Dear Reader,

I recently had the privilege of co-facilitating the Facilitative Leadership for Social Change workshop, a training series developed by the Interaction Institute for Social Change, for 30 digital navigators and 5 staff of the Alliance for Digital Equity. The Alliance staff did a phenomenal job of holding 1:1’s with prospective participants, resulting in a gathering that was diverse across various spectrums of experience including race, class, gender, generation, formal and informal education, positions within organizations, neurodivergence, and familiarity with social justice concepts. It was a gift to be in such a variant group and, as to be expected, we experienced a moment early on where these differences sparked a tension that had the potential to keep us in the space of division for an extended time.

Thankfully, the group had taken time to co-create Community Practices that would nurture safety, dignity, and belonging in the space. The tension led us to reorient around these. In addition to this, we slowed down the quickening exchange to make space for those involved to attune to their feelings and name the needs these feelings brought up. This allowed my co-facilitator and I to acknowledge and presence those needs and encourage collective commitment to tending to these as we moved forward.

One person involved in the tension took accountability for their part while revealing an aspect of themselves that contributed to this. They did this non-defensively and in a way that was powerfully vulnerable. As the other person at the heart of the tension listened, I observed a softening in his body. With this, I sensed the flow of breath return to him and the other person involved in the agitated exchange. Organically, this flow of breath extended outward to the collective body in the room. Resourced by this, the group was able to resume engagement with the training content and process.

Partnering with Our Breath

Our breath can be such a powerful partner in slowing us down when we feel discomfort, confusion, agitation, judgement, and reactivity rising within us. Take a moment now to let your breath out. Now soften your belly and take an intentional breath through your nose, allowing your soft belly to expand. At the end of your inhale, gently release your breath through your mouth, letting your soft belly fall back towards your spine. What do you notice at the end of your exhale?

As I speak of and invite breath practices and slowing down, I hold in my awareness the wildfires which raged in and around Los Angeles. I hold in my heart beloved members of my movement family directed to evacuate their homes immediately by law enforcement officers and those who have lost their homes. I cry out for the 40,000+ acres of scorched Earth. I bring awareness to pollutants caused by wildfires that make the air unsafe to breathe.

Breathwork as Trauma-Informed Practice

In a time of accelerating systems collapse and increasing climate catastrophes that threaten life, it may seem naive or irresponsible to encourage slowing down and reconnecting with one’s breath in an intentional way. Trauma informed practitioners like Jim Gordon, MD, who has done extensive work with refugees of wars in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the African continent, as well as Indigenous communities and school shooting survivors living on Turtle Island, teach us that it is precisely in severely stressful conditions that access to our breath is critical to reconnecting with our bodies and agency and responding to life threatening situations with choice.

From a physiological perspective, breathing in and out into a soft and relaxed belly allows more oxygen to enter our bloodstream. This way of breathing activates our vagus nerve, which clinician and consultant, Deb Dana, describes as “a bundle of nerves that begins in the brainstem….and moves down the side of the neck, behind the carotid artery, and around to the front of the body and then travels down through the throat, lungs, and heart to the abdomen and digestive system.” Deb Dana adds that “the information carried along this vagal pathway travels in two directions, with 80 percent of the information going from the body to the brain and 20 percent from the brain to the body.”

According to Jim Gordon, when we practice soft belly breathing, we’re relaxing our bodies which not only decreases our fear and anger and enhances our judgement, it generates more compassion for ourselves and others and allows us to connect more easily and deeply. I saw this unfold in real time at the digital navigators' gathering in Western MA. It seemed miraculous to witness two bodies move from agitation to settledness AND connection in a short span of time.

What I’m learning from trauma informed healers and experiencing in my practice is that by reconnecting with our breath in an intentional way, we have the power to move through a highly stressful moment without activating a fight, flight, or freeze response. Our breath makes space for us to listen to our body’s messages. We are able to attune to and acknowledge the feelings and sensations present beneath the story we are telling ourselves and allow these instructive energies to move through us. With this, we feel more space and more choice in our bodies. Our vision transforms from one that is narrowed, hyper-focused and survival oriented to one that is softened, wider, and capable of connection.

Experimenting with Resonance

The wide ranging scale of climate catastrophes are disrupting, uprooting, and devastating communities of various regions, economic status, racial groups, gender identities, migrant histories, spiritual traditions, age, and abilities. And while marginalized communities and formerly colonized countries continue to bear the undue burden of this, no one will escape the destruction unleashed by Mother Earth as she overheats. Will her pain and the ensuing suffering of many help humans re-member our essential interdependence and cause us to reach for one another in ways that transcend the dismembering divisions instigated and perpetuated by patriarchy, colonization, and racial capitalism? Will the current crises make undeniably clear that the only paths forward are together? Does this reality spark possibilities for creating conditions for choice, compassion, courage, and connection?

I’m intending to wrestle with these questions through iterating a Trojan Mouse Experiment over the course of 2025. I learned this practice from Gibran Rivera in his transformational Evolutionary Leadership Workshop. A Trojan Mouse Experiment is a small experiment that connects to an idea, dream, or goal you want to manifest for the benefit of all living beings. Gibran shares that “a trojan mouse gets you feedback from the real world. It is an experiment that generates learning whether you “fail” or “succeed.” It is small enough to allow you to move quickly and try something new.”

Here is my BIG dream:

To nurture WE space by deepening humans' capacity to attune to their inner state, access their authentic voice and connect with the relational field in mutually beneficial ways. Through deepened attunement and access, human people can harmonize in ways that facilitate energy flow, disrupt the illusions of separateness and sameness, and raise the collective vibration of the whole. By doing this, practitioners feel joy and reverence for their authentic voice and the interdependence of all living things and build skillsets and awareness that create unknown ripple effects across various systems - familial, ecological, social, political, and economic.

My Trojan Mouse experiment will be to gather 6-8 people on February 22, 2025 at The Angel Nyack and guide them through a curated series of experiences involving breathwork, chakra seed sound toning, medicine songs, movement, and deep listening. Through this, I hope participants develop a keener sense of their inner state and the collective vibration and also deepen their ability to express their voice from an embodied place that nourishes their joy, belonging, sense of agency and practice of reciprocity. I look forward to sharing my learnings with you in the coming months.

Ways to Nourish the Collective WE

• On Wednesday, January 8th, I received a group Whatsapp message from Damon Azali-Rojas, a community organizer, father & spouse, Babalawo, founder of Coaching for Healing, Justice, and Liberation, and all round beautiful human. Damon and his family live in in the Altadena region of L.A. (unceded Tongva and Chumash territory). In his group message, Damon shared that he and his family were safe and staying with his mother further north after being evacuated. His loving and strategic action set off a chain reaction of resource sharing about mutual aid groups, GoFundMe campaigns of displaced families of color and L.A. based Indigenous organizations coordinating mutual aid and free therapy and wellness services. Here is a partial list for those looking for ways to contribute:
  • ​LA Wildfire Responses & Resources​
  • ​Public List of Ways to Support the People, Animals, and Places Impacted by the California Fires​
  • ​Displaced Black Families GoFundMe Directory ​
  • ​LA Fires | IN PERSON Volunteer Opps​
  • ​United American Indian Involvement, Inc.
  • ​Indigenous Wellness Collective ​
  • ​Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo​

Enchantments