2020 Vision Time – Dec 2019
By Ya’Acov Darling Khan
Dear all, it’s time to write to you
again as we come to the end of another year and the end of another
decade. There is so much to share. I keep hearing how many reasons there
are to get depressed. And I understand. The bitterness of defeat is
tough medicine. The realisation that there are more people who hold
different views to me than there are who hold similar ones is quite a
slap in the face from what people love to call ‘the real world.’
But depression is the result of an overwhelmed and disembodied heart and mind, laced with the fragments of undigested history that feeds our fears. I have a practice. And I know that if the words I speak and the feelings I feel have any reality, then getting up and doing my practice is a choice I am going to make again and again, just like I have for the past 30+ years. Why? Doing my practice returns me to my being. It brings me back to an embodied connection to what I know to be true. It brings me back to the love of the mama under my feet. It reminds me that life right now is a blessing. It reminds me that benevolent death left me to live another day. And whilst my heart still beats, my practice returns me to the love I feel for this life and the recognition that there is so much to be inspired by right now.
Yes, I do know that there is suffering in our world – as I write, I can feel it in my hands, stretching my sinews with sorrow, and grinding my teeth with fury at the injustice of it all. And yes, I am privileged, and a man, and a white man at that. And yes, I have the resources that allow me to make the time to feel what I feel. I have the will to get up and practice every morning so that my heart doesn’t get jam packed and inoperable with the rivers of bad news that are designed to suck the very life out of my bones. No, I’d rather dance and shout and cry my heart out and empty myself out so that I can remember the warmth of the sun touching my body as the water falls from the shower. So that I can be quiet enough to hear the song of the stream and the wind and to remember the good earth under my feet. Gratitude is what’s left after I’ve let my body move and shake. Gratitude is a choice that I make when I allow myself to be with what is real. My practice is Movement Medicine and it works. Simple as that. It gives me the tools to embody whatever is true, to shape and express it, let go inside it and return to the warmth, strength and wisdom of my body and heart. It creates space for the mind that listens to a much bigger picture than the tiny screen on my phone could ever provide.
As we enter the darkness of the year, the dreaming time, I feel twice as passionate as I did last week about the necessity of creating a new story – 2020 vision inspired – for the years ahead. So I’m going to share a little gratitude poem that arrived in my in-box this morning from one of our community elders, the one and only Rob Porteous (whose poetry is available should you follow the link).
Gratitude
So many voices arguing, so much noise
buffeting the brain, restless gusts of thought
sending mind hither and thither on the ruin
in search of fragile shelter from the storm.
And amid all this movement, in the poise
of a leaf on a twig, still moment brought
into sharp focus by the setting sun,
a flash of joy and thankfulness is born
Thank you Rob. Another jewel mined from the dark caves and brought into the light.
I’ve never let the difficulties of regular practice get in the way of actually doing it. I recognised in my early 20’s that if I didn’t give time each day to what mattered most, I would quickly be consumed by what didn’t. I learned that I had to keep my heart moving faster than my tricky little ‘story mind’ could create the reasons not to. I’m not saying it’s easy. There have been so many times when I was bored to tears by my inability to find new ground. Over decades, I have learned that apparently, embodying what is actually happening and moving with that, an instruction I’ve given so many thousands of times, actually helps me to be here in my body, even if being here is sometimes really uncomfortable. Eventually, connecting to the unbroken resources that I am made from, brings me to my heart. If I let myself feel and move with what I feel, then my heart will lead me back to gratitude.
And all of this is the reason why I’ve spent my time off over the last two years writing Shaman – Invoking Power, Presence and Purpose at the Core of Who YOU Are. The book, which you’ll be hearing more about soon, is an invocation of the inner shaman in YOU. The part of you who knows exactly what I’m talking about and the part of you who knows that we need an inspiring vision of what we can choose to create here on earth more than ever, regardless of what the outcome may or may not be. Without a guiding vision that gives you purpose and meaning, then all the influencers in the world have easy access to you. Without a constantly evolving vision that you nurture, feed and strengthen through ceremony as often as you can, your backbone belongs to whoever is able to speak the loudest. Holding a vision that guides your being and makes sense of your actions today is what helps us to create the tomorrow (as Charles Eisenstein put it) our hearts know is possible. It is also exactly and precisely what we mean by the simple words Empowerment, Responsibility and Harvest that describe the three journeys of soul in Movement Medicine practice.
So, as well as the book (released March 31st by Hay House in written and audio format), Susannah and I have decided to massively deepen our online offering in the year ahead. For seven years, we ran monthly webinars – Movement Medicine online classes. We were amazed by the depth of the practice we could experience even without being in the same room together. Now, with improved technology and a new team in place, we are creating 21 Gratitudes – The Movement Medicine Study Hub launching in April 2020. It will be an accessible, bite-sized inspiration portal, an oasis of safety and support for the people in this world-wide community. It will also provide an easy access gateway for those yet to know about it, to be able to practice from the privacy of their own home (with prices relative to where people are living).
Each month, there will be:
- A live online class (which will be added to the archive accessible to members to participate in at any time)
- Monthly bite-sized teachings from myself and Susannah as we travel through the 21 Gateways of the Movement Medicine mandala
As well as this, there will be other regular offerings during the year such as:
- Online rituals for the equinoxes and solstices
- Occasional Time with Our Elders with Professor Jake and Dr Eva Chapman
- Time with Susannah’s mirror master ponies to share her latest learnings
- Quarterly Time with Your Teachers sessions to share your questions and experiences
- … and of course, the many things we are yet to discover are possible through such a dynamic membership
You will be hearing more about this at the end of January with the invitation to become a founding member and a special offer for those on our mailing list. And yes, happy to say that those of you who were part of our webinar membership will be receiving the offer we promised you in due course.
So dear ones, dancers born for these times, creative hubs in your own right, hearts on legs who care for life, humans who remember how to be strengthened by swimming, salmon like, upstream against the current. Do not lose heart. Not now. Not ever. Did the sun rise this morning? Then rise with it and be who you are and give everything. And forget about the outcome unless it inspires you more. I hear my mama singing when I remember to give thanks. And I feel my papa shining brighter inside me when I remember to say good morning.
Check this out. I enjoyed seeing this Future Crunch news today.
Dance. Sing. Revolt. Create. Dream. Plant trees. Do what’s in your heart whilst it’s still beating. And remember that if you’re a human being who is willing to be with the pain in this world, then you must balance that by being a human being who is willing to be with the beauty that is everywhere we dare to look, and everywhere we don’t.
Before I go:
My 2020-Vision for the New Decade is to put as much love and beauty into this world as I can possibly manage.
What’s Yours?
With love to you and your families at this solstice time. Looking forward to seeing you on the road in the next months or online (my book launch will go out on Facebook Live on March 31, 2020)
Ya’Acov DK
December 2019
Upcoming Workshops with Ya’Acov Darling Khan:
24–26 January: The Arc of Time with Ya’Acov Darling Khan. San Anselmo, San Francisco Bay, USA
In this weekend workshop, we are travelling the arc of time – past, present and future – of course with body, dance and movement meditation. We
are able to visit the past and heal old wounds, freeing up potent life
energy that is then available again in the present. The present can thus
be lived more empowered and conscious, allowing us to move into the
future with all the resources, support and healthy choice that is now
available to us, to live and forge the path we dreaming of.
Contact Jennifer Coffey: jencoffey@gmail.com
29 Jan–12 Feb: Dancing with the Heart of the World with Susannah, Ya’Acov & Partners
In this powerful intensive, Ya’Acov and Susannah team up with Pachamama Journeys director David Tucker, and with the indigenous partners in the Amazon from the Achuar and Sapara people. Participants experience a life-changing journey into the rainforest, which includes various shamanic, movement and creative processes. Be moved. Be stretched. Be changed.
For more information, click here
13 February: Pre-Book Launch for Ya’Acov’s new book. Vancouver, Canada.
Meet Ya’Acov and his new Book Shaman – Invoking Power, Presence and
Purpose of the core of Who YOU Are. Listen, laugh, be touched and
inspired, as you sit with Ya’Acov, who just arrived back from visiting
the Amazon rain forest and Manari, shaman and leader of the Separa
people in Ecuador, who wrote the foreword for the book.
Contact Bettina: bettina@bettinarothe.com
14–16 February: Source with Ya’Acov Darling Khan. Vancouver, Canada.
In this workshop we will dive into the exploration of the primal energy of creation, our sexual energy, which, when embodied fully, enriches all areas of life and living. We will dance with and release some of our shadows around sexuality. Weaving the balance between the masculine and feminine, we will embody the free flowing movement of sexual energy, allowing it to return to its own innocence.
Contact Bettina Roth: (604) 767-3798; bettina@bettinarothe.com