You are a tuning fork. We work with that metaphor all the time within the framework of Being Earthbound and it was a central theme of the 18-month Embodied Permaculture Project. This project, funded by Alef Trust’s Conscious Communities Initiative, asked what working from embodied presence offers to changemakers in the fields of ecological and social regeneration.
What does “being a tuning fork” mean? It means your bodymind as a whole system is an incredibly sensitive resonator. Whether within conscious awareness or outside of it, our body is constantly sending and receiving energetic signals. This happens on many different levels: body cues, the tone of our voice, pheromones, and nervous system energy are just a few.
At the nervous system level, we can immediately sense coherence or discord in another person. Some of us may be more naturally sensitive than others, but we can all do it because it is innate to us as mammals. When our own nervous system vibrational field interacts with another, we can either affect or be affected by the corresponding energetic field.
The tuning fork works very well as an illustration of this. With two tuning forks of the same pitch next to each other, strike one, let it ring out and then dampen it with your hand. As if by magic, the corresponding tuning fork will be vibrating and ringing out. It received the information transmitted and resonated in relation to it.
This YouTube video shows this in action:
This is true for us as mammals as well and is a critical piece to understand as we navigate the world of changemaking and regeneration. Our nervous system states influence other people’s and vice versa. If we are feeling tension, anger, resentment, or fear, or conversely relaxation, openness or connection, the people we interact with will sense that and either tense up or relax as a result. So, if we seek to find pathways forward with other people in order to find solutions to some of the enormous issues we are currently faced with, surely our ability to be a grounded, safe presence has a huge effect on outcomes? Perhaps even more so than the persuasiveness of our relative position on an issue?
Therefore, the more we can cultivate the conditions of embodied safety and connectedness within ourselves and with others, the more potential potency we have as agents of change.
One project participant noted:
“I think for a long, long time there was a bit of an internal barrier in me to connecting with people. I think I would connect with them to a certain point, but then there was always something holding me back or putting a bit of an invisible barrier between me and other people, because I never quite felt safe.”
Through our regular group mutuality meetings, grounding practice, and a process of reflecting on the unfolding transformation that has offered her, she can see what’s now different as she is noticing a “…deep sense of safety and trust being within the group and feeling safe enough to express freely and openly with one another.”
This, in turn, has led to real-world benefits:
“I do feel more belonging and I’m opening up to people… whereas I found before maybe I’d always have a little bit of a barrier, I feel a lot less like that now and a lot more open to new experiences…I feel like the barriers are really coming down and I’m able to connect with people in a deeper way.”
This is a spiral of abundance. The more relaxed and safer we feel, the more others will receive that information in their nervous system and relax, which in turn facilitates better relating and more closeness, which in turn facilitates more safety in the body.
Another participant noticed that:
“I take a more active role in solving issues, talking with people, and helping in conflicts. I now have some skills to bring this trust and sense of presence elsewhere to the communities I work with. This is only in the beginning, but I feel empowered. I have noticed that people trust me and are open.”
This is the essence of connectivism as compared to many forms of activism. It comes from the deeply embodied knowing that relationship is the fuel of transformation, not force of will or intellect.
There is an ecological principle embedded within permaculture that the health of any system, be it a garden or our wider culture, is not simply a factor of the number of elements within it but rather the strength and health of the relationships between those elements. Diversity within any system is not enough if there is no emphasis on the quality of being and relating between people, animals, plants, land, and structures within that system.
Starting from the recognition that we are always resonating with each other towards either greater coherence or greater chaos is an important step on the way. Knowing that we can cultivate more embodied, grounded, connective safety for ourselves, and that this can be shared energetically with others, perhaps offers something truly revolutionary to changemakers.
What’s possible when our tuning forks resonate us back into full relationship with each other and the whole of Life?
https://www.aleftrust.org/alef-applied/conscious-community-initiative/
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