mental health. Being chronically online has so many bad effects…stress, anxiety, poor sleep. We didn’t evolve to live this way.

The Dance That Taught Me About Being Myself: An Autistic Person’s Guide to Ecstatic Dance

I’ve been doing ecstatic dance for a year now, and it’s changed my life. I think it has the potential to change so many more lives…especially those of people on the autism spectrum.

I Kept a Gratitude Journal for 4 Years, and This Is What I've Learned So Far

So many people have so many favorite books: Jane Eyre. The Bible. Cognitive Behavioral Theory for Dummies.

But my favorite book in the world? It’s a self-published title. In fact, I own the only copy of it in the world. It’s My Gratitude Journal.

I’ve been keeping it for 4 years now, through multiple volumes. And it’s taught me a few lessons…here are some of them!

My No Buy November

For the month of November, I’m going to buy nothing. Why? Well, lots of reasons. But above all, it’s to illustrate a point about the Hard Sell of Sustainability.

The Hard Sell of Sustainability: to avert the worst of the climate crisis, we need to consume less. Less resources, less energy, less cheap crap shipped over from China. The people profiting from business as usual want us to believe that some new technology, or recycling more, will save us. But that’s just a greenwashing coat of paint, on a house that needs new foundations.

And that’s a hard sell, because we’ve been fed from birth that consumption is what makes us happy. So, consuming less means being less happy. Who the heck wants to be less happy!?

But with the Hard Sell comes the Gentle Promise. Yes, we must change how we live our lives. But the changes will make it better. We can stop looking for happiness where we won’t find it, and start looking where we will…in nature, in community, in our selves.