Somatic Regeneration
The living process of evolution proceeds through the dynamic, creative, self-expressive participation of active beings in a sense-and-respond relationship with their environment. As humans, that begins with our own bodies; our own experience.
Soma definition:
The body as distinct from the soul, mind, or psyche.
As human beings, we are embedded in our environment. The social systems and bioregions we inhabit are woven into the fabric of our bones. As a process, regeneration - that is, the vitality and viability-enhancing evolution of a living system - is dependent upon our ability to move as individual bodies in deep, reciprocal relationship with our environment.
My own relationship with this process began as a child, watching my sister Sara (born with autism) repeatedly transcend imposed limitations on her growth, and express in ways that transformed her environment for the better. It continued as I processed my own traumas through my training in regenerative design and development, Zen Buddhism, Ashtanga Yoga and, more recently, Non-dual Shaiva Tantra. These have each given me a unique insight into the process as it applies to my own experience and body, and provided me with practices to help me work with the energy of life in my day-to-day.
My view of the process of Somatic Regeneration focuses on two key aspects:
1. Self and Collective Regulation
Our bodies (including our cognitive and nervous systems) must be relaxed and spacious enough to be present with the entirety of our environment, rather than cherry-picking information as a result of trauma, selective bias, personal shadows, etc. We must be able to regulate coherently with our environment, noting that this is a dynamic process happening across scales. Regulation is not soley - nor primarily - a self-driven process, but a dynamic co-regulation between self, other and environment that requires and invites our participation within the living fabric of our world.
2. Dynamic, Creative Self-Expression
Once relaxed, we must be able to creative self-express in ways totally distinct to us as a unique individual. Whatever our craft and medium, each of us must find our way to seeing the world as our artistic canvas, inviting our playful, generative contributions. Through this contribution, we come to realise our unique ability as living beings to re-shape the environment through our participation in it, giving rise to increased conditions for life as a whole to thrive as we do. This is the regenerative process.