Earth Spirit Dreaming: Shamanic Ecotherapy Practices - Elizabeth E. Meacham 2020

Coming to Our Senses: Slowing Down, Tuning In, Waking Up
Earth-Connecting Practices

We are now ready to lay the groundwork for Earth Spirit Dreaming. We begin by creating time and space in life for quiet and connection with ourselves, the instrument for finding our way back to life. I will emphasize again that while some of these early practices in the process seem simple, it becomes the recurring challenge of a lifetime to slow down under a ubiquitous pressure to produce. This chapter provides simple methods to begin waking up to ourselves, our bodies, our feelings and our experience. Readers are encouraged to begin these practices by finding small moments to allow different kinds of sensitivities to open in our bodies: to slow down and connect with ourselves and nature. These simple, and challenging, practices are activities that were a large part of everyday life for the majority of human existence. While quiet moments to really feel life all around us are now in short supply, our body-heart-minds respond with such joy and relief when we do find these moments, as if we are coming home to something so often just out of reach.

Earth sensitivities are quiet and soft compared to many common forms of engagement. Slowing down is required to allow these sensitivities forward. The sensory intensity of contemporary Western culture quells the softer sensations of Earth-connection. Larger percentages of the human race live in cities now than ever before. Many of us are also immersed in the dominant global culture on the Internet. This shift in demographics and culture means that many of us are often surrounded by crowds, traffic, news feeds, advertisements and unprecedented amounts of entertainment at our fingertips. Slowing down in these highly overstimulating conditions takes practice and commitment, yet offers opportunities for profound changes in our perception of ourselves and the world.