Rebelling With Fun

Happy Gregorian new year everyone! I offer that cheer genuinely, but also acknowledge that basically everyone I've spoken to about their transition from 2025 to 2026 has been pretty non-plussed about it all. It feels as if even the hope of newness has faded as we've been beat up by such constant turmoil and awfulness, without reason to believe things shall improve simply because we've flipped calendar pages.

(what a start to this post! 😂)

It may sound wildly incongruent to the times, but I do wish to highlight the importance of nourishing and cultivating your own light through play. Having places of lightheartedness, fun, frivolousness, and playfulness, are such needed medicine these days. It's a weird thing to bring focus to, and can easily get lumped into an attempt to escape or bypass the very real heaviness that's present. I am not suggesting this in the vein of turning a blind eye to pain, but rather, to remind ourselves that fun and play can still exist now. That they soften the heart's armor and lift the heart itself.

The news of the world, as well as the way the news of the world is presented, fosters feelings of powerlessness, separation, and despair. In that way, finding play and lightheartedness is actually an act of rebellion. Being embodied and connecting with others - whether a brief moment with a stranger or a long laughing catch-up with an old friend - is a way to shift the energy within yourself, and to some degree, in the collective.

The heaviness of the world is clearly evident, but we can be the lightness that we wish to see elsewhere. And it's helpful to remember that for each of the instances of awfulness, there are millions of other instances of collaboration and connection and love that are happening simultaneously that don't make the headlines. Just because you don't see the goodness does not mean it's not there. And it does not mean it's wrong to cultivate it yourself.

Nothing I am going to do as an individual is going to change the immediate situations in the world. I am not an army general, nor am I a billionaire with an economic influence on that scale, nor am I in the rooms of diplomats trying to sort through the thorny issues of the world. So what am I left with? What am I to do?

For me personally, I am entering my 16th year of practice. Having witnessed so many people's journeys, I have naturally seen some overarching themes and patterns. I see so many of our inner woes, at the top of the list being stress and anxiety (and all their related physiological symptoms), stemming from the deep and insidious conditioning of our culture. Our symptoms are a result of us trying to be our soulful and Earth-based selves in a society which cuts us off from both.

It's not just the news, but the assumed roles of manhood and womanhood, an economy built on deficit, a rigid calendar out of step with the natural rhythms of the planet, a distorted understanding of what "power" is, a lack of rites of passage, an unyielding yang that wants to do more, a deep felt sense of lack that leads to dominate over others, a paralysis when it comes to dealing with loss and grief (as well as a host of "negative" feelings), and much, much more.

While these can (and need) to be addressed directly, it is also deeply important that we rekindle what is most natural to us. It is so helpful to remember we ARE the natural world, how our cells all come from the Earth, how with each breath we are connecting to something far greater, how we live in a world of cycles and fluidity and balance. I see this as a fundamental medicine that is needed in our culture. I imagine this isn't a surprise for those of you who have witnessed me on my journey, seeing the evolution of the messages in these emails as well as the classes I've offered. For where I sit, this is the centerpiece of my work.

World peace cultivated through inner peace. Inner peace cultivated by reconnection to the natural world. Intentionally remembering, and reinvigorating, that most primal and natural side of us that we have been steadily conditioned out of.

To this end, I am offering sessions in packages - Earth-Based Soulcraft - designed to help you on this process. Sessions will continue to include my special blend of coaching and acupuncture, and will more deeply bring into the treatment room the energy and teachings of the natural world. Some of these packages even include personalized ceremony and hand-crafted talismans made of wood and stone. Get all the info.