PRIMAL CONNECTIONS

©By Susan B. Eirich, Ph.D.

The Teton Wellness Festival "nurtures body and spirit, open the heart and mind, and touch the earth." It is a noteworthy effort to focus on the positive and explore at the edges of knowledge. There is a wonderful mixture of approaches from MD's to shamanic healers; from how to move your body well to nutrition. For human wellness and earth wellness we need to do more than touch the earth though. We are of the earth, from the earth, part of the earth, along with all living things. Keeping this remembering alive is an essential part of health.

We sense this. Most of us have dogs, cats, horses, birds in an instinctive attempt to connect outside our own species, to something larger. Animals, being the closest to us among all the pantheon of living things, are the easiest point of access for many of us into the rest of life. They can invite us to follow the path further - to wild animals, to plants, to energies that flow though all forms of life and to the earth itself, its rocks and waters, and the mysterious animating energy that surges through the universe. We don't just live in "Jackson" or "Victor." These are human conceptions and constructions placed upon the land. The land is not a stage-set on which humans play and build, a background prop to our own endeavors. That point of view leaves us lonely; empty. We live in an exquisite mountain bioregion, in a vibrant community of living individuals, humans, plants and animals, all with something to give, all in potential communion with us on some level.

Many of us living here do experience life in this way. But as a culture, we generally don't connect deeply enough with nature, and we are missing a huge source of support. Support boosts the immune system. The more we draw from other forms of life, as well as each other, the more deeply we are connected to the land on which we live, the healthier we and our larger community will be. And we will make better decisions about the land and the living beings on it.

We are starting to do much better. Historically western culture has disconnected mind versus body, animals versus man, divided land into squares. It is disconnection that fosters sickness and social ills among us. It is reconnection that heals. Disconnection that causes at-risk kids. It is reconnection to mentors and families that heals. Disconnection allows us to believe mind and body are two separate entities; reconnection heals. Disconnection enables us to horribly abuse animals in factory farming, put those unhealthy, stressed and drugged creatures into our bodies and believe it does not affect us morally and physically. Reconnection heals. Organic farming methods help. Biodynamic farming goes further, incorporating subtle energies in nature in its approach. Food grown this way practically leaps off the shelf at you in its vitality.

With increasing awareness of how important energy flow is for health in living systems, we are changing our thinking, how we practice health and the questions we ask in science. We are connecting mind and body through alternative medicine practices. We are using more touch and energy therapies, understanding that blocks to the flow of energy in our bodies are a major contributor to disease. The more mysterious of these therapies work to connect to larger unseen energies and help them move through the body.

We are beginning to see how energy moves through an ecosystem and what we are doing to block it, damaging its overall health and vibrancy. We are undamming rivers. We are understanding the importance of genetic flow - that genes must move freely over vast distances for many species to remain viable. We are perceiving that nature works on much larger scales of space and time than any individual can see. The brilliantly conceived Yellowstone-to Yukon-Conservation Initiative is a result of this growing awareness, an attempt to keep wildlife corridors open from the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem all the way to the Arctic. We live here, yes, in "Jackson" or "Victor," but also at the base of this huge, interconnected ecosystem that flows 2000 miles north to the Yukon.

From mind/body medicine, to ecosystems and the fundamental principles that affect the wellness of both, we are all in this adventure together. The Festival is a good start to discuss what wellness is and how to achieve it. Let's have many more; art and wellness, business and wellness, education and wellness, and of course, animals and wellness.