Time flies, as the saying goes. 2021 was undoubtedly unique in his breed. A rollercoaster for the least.
This year offered us all or forced upon us all, depending on which side you are standing, the opportunity to retreat within ourselves. Some will see this as a gift, other as a challenge. How much are you comfortable being with yourself for a long period of time is the question forced upon us.
Boredness and/or anxiety is the common modern response to this challenge. Forced to slow down is not an easy task for our nervous system when it is used, and pushed by Mother Culture, to race all the time. It is ingrained in every cell of our tired body. So much that when the body is forced is to slow down, his only logical response is to be triggered like a junkie, with panic, fear and anxiety for the next fix providing the necessary next dopamine peak. Give me more, faster, higher, more, more, more. More for what exactly?! The culture is moving fast, way too fast for our bodies to integrate, for our emotions to be processed, for our feelings to be metabolised, and for our hearts to be shared and expressed. We are not machines, we are human beings. In the term human being, there is the word being. We are not human doing. Did you notice?
The Great Resignation that happened during 2021 in the USA is not only a sign but a hope for something new to emerge aside from the general narrative pushed by the (controlled) media and Mother Culture.
There is no greater time than now to create stronger communities and find a new sense of belonging to the Earth driven by the Laws of Life and not by consumerism and Mother Culture.
Time to further the healing, grow up and wake up in 2022!
Here is my personal recap of the year.
How do I feel about the last year is...
...one of gratitude and patience. This year offered me the free time I needed to learn new skills, but also to be on my own and spend more time in Nature; This year supported a new empowered vision for myself.
My biggest breakthrough was...
This would be the integration of my desire to unapologetically love a powerful woman and be of service to the World with her. Nothing less.
This is also seeing and feeling my grief for my past heartbreaks and losses, and for our Blue Planet being daily abused and destroyed.
Finally, it would be in accepting the inevitable moment of (my) death around me.
My greatest contribution was…
Holding space online for the weekly men’s group session during the whole year.
And another run-through of the Brave Heart Men Training with 4 fantastic committed men who embraced challenges for a better version of themselves.
I held myself accountable to…
Health, practices and the men’s group.
I realised and integrated 2 main principles health-wise: we eat too much and we sleep poorly disconnected from our inner circadian clock. Not only do we eat so much unhealthy processed food, but we eat way too much. Our 2,5 million genetics engineered by the Great Mother made us experts at fasting and feasting! This is why I started to do a 36 hour fast on a bi-weekly basis.
Life, love, relationships,... everything is practice from my point of view. We can’t grow nor change if we don’t practice. Practices are part of my daily basis in a much more organic and fluid way compared to a more structured approach in the past.
I was deeply inspired by...
The work of Francis Weller around grief and Stephen Jenkinson’s uncomfortable conversations about death and the dying in our modern society. I also feel drawn by the work of Rites of Passage and Vision Quest.
I was deeply challenged by…
Stephen Jenkinson’s work around death and the dying. Stephen is a wordsmith who challenges the way death is approached nowadays in a death-phobic culture according to him.
And it’s a wrap for 2021! How about your's?