BY VERONICA ANDERSON WITH SNOW RAVEN - SUOR
REWILD
A REGENERATIVE ECONOMY OF INNER AND OUTER TECHNOLOGIES Rewilding Our Economic Systems with Indigenous Wisdom
O
n a windy Saturday in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, I found myself seated in a circle as an instructor invited us to breathe in and out as slowly as possible. I was at a conscious event to practice contact improvisation, an open-ended, kinesthetic exploration of body movement through spontaneous contact, based on meditative presence and connection with the inner self. I was sleepy and shaky. As I breathed, my breath told me the story of a stressful week and a trying morning leading up to that moment. I followed its movement, slowing it down as best as I could. In that process, I noticed my anxiety in the form of the desire to rush through the exhalation in order to get back to the inhalation—where I felt more at ease. In a flash of understanding, I had the epiphany that taking something in feels much safer than letting go. I realized I had suddenly found what appears to be the root cause of consumerism and overconsumption: our collective fear of not having enough. My short, shallow exhalations had revealed my body’s discomfort in the space of emptiness. By witnessing this dynamic in myself as an inner experience, it was easy to understand the way this same feeling could manifest externally in the form of the capitalist need for constant economic growth.
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