HEALING AND TRANSFORMING
OUR PATTERNS OF FEELING
The healing of feelings urges us to make room for individual and collective, historical and systemic traumas to be healed, in a way that stops obstructing our connection with Mother Earth and the sense of belonging to the whole. For the Pitaguary people, the traumas we carry affect not only ourselves and how we live, but also how we report to other people.
Processes of inner cleansing of collective bodies and with the Earth, as well as practices for releasing sorrows, anxieties, weaknesses, attachments, and projections, and the weaving of collective resilience and joy, are some of the paths drawn by the Teia to investigate this healing.
The burdens of anxieties and sorrows we bear, as shared by the Fulni-ô elders, are weights far too immense for any individual to carry in solitude. Amidst the diverse communities within the T5C, grounding oneself in the embrace of the Earth consistently emerges as the initial step towards emotional restoration. To surrender to the Earth's nurturing embrace is to grant it the power to mend us, particularly when it comes to the deepest-seated traumas. This journey involves attuning our senses to the whispers of the woods, allowing ourselves to be educated by non-human kin such as trees, branches, leaves, and the whispers of the wind. It extends to the heartfelt bonds and connections cultivated with fellow creatures of the Earth.
This grounding is not solely connected to the non-human realm but also to one's own lineage, encompassing even the ancestors we haven't met in physical form on Earth. This journey, Grandmother Joana Pitaguary was invoked many times throughout this conversation, drawing from her wisdom as a midwife and herbalist. Her chants, prayers, and herbal remedies for healing continue to be upheld by the Shaman and the healers of the community.
The Huni Kui community views this interconnection akin to an unbreakable umbilical cord, safeguarding the wisdom and essence of their people across successive generations. This umbilical link extends to the Earth's expansive heart – the very core of humanity's existence. Any fracture in these connections gives rise to afflictions and disharmony. Within this heart-centered perspective, we possess an innate capacity, often overshadowed by the conventions of modern society and institutions, to attune ourselves to the Earth's energy, the spirit of the samaúma tree, and the healing properties of medicinal plants. This heightened sensitivity propels individuals to engage, perceive, and acquire knowledge in profound ways. As our hearts align with the Earth's heartbeat, our minds articulate emotions with precision in response to the sights, textures, and sounds that surround us.
This capacity to feel and perceive with clarity underscores the inherent spirituality and sacredness woven into the fabric of the non-human realm. It acts as a bulwark against the reduction of nature into mere commodities and resources for capital gain.
Within the Huni Kui community, it's of paramount importance to counteract this alternate affliction – the tendency to view the world and all its inhabitants solely through the narrow lens of materialism.
As the elders of the Tremembé community, known as the "old barks," transition from this world, it is often said that they are planted on the Earth. In contrast, the youth are seen as the "shoots" of the Earth, entrusted with sowing the seeds that will shape the future. In this intricate perspective, the healing of emotional wounds finds its foundation in the reciprocity woven into their relationship with Mother Earth – a profound interconnectedness that extends to their cherished kin.
This interplay gives rise to the culinary traditions of the Tremembé people, which serve as both an act of nurturing the Earth and a repository of memories, affection, healing, and sustenance. These elements are all vital in their ongoing struggle to protect the Earth. This guardianship embodies a twofold gesture of resilience and solidarity.
The Pataxó people emphasize that we establish relationships with our emotions, as opposed to being our emotions. Our feelings, as living entities, can serve as teachers and fuel for our actions. Rooted in their warrior heritage, one of the lessons imparted by the Pataxó people regarding emotions is learning to become an ally of fear. Instead of allowing fear to paralyze, they advocate for harnessing it as a force that prompts us to pause, reevaluate, and reconsider.
For them, the journey of evolving into a warrior and reshaping their relationship with fear becomes a summons to maturity and sobriety. This call mirrors the transformation that humanity must undergo to address the myriad social and environmental crises knocking at its door, crises born from its own actions. Within the Pataxó worldview, a warrior's duty entails fighting for the well-being of their community, while also activating the thread of intergenerational and interspecies responsibility.
Some gestures towards healing and transforming our patterns of feeling
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Developing the capacity to be in discomfort and to accept uncertainty without feeling overwhelmed or irritated;
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Learning to access the unconscious and to sit with internal complexities, paradoxes and contradictions;
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Identifying and starting to compost individual and collective projections, attachments, traumas and insecurities;
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Learning to interrupt intellectualization in order to sense, relate and show up differently to oneself and to the world;
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Processing emotions and accessing and releasing pain without narrative framings;
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Disinvesting in desires for consumption and individualism.