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Personal Sustainability
Sustainable living begins with self-care through self-awareness and healthful habits. We offer a toolkit to help you achieve a strong, happy, vibrant body, mind & soul, so that you have the energy vitality & presence to achieve your dreams.
Self care includes your spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical body. Each of these is interconnected and interdependent. Looking after our physical bodies with healthful food, plenty of fresh water, deep breathing, and physical exercise grounds us on the Earth creating space for noticing the thoughts passing through our mental body, the emotions running in our emotional body and our connection to our spirit or soul body.
The personal sustainability module begins with coming to awareness of each of these aspects by slowing down, breathing more deeply, and dropping into the present moment with mindfulness practices. We know we have arrived when our senses become more alert, our mind calms down and time seems to stretch or shrink to meet our needs. Our intent makes being on time suddenly effortless and part of our natural flow.
We become more embodied noticing the many signals we are receiving. Signals like the feeling we should turn left instead of right and suddenly we see someone we have been trying to catch up with or a gut feeling not to trust someone that with the spaciousness we have now cultivated we no longer ignore. :) As we become the observer of our thoughts, we gain the power to choose those thoughts. First we let the old negative thinking pass by, watching it as though watching subtitles in a movie, perhaps noting “Oh woah where did that come from?” We might even take another breath, drop deeper into our bodies and ask again, “Where did that come from? Who said that?” The answer always comes and can be surprising and give great insights. Or we may just let it pass and then consciously choose another thought - a feel good thought. Perhaps a positive affirmation.
The thought, “Man you really messed that up.” could be replaced with “I learn from my mistakes and I’m always growing and expanding.” Have you ever noticed that your self talk can often be quite mean things you would never say to another person? So why say them to yourself? Once you realize how mean you are to yourself, it’s a good idea to literally hug yourself and say “I love you so much.”
Your tutor, Rita Scholten, will guide you to find this space within you through mindfulness practices, yoga nidra, partner massage and qi gong. She may also bring in other practitioners to teach hatha yoga, reflexology or restorative energy practices for grounding and protection. (These are samples of typical sessions and are subject to substitution or change.)
Other aspects of personal sustainability are diet and nutrition covered in the food preparation, harvesting and preserving module and non toxic living which becomes the focus in natural building. When we look at healthy homes vs sick homes, you will feel the difference immediately upon entering some naturally built healthy homes in the area. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) this will mean you likely never want or be able to live in a “sick” home again.
Possibility Management New in March 2021.
Sustainable living requires community and community requires clear communication to thrive. Possibility Management invites you to enter the terribory of radical responsibiity, and provides a set of distinctions that support an effective and clean communication. By developing a common language you will learn possibilities to navigate smooth and difficult spaces. We will create a safe space for you to express your experiences authentically and participate in other people's experiences as well. Your questions and your impulses are welcome to co-create bringing your uniqueness and aliveness in this space.
Personal sustainability sessions are held on Wednesday mornings throughout the course.