26th January is marked as “Australia Day” and “Invasion Day” simultaneously. A day of celebration for some and deep mourning for many. Here at the Joyality Collective, we're reflecting on the roller coaster of last year's referendum. Feeling the pain and the growth, the seismic shifts that are yielding new relationships, shared projects and processes … and we commit to keeping the fire burning. It's a moment of remembering our histories, acknowledging the changing times we're all in together now, and pondering our next steps.
As we tiptoe towards solstice, the days and nights change length about to ‘tip over’ to the other side, I find myself contemplating stillness. Its power, beauty, simplicity and its importance.
For this is the time of year, whether in the north or south, that the Sun “stands still” on the horizon at sunset and sunrise on solstice. Just like the pause between out-breath and in-breath (winter), and between in-breath and out-breath (summer), there is such pleasure in witnessing the pause. The space between doing. There is nothing to “do” to ensure the next breath, the next season. Life breathes us, as it is breathing our seasons.
Ecotherapy for climate related distress helps you stay grounded and gain skills to be with your emotional responses to our uncertain world by deepening a connection with yourself and nature.
Qualified members of the Joyality Collective are now offering individual ecotherapy sessions worldwide via Zoom and face-to-face in some places in Australia.
We offer you a confidential individual space for deep sharing and connecting with nature to nourish your well-being and renew your resilience during these challenging times. To face the unknowns with courage and an active hope.
I have seen how dancing together and, in particular, dancing in synchrony creates community, confidence and belonging.
I have felt how dancing in natural places nourishes me and accelerates my relationship with the land that I dance on… barefeet on earth… felt connection … sprouting genuine care.
I have heard First Nations Australian people speak about how song and dance in turn nourishes the land.
I have danced rain dances in drought and felt rain on my cheeks before the dance was done.
I'm reflecting on love this Valentines Day. While casting off its current heteronormative, capitalistic and anthropocentric overtones, how about we radically reclaim the day as a festival of loving Earth?!
As Sophie Strand puts it “A real holiday devoted to love doesn’t inspire you to buy more objects. It inspires you to throw them down and run to the hills to commune with a lover that is bigger than a human being, bigger than a single self.”
Let's make today a celebration of the miraculous systems of life and existence that we are constantly in flow with. Celebrating eros as the life force flowing through and between us all. Gratefully inhabiting our bodies and connecting with the nature around and within us ...
"January 26, 1788 is the day Sir Arthur Phillip raised the British flag at Warrane (Sydney Cove) to claim the land as a British Colony. This day marks the beginning of a long and brutal colonisation of people and land." Common Ground
Known as ‘Invasion Day’ or ‘Survival Day’ by many First Nations people, it is time for non-indigenous people in Australia to reflect on our role in society and the systems that perpetuate colonisation and racism; to listen to, and stay with, the truth-telling; and learn how to be better allies.
Here are just a few (white woman's) ideas for staying awake, connecting and taking action toward a hopefully mutually nourishing and better allyship with First Nations people.
Looking at all the challenges that we are currently facing from climate change to the global pandemic, one behaviour that for me is particularly alarming, is seeing caring, intelligent people polarise and focus their fear, grief and anxiety on people who are making different choices to themselves, in divisive ways.
Personally, I have noticed myself avoiding conversations with people about matters that are deeply important to me. I have avoided them for a few reasons, my fear of inciting an angry response, feeling I lack the energy required to engage, feeling I may have to defend myself, feeling that I may inadvertently trigger unwanted or inconvenient feelings … and yet I know how important connection with my community is.
I usually feel this transition in my body. The lead in, the pause of the peak moment, and tipping into what is next. I feel my body's inner transit moving through this shift, and a partnering with the earth in a planetary, cosmic dance with the sun.
But this year, the pandemic of coronavirus and the disruption of climate change strained my connection to a deeper, natural cycling, and 2021 drew to an end rapidly, with heat and intensity. I found myself craving attunement with the earth’s rhythms and listening intently for a myriad of messages; changing tides and storms, the call of frogs, forest textures and berries fruiting.
Out of this experience emerged a new process and meditation I'd like to offer you for reimagining, reaffirming and restorying. What if … we’re right where we’re meant to be?
On the New Moon Solar Eclipse back in June I made the decision to step away from my role in Joyality. Although in many ways this is a decision that has been brewing and emerging for some time, it is not one I made lightly…My hope is that this co-creative iteration of Joyality has somehow touched you, inspired you, activated you, reminded you, or reinforced you. I hope it has helped you feel held in your grief, fueled in your action and encouraged in your joy. I hope it's reminded you that you matter.
Every year when Earth Day rolls around I honestly get a little bit pissed off. I know this is contradictory and potentially “uncool” as an environmentalist, but the idea of having a “day” for the Earth just seems such a blatant representation of our destructive, colonial, capitalistic, anti-Earth culture. When respect and reciprocity for something are woven into your everyday life, your culture, your economy, your relationships, you don’t need a day to remind you to pay attention to that thing.
Here are 11 ideas for ways to celebrate and honor the Earth on Earth Day and every other day of our lives in hopes of moving a bit closer to that vision of a just, regenerative, and vibrant world.
Intersectionality is the key to effective positive action for a truly just and regenerative future. How does the #plasticfree movement intersect with the movement for racial justice? Here are some ways to ground your #plasticfreeliving in racial justice and step into more intersectional action.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to look cute on IG with your linen produce bags and mason jars, but plastic free living is about so much more than that. The world is full of chaos, collapse, and big, scary things that we feel - rightly or not - we have absolutely no control over. In times like this I think it’s extra important to come back to what we do have choice around.
Worrying about being ready co-opts the actual work of getting ready, of building the structures needed for sprouting and harvest. We are being called in HARD by the world right now. Don’t let a crappy definition of readiness hold you back from playing your part.
These things we want to create - like a regenerative future or sustained action for positive change - can feel so big, so overwhelming, so far away, so nebulous, it can be tough to know where to begin. What are the first steps to creating a regenerative future? How do you become a grounded, positive agent for change in the world?
