GRIEVING EARTH
EMBRACING DEATH & CELEBRATING LIFE
Grieving Earth is a space designed with the intention to metabolize, ritualize & channel despair, anger, fear, and anxiety into empowered action & creative expression in response to the complexity of these times.
When asked, "What do we need to do to save our world?" Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thích Nhất Hạnh, replied "What we most need to do is to hear within us the sounds of the Earth crying.
Creating space to feel the impact of what is painful and invite to the surface our inner responses is an important practice for disarming the heart, building resilience and experiencing ourselves as part of an interconnected world to which we belong. These responses - which include dread, rage, sorrow, and guilt - are healthy and inevitable, and are usually blocked by the armor that builds under the stress and pressures of daily life under capitalism.
Eco or Climate Grief are terms that capture the unique manifestation of grief given the times in which we live and speak to the despairing impacts of climate collapse, racial and environmental injustices, and earth devastation. This form of grief acknowledges and gives voice to the pain of disconnection that is particular to this current stage in the human story and our relationship to each other and the rest of the living biosphere.
Those who are conscious of and willing to face what's happening in the world often feel pain in their bodies and despair deep in their hearts. Without proper support, these feelings can easily overwhelm the nervous system and trigger survival responses such as numbing, dissociation, depression, hyperactivity, and can lead to maladaptive coping strategies such as substance abuse and other addictive behaviors (ie. binge watching tv, doom scrolling, shopping, over-working, anything to distract).
Group support in the ongoing process of grieving ecological losses and devastation is a critical component in our ability to adapt and strengthen our resiliency in times of such uncertainty and change.
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Connection is the antidote to alienation and feeling alone. Lamenting and sharing in grief ritual can support you to metabolize and channel despair, anger, fear and anxiety into empowered action and creative expression.
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WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:
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Experience an interactive, self-curated community grief space.
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Choose how you show up and to what degree you want to engage.
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Choose stations that meet your needs and that allow you to be with your complexity of your unique experience.
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Stations include opportunities to: engage with media, express yourself through writing and creative expression, self-soothe, co-regulate through communal sound and song, be held in solitude and silence and share in meaningful dialogue.
As of today, 30,344 wildfires have burned 2,957,485 acres across the United States. This is the most wildfires and acres burned-to-date in the past 10 years and is well above the 10-year averages.
(National Interagency Fire Center)
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