Song of the Week

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole known as Bruddah Iz on the island. Play it as you read to help open you up.

Updates

I just returned from Hawai’i where I introduced my partner and parents-in-law to my family there. I saw my great aunties who are 95 and 96 years old, my cousins, nibblings, uncles, and aunties who seem to rep every Asian nationality I can think of. The first thing I always do upon returning is to visit my grandparents who are buried at Pūowaina Crater, also known as Punchbowl, which is a retired volcano whose name means “hill of sarifice”. The grief within the layers of colonization, life and death of my elders, beckon forth a deep commitment to returning the aina (land) to the Hawai’an people. It’s the only way the aina and the people who live there can truly thrive again.

Then we traveled to the Big Island. Olivia’s friend Lehua and her students welcomed us to her school where we talked about our parallel experiences of colonization and swapped art skills with her students. They greeted us with a traditional Hawai’ian welcome and I almost disappeared into a cloud seeing traditions that were almost lost, being brought to life by twenty Hawai’ian teenagers. They used ohe hano ihu (large bamboo flutes), pu (conch shells), and Hawai’ian song. I still fly away a little when I remember this with Mauna Loa in the backdrop.

Later we visited Pele and her volcano Kilauea which means “much spreading” on Halema’uma’u Crater. On the plateau right above Kilauea, you smell the steam mixed with the sweetgrass of the plains and the hundreds of orchids that dot the field above. The earth is so warm here. We laid down after nightfall to watch the stars, the soft glow of the red sky lit up by the lava, and just because we didn’t want to leave. I almost fell asleep watching the meteors despite it being about 65 degrees. I was kept cozy by the magma-warmed ground. It’s easy to imagine another world being possible here, because it’s happening all around you. Hawai’i has all the scars of a place that has suffered from colonialism and therefore capitalism. Yet what I know about healing and healers is that our wounds, which feel a lot like lava oozing from a volcanic rupture at times, use our wounds to help others heal. A lot like the new land that forms after the hot destruction of lava, there are new beginnings and new life waiting for the environment to cool. I hope you can tap into the knowledges that come from your wounds and apply that medicine to yourself, communities, and land today.

Inspiration for today’s newsletter title and content comes from the book The Healer’s Wound, a queer theirstory of polynesia by Dan Taulapapa McMullin.

Somatic Experiencing Coaching Plug

I’ve been loving the integration of somatic experiencing informed coaching into my practice. Somatic experiencing is very helpful for helping to heal developmental wounds, attachment based struggles, and PTSD. The research zooms in on how this modality can help resolve “combat responses, submission, and avoidance”. Somatic experiencing can help people learn the distinction between aggression and the feeling of empowerment. Similar, but also oh so different feelings. It can also help intensify bodily feelings that were perhaps subdued, numbed, or discouraged when what a body actually needed was to feel more of those sensations, not less. So much of the work I do in all the modalities I use is to help the body increase it’s capacity to feel more, to grow your bodily container. To develop a relationship with self and other bodies that honor what’s true while also being able to move towards building the experiences and sensations that allow you to build a future that is in alignment and pace with the earth. Not all healing leads to liberation. We know the Nazi’s used yoga to relax, because turns out, killing people is stressful. However, you can walk the path of liberation if that’s your goal, and somatic healing is necessary to walk that path. We need you. Get your butt into a somatic practice with me, or with anyone else, as long as you do it.

Schedule With Me

Integrative Therapies

Reminder, I offer somatic informed coaching, craniosacral therapy, Swedish massage, Thai bodywork, myofascial release, group workshops, and healing through art, play, and connecting to nature.

Community Events

Friday, February 27th is the new moon at 7:44PM! Get outside and welcome in Pisces. Focus on emotional renewal and spiritual rebirth. It’s my birth month baby, let’s goooo.

Smitten Kitten’s Call for Vendors, see below.

PARTY WITH A PURPOSE (& PUPPETS!), Saturday, March 15th | 4-7 PM, Coliseum Building, 3rd Floor. There will be good food, great company, and space to connect, share stories, and (if it feels right) to explore how to bring to life some of the ideas you offered last fall. Even if you didn’t make it to one of those gatherings, this celebration is for you - as an artist who lives along or makes work in relationship with the Lake Street corridor.The space is fully accessible and childcare will be provided. Drop in anytime between 4-7 PM - come for a little while or stay the whole time!
1. Please RSVP HERE
2. Know other Lake Street artists who should be there? Share their contact info HERE. (Or feel free to invite them yourself!)

Thanks for READING! xoxo Eiko