Beloved friend,
The image above is lush in symbolism for me. It's a little corner of the altar in the temple here at home. The lavender grew here, just in front of the house, and is what I burn as an offering at the altar and for ritual cleansing of the space after events. Nestled in it are seeds from dandelion puffs hanging above; they, too, grew here, in the meadow beside the house. The instructions for making them were given to me by my mother after I delighted in dandelions-on-strings at her house. When I was a child we made wishes on going-to-seed dandelions. Then, a couple days after I took this photograph, a new friend here in my neighborhood gifted me a necklace with a charm that is a single dandelion seed encased in resin. All of it says to me: belonging, hope, love.
I think that a lot of us are leaning into those things now: connection, love, friendship; I'm hearing people avidly interested in making connection in this moment. It feels a bit like the start of the pandemic when we all suddenly ended up on Zoom calls with old friends – times that feel dire inspire us often to reach for connection, and oh gosh, it's a moment. I'm going to add a section called Resistance which will follow Resources. We all need moments of respite from grief and chaos. I want to offer this. Silence, though, would be in grave disharmony with my ethics. So: a clear label and placement that supports your agency.
I'd like to support you today, too, with suggestions for the care of your nervous system. Have you heard of the vagus nerve? It makes up 75% of the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is the fight-flight-fawn-freeze response; the parasympathetic is rest-and-digest. It calms us down. Speaking of activating the soothing action of the parasympathetic nervous system by stimulating the vagus nerve is having a hot moment in popular culture, which is great! Lots of good knowledge to spread. Here's a quick little article by a physical therapist if you'd like to learn more about the vagus nerve.
It is easy to stimulate the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system:
- Singing and humming. I've been singing my mantra a lot and it's such a kindness. While doing the dishes, while cooking, while getting ready for bed or preparing the temple for my next session. I've also been teaching brahmari, the humming bee breath, in my yoga classes: lay the palms over the eyes, use the thumbs to press the little flaps of the ears, the tragus, closed, and hum! Not a lovely chest-resonant hum, though; send the hum up into the soft palate of the mouth to vibrate the skull, for as little as a few breaths or up to 10 minutes. Afterward it feels like someone showered your brain. Ahhhhh.
- Stretching the neck. The vagus nerve is a cranial nerve; a pair coming right and left from the brain down through the neck, so stretching the can be beneficial.
- Cold exposure. Yes, cold plunging is having a moment. If you like full-body immersion or a cold finish to your shower, great! But you splashing cold water on your face or applying an ice pack to the back of your neck is effective, too. I've been texting folks before my morning yoga sessions this week to grab an ice pack, having folks ice the back of our necks during our opening conversation, then doing 3 breaths of Brahmari before we start moving. Quick, effective.
- Laughter. Silly movies, sharing jokes with friends, watching stand-up, laughter meditation. What's laughing meditation? Laughing on purpose for the beneficial effects! You start with a little fake laugh, which tends to feel so silly that you laugh for real, and then you can cascade onward, bathing the body in feel-good.
- Slow breath, lengthening exhalation. Extending inhalation stimulates; extending exhalation soothes. Try inhaling through your nostrils and exhaling slowly through pursed lips, as if you were going to whistle, or as if you were exhaling through a straw.
- Massage. Deep, painful massage is an exception; useful for releasing things, but not calming. Most massage, though, brings us into that beautiful ease. My Saturday donation-based The Soft Animal yoga sessions include self-massage for just this reason.
- Restorative Yoga. I led today's Meditation Gathering (freely given, donations welcome, Tuesdays 8-8:55am Pacific) while lying in legs up the wall pose to encourage folks to give it a try. Lying down with your legs resting up along the wall is a great way to calm the body; it's long-known to lower blood pressure, too, though it should be avoided if you have high uncontrolled blood pressure because it will initially raise blood pressure before it lowers. Discuss with your doctor if guidance seems wise!
- Meditation. There are a bunch of free guided meditation and relaxation practices in the Teachings section of my website. Combining meditation with slow exhalation, singing or chanting or humming at the start, doing it with legs up the wall – you can compound these different practices for deeper effect.
If you don't see your favorite vagus nerve / parasympathetic nervous system trick here, I'd love to hear it! I hope you find creative ways to support yourself with this knowledge.
Resources
Peaceful Immersion
Louis is a Maine Coon cat who lives in Germany with his human. They love to kayak together with Louis up on the bow and the human films their adventures for YouTube, bless them. The sound of the paddle, the boat slipping through the water, and the birds as they skim along the canal is... my body took a big, deep sigh as I paused to think of the right word there; I'll let that do. And yes, if you knew our cat Leopold, Po, he was part Maine coon and looked exactly like Louis.
Awe, Arachnid Version
My latest scientific giggle is: we have recently discovered that spiders smell with their legs. Only male ones. And not all spiders, but a lot of them. I love the researchers' description of "previously overlooked wall-pore sensilla on the walking legs". We just hadn't noticed this yet! There is so much we do not know, do not understand; so much mystery. Here we find a slippage out of certainty and oh, the freedom of that: we do not know for sure what is afoot now; we do not know what the future will hold. Find yourself the delicious freedom in that.
Connection
You can find me on BlueSky: @kristiedahlia.
The Wisdom of Our Elders
Gil Scott-Heron was a great Black activist, musician, and poet. His spoken word poem and song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is a forever favorite in our house (Spotify, YouTube) and I loved this snippet of him speaking on what it means: that it cannot be televised because revolution begins in the mind.
Resistance
Inspiration: Community Reading
From our most recent session, a highlight for me was, "Hope is the story of uncertainty, of coming to terms with the risk involved in not knowing what comes next, which is more demanding than despair, and, in a way, more frightening. And immeasurably more rewarding." We meet on Tuesdays, 7-8:30pm Pacific. Freely given. Last week someone I'd never met brought a child who read a paragraph for us and oh, darlings, MY HEART.
Kristie Dahlia Home
Taking Action
I'm hearing a lot of people say something like, "This is absolutely horrifying and I'm so sad, but there's nothing I can do." That, my friends, is not true. Hope in the Dark is a quick, profound education in how people influence power. Rebecca Solnit also has a new newsletter, Meditations in an Emergency. She's a fantastic voice in showing how the voice of the people matters and what people are doing now, already. Thanks to Lizzy.
There are many groups that you might organize with. You could do environmental defense or stand up for your local schools; so many organizations would love to have you. Ideally, we'd all have a finger on the pulse for national action, too. There are lots of options there: The Working Families Party, Indivisible, SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), Black Lives Matter. If I missed your favorite, send it to me! Indivisible and MoveOn held a mass call on Monday night and have made a powerful call to all people to step up to lean on our national representatives to fight. I've signed up for the newsletters of a local climate action group and a local group who is fighting against a new dollar store, and I'm joined the local chapter of Indivisible. Most groups are on all the social media sites so you can infuse your feed with inspiration.
The most basic way to participate RIGHT NOW is a phone call to your representatives. My local Indivisible Port Townsend Huddle says to "demand they vote against all Republican cabinet nominees and bring Senate action to a halt to protest the illegal takeover and funding freezes. Be sure to identify yourself and give your address. Be polite but persistent." Folks are also visiting the offices of Senators this week to protest. You can find your Senators' contact information here and your Congressional Representatives here. 5calls has sample scripts for phone calls. This matters. Our representatives need to hear loud and clear that it is the will of the people not to acquiesce but to fight this fascist tide.
I called yesterday and today. I'll call tomorrow. I'll egg on my rep doing good work and have firm words for the one who is rolling over. When I'm not in the groove of it, I think I don't want to do this, but y'all, it feels so good to have done it. When I think about horrible points in history the people I admire are those who took a stance. That's who I want to be. I think it's who you want to be, too. A telephone call to our elected representatives is so simple. Maybe you live in a city with a Senator's office and demonstrating would be simple, too! Most demonstrations are life-affirming events with people of all ages and music. If you have Republican representatives, I'd stress the illegality of what's taking place and speak about honoring the rule of law.
If you are taking action, I'd love to hear about it.