Kin Relationality Awareness and Skills
The body, as a seed of knowledge, is rooted in the bountiful soil of Mother Earth’s kin relationality. The body interacts within its environment. Indigenous sciences consider how the body seed retains memories - intergenerational and self-experienced.
The body experiences its own phenomena as relationships. We are a body in and of communities. We respond within ourselves to each other. We are the sheer fabric through which these experiences flow.
Our sensations, emotions, thoughts, and actions are not a part of us - they make us
From Flourishing Kin, Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Wellbeing
Dr Yuria Celidwen
Essential skills for kin relationality:
Somatic mindfulness: awareness of our physical ease, arousal, or rest; adapting the flow for the generation of balance (nervous system regulation)
Emotional finesse: building trust in the community; embracing diversity of life; accepting the changes in states and perceptions with gentleness
Ecological humility: awe at the vastness of Nature
Cognitive: analysis and context; analyze the body’s response to the environment and its impact; intentionally discern environmental well-being
Character development: benefit of the larger community; approaching relations through curiosity, service, kindness and gratitude; regulated through self-kindness and gratitude for the body as a relational universe
Ethical mastery: resulting care and concern for our environment; actions and care for our bodies are the same as those Mother Earth requires
These capacities are the connective ties to appreciating others and eliciting a desire and action to alleviate collective distress.
Trusting nature as deeply as we trust our own bodies
This statement may elicit a response. Trauma disconnects us from our bodies. What is true for many of us is that we are on an ongoing and challenging journey back to connecting with and trusting our body.
Dr Celidwin teaches that our bodies are naturally rooted in connection. When we tune into our body, we strengthen our sense of belonging in the world. Our emotions, reactions, and growth come from these deep relationships.
We nurture our bodies like seeds—feeding them kindness, respect, and meaning. Like a seed needing the right environment to grow, our bodies rely on relationships to thrive.
When this seed sprouts, it becomes awareness that helps us manage fear, recognize our shared humanity, and open ourselves to kindness and care. Awareness lessens threat reactivity.
Growing this seed and sprout of awareness
Observe our internal experience and how society shapes us
Experience things as they truly are, in the present moment.
In these moments, we naturally respond with kindness, love, and awe. We return to a peaceful state of presence, where anything is possible.
Indigenous contemplation elicits an awareness of the interdependence of systems, of kinship and mutuality. The body, like a seed, holds compassion. Our emotions depend on how we understand and respond to our interactions with the world. Knowing that environmental dynamics influence responses reduces the experience of threat and overwhelm.
There is no human flourishing without Mother Earth flourishing first
Care is mutually beneficial. Our body becomes the expression of our spirituality and medicine, where we compost defeating narratives and become the catalyst for transformation.
Liberating the body from narratives of isolation is critical to our collective flourishing. Our bodies then become paths to recognizing our strength and collective power, and to personal, community, and planetary healing.
We flourish through relationship
Stay rooted yet flexible, capable of bending to play with storming winds. Concentrate on the body as a system interacting with the environment. Participate in the creation of collective Spirit awareness.
We explore and play together each week in our Sunday free community class. Details here.