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Breathe:

More Kindness for Ourselves and Each Other

Water is Medicine

12/13/2016

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“Mni Pejuta: water is medicine and Mni Wiconi: Water is Life,’ says Wakinyan LaPointe, Lakota community organizer. ‘In our Lakota way, it is our responsibility to strengthen our relationship with water.’”

Modern research continues to affirm indigenous wisdom, that water is one of our most useful medicines. Water can improve energy, mood, anger, concentration, and focus. The brain is very sensitive to small changes in levels of water in the body. Water is vegan, free, and in most cases comes with few side effects. You can do an experiment on yourself.

Like many of you, I've been deeply moved by what is happening at Standing Rock. Lakota Sioux have been joined by hundreds of indigenous nations from the Americas and the world, as well as other people of conscience called to protect the water, support the rights of our First Nations to their sacred ground and water and to protect the earth from from further global warming.

I read that the water protectors received word that the police had put out a list of requests including granola bars, energy drinks, soda, and warm clothing and gloves. The indigenous water protectors were the ones to respond to the police request.  They said, we gave them everything they asked for except for the soda and energy drinks, because water is life.

If you are moved to do more to support the water protectors, the current request is to contact the banks funding the pipeline.

In socially engaged mindfulness, we may engage with full energy but not attach to the results of our actions. 2 unexpected healings at Standing Rock were forgiveness ceremonies from the church and the military over the 500-year history of colonialization.

For heart-opening images, see a video clip of the 13 year-old Lakota Sioux girl, who had started the Standing Rock petition, after a successful goverment response to her efforts,  and images of the elders from many Native nations who gathered as water protectors.

Thank you. Water is life. Mni Wiconi. Water is Medicine.



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Water Meditation

11/29/2016

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Noticing a desire for water.

The desire may be experienced as a dryness in the mouth, an interest in the mind, a feeling of fatigue, or a cue -- of the morning, a meal, or a workout that reminds you of water.

Filling a drinking vessel with cold, room temperature, or hot water. Noticing the sound of the water as it fills your cup. Noticing how listening to the sound is experienced in the emotions and the body.

If you like, adding tea, lemon or anything else, or just drinking your plain, pure water.

Feeling the weight of the drinking vessel in your hand. Noticing the temperature of the water that is conveyed from the cup to your hand.

Looking at the water and seeing what you notice.

Telling your water, "I love you."

If you like, contemplating the sources of your water. Remembering or imagining where your water comes from to arrive at your cup. Does it come from a reservoir? Is it fed by a glacier, does it come from a river in the Sierras or other mountains? Noticing what you know and what you don't know. You may pray or send good thoughts to the sources of your water.

You may notice gratitude for being in that portion of humanity  that has running water in their home.

Smelling the water and noticing what you notice.

Taking a drink and noticing the temperature of the water in the mouth and the temperature of the water as it travels into your body.

Noticing that the water in your cup joins the water you are.


With a deep bow to the Lakota Sioux teen girls and elder women, traditional allies of water through the flow, who are leading the way and teaching us how to pray for and honor water. Thank you to the Ohlone people for the land where I sit and write. Please accept humble apologies for any misunderstandings of the teachings.




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    Author

    Reba Connell teaches Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindful Eating classes in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland.

    She has completed several levels of study in teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, including a professional training program under the direction of Dr. Saki Santorelli and Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and a training in teaching Mindful Eating, through UCSD.

    She is deeply engaged with science-based and traditional approaches to healing through food and self-care. Her trainings include Food As Medicine; The Gut Brain; and Preventing and Managing Chronic Inflammation: Special Focus: Nutritional Interventions.  She has been practicing meditation and yoga since 1999.

    Finding mindfulness, movement, and food to make big differences in her own healing from chronic pain, she feels called to share what she is learning with others and to help people make their own discoveries. She is committed to a feminist approach that honors all body shapes and sizes while collaborating in radiant wellness.

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