I sent out an email a few weeks ago and thought i would post it here. It doesn't have any of the hyper links right now.
Happy Summer, Friends, Family, Neighbors and Pink House Community!
I am going to try making our monthly update emails more of a news letter, including some of my own writing and some of our teachers and guests, as well as a few tips or ideas from my home and kitchen. I don't have a name for it yet for this new "new letter" so if you have an idea I would love to hear it. :) This month I have put together some of my thoughts on my eclectic home and work, our eclectic studio and creating healthy community.
I know a few of you have seen my house, but for those of you haven't, I want to describe it for you. All of our tables and desks are low, 8-16 inches form the floor. Above our futon on the floor in the living room we have a " yoga swing," which is basically a nice soft hammock hung in a narrow drape. Last year I added a set of gymnastic rings that the kids love to play and swing on. I did all this in a effort to keep my own body nimble and strong, to help support my partner Chuck in healing his body and supporting my children in keeping the youthful strength and flexibility. I often joke when new friends come over about making our home a really engaging "gerbil cage.
A few weeks ago I listened to a wonderful T.E.D. talk by Johann Hari and called "Everything you think about addiction is wrong." In the talk Hari tells us that our model of addiction was based on studies of rats that were alone in cages with little to interact with. These rats, when given the option of water with and with out heroine, would kill themselves by over dosing on the water that had the drug in it. However he says that's that rats in engaging cages or "rat parks" with other rats and lots of toys and challenges to play with when given the same choice of waters will choose the plan water and not become "addicted." He suggest that we need to rethink our whole approach to addiction. He ends his talk by saying that the opposite of addiction is connection.
When I was at Teaching Drum, the nature immersion experience I went to for 11 months the school guides often talked about relationship. They referred to a native American practice of talking about all the other creatures, plants and minerals we share this earth with as our relations. They suggested not "studying" plants but creating relationship them. Using them, interacting with them. I understood in relation to my own spiritual beliefs that we are made from the same stardust with the same gift of life energy and creation throbbing through us. But I think I mostly pictured this relationship to natural and organic forms. After listening to this talk I had another "aha moment." We have relationships with Everything. We have relationships with ourselves, other people, with nature and with everything we create; books, media, drugs… Every relationship triggers reactions in us. Some of these reactions feel good, others don't. We stick with the relationships we know and feel comfortable with and that meet our needs. When I think of my home that means that I have been setting up an environment that increases our relationship with our bodies and our physical world and so that is why it feels healthy and good.
When I work with people with clutter, my clients have relationships with things or paper that don't feel healthy for them. Often we think of these relationships as getting in the way of creating a healthier life style. And they do, but perhaps they are filling a void and creating new relationships to fill that void is what we need to do first. If we think that we have relationships to everything that we can see that even our relationships that we find challenging or that don't feel healthy are there for a reason. Most of us cannot "let go" of these relationships unless we have other relationships to replace them with. The rat in the "rat park" has the relationships she needs does not choose the drugs. The ones that are alone do. They "need" the drug because they have the void. Thinking about this more I came to see I even have relationships to my thoughts. I become "attached" to them. They take up space, give my life meaning. I also came even more to appreciate my growing relationship to manta. Mantra is consciously is giving energy, or rather growing my relationship, to thoughts that I choose. This all helps me feel good about my crazy, wild, messy home, and motivates me in my work with the pink house, as a mover, artist, yoga teacher, doula, and as a gardener and promoter of fruit trees. I can choose to feed real relationships with others. I can choose to create relationships with accepting, empowering, positive and proactive thoughts. I can choose to give and receive even more. Then I can continue giving up the unhealthy patterns I have and help those around me do the same.
As I finish writing this the Riverwest 24 bike raceweekend has just ended and I feel filled with love for my neighborhood and even more connected to how powerful we are as individuals and as community can be. (If you don't know about the race, click the link, it is wonderful, I hope to write more about it sometime soon) Lets all keep working to make our own lives and our whole communities the best "rat parks" we can!
Sending love and blessings,
Sarah
As I finish writing this the Riverwest 24 bike raceweekend has just ended and I feel filled with love for my neighborhood and even more connected to how powerful we are as individuals and as community can be. (If you don't know about the race, click the link, it is wonderful, I hope to write more about it sometime soon) Lets all keep working to make our own lives and our whole communities the best "rat parks" we can!
Sending love and blessings,
Sarah
dancingwitheverything.com | 
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