From Fear to Faith: Full Moon Yin & Qigong Practice on Sunday

Greetings, Reader!

When my wife and I got married almost 12 years ago, one of my conservative, religious uncles came up to me with tears in his eyes and said with a mix of love and disbelief, "Rach, I wasn't sure what to expect because, well, you know, but that was a real wedding. You two really love each other. It's beautiful."

I come from a big family, and all of my aunts and uncles and cousins are MAGA supporters. I'm pretty sure my wife and I are the only queer people most of them know, and you know what, they love us fiercely. They are often gruff, regularly say very offensive things, and have polar opposite views on the world than we do, but they really love us.

That love didn't form in an abstract place. It formed through relationships. And while we regularly reinforce their stereotypes of queer people being radically liberal, we also challenge their prejudice because they can see our humanity.

Sometimes I get stuck in the cognitive dissonance of it all. How can so many of my family members come to our wedding and then vote for people who seek to invalidate our marriage? How can they love us, but hate our friends and chosen family? How can these people, with big hearts their gruff exteriors can't hide, agree with what is happening in this country?

I have to admit, it can be hard to maintain these relationships, and I haven't done the best job at staying connected recently. I feel myself armoring up for protection. I feel my nervous system on alert, evaluating whether or not I'm safe, and that can be exhausting and devastating.

On my better days, I can step back and see their suffering. I can see how hard they work and how impossible it feels to get ahead. I can see how much fear lives in their big hearts. I can see how the system has set them up to fight the wrong enemy, and how that division has made us all easier to control.

I think fear is at the root of all pain and suffering. It causes us to isolate and protect, when what we really want is to be seen, loved, and connected.

Fear is a protective response. It is activated when something threatens our survival, but it can be manipulated. Fear is fed by us versus them narratives that position some people as less than human, and it is challenged when we see that the people we've been taught to fear are not actually all that different from us. For us to be able to see that truth, we must be willing to be curious enough about others to build a relationship.

Fascism relies on fear and isolation. It expects people to stay silent in an attempt to avoid becoming the next target. But we all know the last line of the Martin Niemöller poem, "Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me." The safety of silence is an illusion. The real power is in solidarity.

This is how we transform fear into faith: we build meaningful connections in our communities, united in the struggle for truth, justice, and freedom, and we refuse to be bullied into silence and isolation.

There are times when fear moves us into deeper alignment with our truth and purpose, and times when fear freezes us in place or causes us to run away from danger.

This moment in history feels like a combination of both types of fear. This deep survival response is being activated to protect what really matters, and I hope it is opening a portal of possibility; moving us deeper into community and towards a different form of governing that is truly for and by the people.

We already know in our bones how to transform fear into faith. Each winter, nature asks us to trust that spring will come again. We go into the darkness, and tend to the embers of hope as we traverse the liminal space between death and rebirth.

My friend, some days it feels hard to hold onto hope. Will we survive, as individuals, communities, and a nation? What will be birthed if we make it to through this long winter? Will we collectively turn towards or away from each other?

It is easier to believe when we tend to those embers together, when we know how to work with fear, and when we build our reserves. A resilient nervous system has the courage and capacity to see neighbors not as strangers, but as kin. A resilient nervous system doesn't shut down or flee when the going gets tough. A resilient nervous system can stay rooted in its values and can transform fear into faith through purposeful action. A resilient nervous system can stay engaged with others, even against all odds and across a great divide.

I've been weaving vagus nerve and somatic practices into all of my qigong classes and CranioSacral sessions to help us turn towards the world instead of protect ourselves against it.

Here are Some Ways to Work with Fear:

Shake your body to dislodge energy that is frozen and discharge excess energy.
Move your eyes and head to orient yourself to your environment.
Go outside and find your roots.
Look at the sky and reconnect with awe and wonder.
Apply heat to your lower back and kidneys to unfreeze fear.
Connect with community to co-regulate and bring your nervous system back into a socially engaged state.
Refuse to support businesses that are funding the campaign of terror.
Become hyperlocal. Get to know your neighbors. Build coalitions.
Help others. Use your voice. Take action.
Choose connection over isolation.

If you feel called to tend to your nervous system and to be in community this weekend, I'd like to invite you to a special Full Moon Restorative Yin & Qigong practice on Sunday, February 1st from 7 - 8 pm online. This practice will include qigong and yin practices to nourish the kidneys and restore depleted energy & vitality. If you feel overwhelmed with the world, these practices can help you work with fear and stoke the embers of faith. If this feels aligned, I'd love to practice with you.

In love and solidarity,