Lean Back into Your Cosmic Support System
Try 'The Net,' a 5-minute practice to appreciate the points of light that hold you up
Hey, Brave Soul Seeker. Today I celebrate a year of 52 weeks of sharing my 5-minute practices for Brave Creatives! 🙌🏽 Thank YOU for showing up and being Mostly Brave in your unique way. We’re here to grow and exchange mutual support. If you ever feel alone in an uncertain world, try today’s 5-minute Net exercise (below). But first, a song for our sponsor, Mama Earth:
All of life thrives in a network of support.
As creatives in a cynical era of mainstream lies and social media trolls, we can find it hard to trust each other. Anything we believe in can get trashed, bashed, ignored. We all crave support. So let’s nurture, feed, and tend to our sources of sustenance.
Mycelial networks inspire me.
Underground fungal networks reveal a magical mystery: nature thrives on cooperation.1 Teensy threads connect trees and plants to share resources and support one another. Interconnectedness fosters survival. This knowledge inspires us to create a more cooperative human world. We can do this.
Your circles of support create a hammock you can lean on.
Like the mycelium, humans share nutrients and instructions for living. A creative community supports you to be fully yourself, without pretense and posturing. True heart connection is far more precious than ‘networking.’ Debby Boland Watt, my dear friend and circle singing community leader, bravely said:
“If we don’t show up for each other and our offerings, and feed the relationships that matter most, they may not be here for us.”
Covid seriously tested all of our support networks. Isolated from my singing community and sound healing practice, I studied to become a plant medicine guide. During a solo Ayahuasca journey, I lay still and silent as a corpse, eyes closed. A streaming river of dear souls from my lifetime ‘visited’ me there, stopping by to remind me of the love, guidance, teachings, friendship, and laughter we’d shared.
Tears rolling down my cheeks, I tasted the luscious, jaw-dropping wonder for this wide network of humans who’ve blessed me. Ahhhh… I wish the same for you!
Tap into the larger web of life
How to feed this world that depends on interconnectedness? African shaman Dr. K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau shared his philosophy with our SpiritWind initiation community: “Hold Up That Which Holds You Up.”2 Ubuntu is the African concept, “I exist because you exist.” The Vedic symbol of Indra's net reflects the interdependence of all beings: each individual, like a jewel in the net, reflects and supports every other.
It’s pretty simple: expand your awareness beyond yourself. Express gratefulness for the people, beings, and systems that give you life. Thank the ground you walk on, the plants and animals that keep you alive, the sky and waters. Native American teachings and ancient wisdom traditions the world over sing this same song: all of life is sacred. Simple rituals help; I begin each day singing for the land, waters, and life that sustains us.
Gratitude is a practical and powerful source of Ahhh…
I’m not great at connecting with folx across distances of time or space. Yet if we drop the thread, we can pick “us” back up. Today’s 5-minute practice reinvigorates relations with the people and systems that hold you up. Appreciation rewires the neuropathways of trust; this gift ripples far and wide! See you in the comments 💗
Today’s 5-minute exercise: The Net
May this 5-minute practice deepen your sense of trust and connection. This video features my ridiculous alter-ego Queen Poopicina sharing the potty-mouth, ‘Holy Sh*t’ 💩 version of the tool with a spontaneous song. Or follow the steps below.
The Net: How can I grow my sense of trust?
BREATHE slowly. RECALL a time when you felt alone or lost.
IMAGINE zooming up far into space, looking back down on Mama Earth.
VISUALIZE the Earth’s underlying structure as a giant net of interconnected energy and waves of light. NOTICE any colors, shapes, or motion?
LOCATE yourself in that big web of life. Zoom back down closer to the places and people you’re connected to. ENVISION them as points of light in a giant net.
NOTICE: who - and what - are your points of support? Who nourishes you deeply? Trust whatever pops up in your mind.
ENVISION your net of connections as a big hammock you can lean into to feel supported.
REFLECT when done, “I feel connected to...”
Creative Prompts to feel connected, trusting, & supported
EXPLORE: Share or journal about your experience.
CREATE: Dance, sing, draw, or write a note to your support system. Express how they matter to you.
MANIFEST: This week, call on one of your points of light. Show your gratitude. Sensing the larger web of life all around you, lean into the feeling of trust.
🗣️ Your turn: we need your brave voice to connect!
Did you see “Fantastic Fungi?” Do mycelial networks inspire you?
Are you good at maintaining your circles of support? Tell us how.
In a world that can feel hostile, how do you cultivate a sense of trust?
Thank you for feeding your circles of trust and support 💝 If you’ve connected with me here this first year on Substack, you’re part of my net. I so ahhh-preciate you.
I’m grateful for every single one of your likes, comments, shares with a friend, restacks, and especially for the gift of your trust as a subscriber. This creative community truly feeds and sustains our brave voices.
Now that this free library of HeartsQuest tools is complete, won’t you share it?
More to come,
Fantastic Fungi: “a time-lapse journey about the magical, mysterious, and medicinal world of fungi and their power to heal, sustain and contribute to the regeneration of life on Earth.”
“Simba Simbi: Hold up That Which Holds You Up” is a sweet, short book by Kongoese philosopher and Yale professor, Dr. Fu-Kiau. Deep bow of gratitude to tribal elder Carolyn Hartness for introducing us to this fine human.
Thanks for your beautiful Salish sea song!
…congrats on 52 weeks that is amazing!!…