Sweat Lodge

I have always loved a sauna and even when I've been skint, I've kept on this one luxury because I know the benefits they bring to my body, mind, being. Research showing reduced risks of heart disease and stroke with frequent use. But! Yesterday I got to try out the ancient version of this - a sweat lodge - an ancient sauna-on-steroids ceremony stemming from Indigenous populations of the Americas. Wow. Like a sauna, but sitting in the mud, on the earth, beside a bubbling river (to dook into after) within a beautiful woodland space. Singing melodies along with a drum, intention-setting, gratitude-giving, devotion to the great spirit of nature, all our individual spiritual guides and ancestors with beautiful community present. It was powerful stuff.

I wrote this below, based on my sweat lodge, and looking back at some notes I had from a walk in the jungle within the Seychelles, as well as feedback from some home-work I had set a client to get lost in the woods. :)

Out in the natural world, when we get ‘lost’ in the natural realm, beyond time, beyond thought, beyond our physical form and connect with the all, our consciousness expands, this way and that. Connected through the same electro-physical impulses within our minds that travel through the interconnected web of mycelium under-foot. Our ‘whole brain’ kicking into gear, using the full capacity of our in-telli-gence, as we take ‘in’ the expansivity through the ‘tele’ transmission through the ether with all the senses and become that same fullness within, all the way into our ‘gence, meaning genes (in Hindi)’. Our genetic code clicking into balance through epigenetic inferences of vibratory resonance.

We expand, along with our mind-sets, physiology-sets, genetic-sets, we become larger… than life, we are life, when we are here in this space of ‘got it togetherness’. Steady, and strong alongside the mighty oak warrior steadfast in our wisdom with courage. Supported upon the earth and equal, in this place. Understanding our flourishing is relational. To one another and to our earthly home. Our sovereign power, magnified by each one-other, even if we sing different notes, the harmonious blend far more beautiful to behold than a lonesome howl. Our fibronacci spiral through life’s lessons bearing fruit to share and new seeds to root.

Sometimes a return to the 'old ways' is exactly the medicine we need.