Rainforest ramblings

Living in the rain forest for three days practicing yoga, meditation and deep ecology can really restore take its toll on your mental health. Sounds like a spa retreat, right? Aside from the meditative practices, the trip involved classroom sessions learning about the 12 Philosophies of Ecology. Viewpoints ranged from economic globalization to ecological feminism, and were all completely different from each other. Its bizarre to think that in order for the environment to be restored, 12 different mindsets and values need to be overcome or changed. The underlying theme of this program seems to be that the world requires a fundamental shift in values in order to make any difference in the planet. At this point in time that sounds pretty intimidating, change the values of every being on the planet?

The absolute most terrifying part of the trip was the excessive amount of terrestrial leeches that popped up anywhere and everywhere. I thought everyone on my trip was such a weakling for screaming when they saw the leeches stuck on their ankles...until I got one. It was one of the more scary moments of my life.

During the workshop, our teacher introduced us to a cleansing method called "truth mendala". In the middle of two circles of  people sitting on the ground there were four objects representing different emotions. Leaves-sorrow, Bowl-despair or hopelessness, Stick-anger and Rock-fear. One by one, people sat in the center, picked up which ever object, and expressed what was making them feel that way. The goal of the exercise was to not let any positive emotions in the circle. When things get bad or sad, our natural tendency is to say positive things and try to make it better. However sadness and despair are emotions that need to be expressed too, no matter how hard it is to talk about. The mendala ended up being extremely upsetting and emotional. It was incredible how much people opened up about their emotions and personal lives and how comfortable everyone was with showing their deepest fears.

So you can see how this trip ended up being a pretty exhausting one! With the leeches, mendalas, sleeping in tents and this sucker....

....it ended up tiring all of us out!