Roots of Liberation: Integrating Ancestral Wisdom and Contemplative Practice for Ecological Healing and Collective Transformation
When: June 13, 6-7:30pm
Where: Virtual
It’s no secret that Mother Earth is in need of healing—a process contingent upon collective transformation at multiple levels. Our interrelated disconnection from the earth, nature, and one another not only leads to ecological destruction but also significant human suffering, eroding connection to place, community, and our authentic selves. These overlapping layers mean that those working relentlessly for climate and social justice can end up burning themselves out or enacting aggression in their work. Moreover, particularly in racial justice work, white people’s guilt sometimes gets in the way because it is either energy-depleting or leads to defensiveness.
To sustain the work of collective ecological and social transformation, we must reconnect with the roots that ground and nourish us. Each of us has a lineage of intergenerational trauma of some kind that relates to today’s systems of oppression. We also each possess indigenous ancestral wisdom which we can uncover as an antidote to disconnection and injustice.
Join Betsy Gonzalez Blohm as she shares contemplative practices for reconnecting to the roots of our ancestral wisdom. She will also explore the synergy between mindfulness-based approaches and what is needed to support sustainable, life-giving service toward ecological healing and collective liberation.
About The Speaker
Betsy Gonzalez Blohm spent a decade-long career as an educator in public schools teaching and leading for equity before becoming a professor and dean at Naropa University. Her lifelong journey exploring racial identity as a White Iricana (her term to describe Irish and Mexican heritage) while engaging in social justice work has taught her that earth reconnection, collective liberation, and ancestral healing are interdependent. She weaves mindfulness, ancestral healing, and embodiment practices into justice, equity, and inclusion programs for businesses, nonprofits, and schools. She is currently designing Ancestral Reconnection for Collective Liberation retreats to support participants in cultivating grounded roots and wholeness from which to act for the benefit of our earth and each other.
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Español de México