Fast Wisdom Newsletter Archive
Each issue explores a theme of living approached in the context of healing. A simple Jin Shin Juytsu® Healing Hands Self-Care exercise, as well as a Restorative Nature Practice™ activity to practice which relate to the newsletter theme of the month is included. Nutrition and health tips too, so you can live a happier and more vital life infused with well-being, improved health and more effective and empowered recovery.
Previous Issues
- Fast Wisdom 1 - November 2014
Thanksgiving: Gratitude as the Gift of Befriending the Unknown
Protective expectation inhibits moving into deeper connection with self, others and the world. Autumn is a time of year appropriate for entering the compassionate refuge of the unknown and a deeper and more authentic way of being.
- Fast Wisdom 2 - December 2014
Winter Solstice: Transforming Outer Darkness into Inner Light
Dehydration is the number one cause of disease, allowing accumulation of toxins in the body which results in inflammation. Proper hydration reduces inflammation, nourishing physiological function. Water allows the fire of life to thrive with renewed well-being, health and recovery. - Fast Wisdom 3 - January 2015
Life Letters: The Art of Affirming Relationship
A “Life Letter” acknowledges another for their contribution to one’s connection to one’s soul. It involves a kind of empathy that brings one’s values and actions into alignment, actuating greater connection with others and richer physiological functioning internally. - Fast Wisdom 4 - February 2015
The Heart: Weak Alone, Invincible in Community
The human heart is as equally powerful as it is weak, unable to perform without the support of surrounding vital organs. Overexertion isolates, disturbing the interdependent system that sustains us. Love comes from feeling connected, from reciprocity with others. - Fast Wisdom 5 - March 2015
Spring Equinox: Migration and Digestion as Equatorial Balance
Circadian Rhythms are essential to psychological and physiological health. When there is balance between Winter and Spring, and between dark and light we can process and digest life more effectively; we are more resilient and healthier. - Fast Wisdom 6 - April 2015
Prevention: Sensing Subtle Symptoms
Prevention is moving towards the positive; not moving away from the negative. Being an inquiring observer of one’s state is calming and encourages movement away from the “negativity bias” of fear and lack of confidence, and towards the “positivity bias” of forgiveness and relaxation, preventing both dis-ease and disease. - Fast Wisdom 7 - May 2015
Recovery: Being the Enlightened Balloon
The prime directive of any organism is to move towards homeostasis or rest. To live in recovery is to live in the “Middle Way,” bringing as much attention to rest as to activity. Within the pauses between inhale and exhale, and exhale and inhale recovery is quietly happening. - Fast Wisdom 8 - June 2015
Summer Solstice: The Light in the Stone
“Fire is the energy of the Sun unwinding from a tree.” Red blood cells and chlorophyll cells are nearly identical. Almost every living thing eats sunlight in varying degrees of density - directly or indirectly. Sunlight is in nearly everything, so is also inside of you. - Fast Wisdom 9 - July 2015
Plateau Power: Patience into Integration
Deeper integration of heart mind and body occur invisibly beneath the surface. The practice of the art of "Mastery" and experiences of "flow" states happen when the focus is on the process rather than the goal. The path becomes its own reward. - Fast Wisdom 10 - August 2015
Summertime: And the Livin' is Easy...
Or is it? Being overheated by hot weather or by life stress saturation can result in exhaustion. "Zeroing out" can restore resiliency and vitality. - Fast Wisdom 11 - September 2015
Autumn Equinox: Tipping Towards Shadow
This time of year is the midpoint between Summer and Winter; of when light and shadow are equal. Where in your life are what is known and what is not known balanced enough to allow alive questions into your insecurities and self-criticism?
- Fast Wisdom 12 - October 2015
Grand Canyon: River at the Top of the Mountain
Excerpts from Grand Canyon trip journal: One's relationship with connecting with self, others and nature is determined by the experience of flow. The inhibitions to flow can be erased by a deepening of the experience of reciprocity. - Fast Wisdom 13 - November 2015
Abundance: The Peacemaker's Journey
The Laws of Great Peace and the long lasting peace it brought to the united Confederacy of the Iroquois American Indian nations who had been at war with each other for hundreds of years was the result of a persevering visionary called the Peacemaker. The four principles he advocated were love, peace, reason and justice towards equality and liberty for all people, and were the principle building blocks of our Constitution. The Peacemaker lives inside all people, dwells as a voice of what is possible if we give ourselves to what is best in the world. - Fast Wisdom 14 - December 2015
Winter Solstice: the Virtue of Deep Quiet
In darkness lays the stillness of silence and the receptive ‘quiet mind’. Darkness can be a means of ‘seeing’ more clearly. During Restorative Nature Practice™ sensitivity to sights, sounds, smells, textures, terrain contour and movement increases. In Restorative Nature Practice™ Wanders we strengthen the connection to self, others, nature and personal creativity by relaxing into the welcoming cradle of nature through sensory engagement.
- Fast Wisdom 15 - January 2016
The Humility of Necessity: Going Barefoot
Going barefoot in nature brings sensory awareness and deeper connection with the environment. Vulnerability to the ground allows the landscape to define us. This can translate into a personal inquiry of how one is vulnerable to the landscape of one's life and what layers one might take off in becoming more connected to life. - Fast Wisdom 16 - February 2016
Spring Buds: Authenticity of Regeneration
Our physical health, happiness and sense of purpose can be inhibited from being experienced and expressed when toxic foods, habits, and people inhibit the natural emergence of our deeper being and connection to life. A period of abstention from what is not good for us can allow the betterment of our lives to organically rise to the surface. - Fast Wisdom 17 - March 2016
Spring Equinox: Birds as Keepers of Listening
Birds reflect safety and threat changes in the natural environment through vocalizations and movements that all animals are attuned and respond to. For us, listening is the highest sense, allowing access to creativity, inner peace and interrelational connection with all life. - Fast Wisdom 18 - April 2016
Trees: Patience, Presence and Community
As complex systems of community life, trees offer resources and qualities like no other. Reflecting on trees can illuminate your relationship with light and dark, seen and unseen, stability and all-inclusiveness. What if a tree were your hero? - Fast Wisdom 19 - May 2016
Empathy: Animals as Healers and Teachers
The ancient connection between humans and animals can bring healing renewal when we experience empathy with animals. The simplicity of sensory awareness allows the emotional body to relate to the world with honesty, spontaneity and generosity. - Fast Wisdom 20 - June 2016
Soil: Home to All Life
All life is dependent on this thin, rich layer of nourishment, unique in the universe. See how it feels to make some yourself. - Fast Wisdom 21 - July 2016
Curiosity: Awakening the Inner Tracker
Curiosity, especially sustained curiosity, catalyzes kinship with what we are curious about. The dignity of belonging can be as available as curiously listening to a sound you hear all the time. That sound might even be your own voice. - Fast Wisdom 22 - August 2016
Mentoring: The Art of Becoming Connected
Through your ancestors being mentored by nature and they mentoring each generation by a model based on nature’s mentoring, nature nurtured your curiosity, imagination, urge to share your story, your motivation to dig deeper, giving you the tools to adapt to your life in an authentic way and contribute your gifts to others. - Fast Wisdom 23 - September 2016
Harvest: Gathering, Preparing, Storing
Autumn begins with a flourish of harvesting. The energy wanes as life draws in and down. Contradicting nature's rhythms can deplete us of energy when we remain busy when nature is quieting. Nature’s effortlessness is to be observed, contemplated and cultivated; gathered, prepared and stored within ourselves for when the light of spring, of opportunity or even necessity goes on and we are more nourished to respond with a wiser, more vital and resilient self. - Fast Wisdom 24 - October 2016
Awe: Grand Canyon to Lady Bugs
The experience of awe has the power of bringing us into full, present sensory awareness, alive with a feeling of connection to something greater than ourselves of which we are part and to which we belong. By intentionally bringing our open attention to our surroundings, perception of the mysterious realm where awe hovers is possible. - Fast Wisdom 25 - November 2016
Governance: The Great Law of Peace
Abundance of choice can easily be abdicated with feelings of anger, loss and hopelessness. Remembering that those responses are a choice helps us remember also that the awareness of choice is always available, allowing us to act towards a better world, rather than against a threatening one. - Fast Wisdom 26 - December 2016
Healing the "Other"
Feelings of aversion to "others" is a reflection of avoiding something within ourselves we do not like. By becoming vulnerable to those inner dark corners and healing them, we can awaken our deeper humanity in connecting outwardly with the humanity of those different "others". - Fast Wisdom 27 - January 2017
Grounded Activism: 10 Tips for Self-Care During Challenging Times
When we are agitated or feeling "ungrounded", caring for ourselves can restore calm and focus. These simple practices will help you be more prepared to respond, rather than react to difficult situations, with discrimination, resilience and more effectiveness. - Fast Wisdom 28 - February 2017
Standing Rock: Water is Life!
Native Elders bring wisdom to us to become Water Protectors in our own communities. To understand Water is to understand Life, and to understand Life is to protect Life. Water is universal and so is the great uniter of people. Have you thanked water lately? We are all born of Water, so we are all born Water Protectors. - Fast Wisdom 29 - March, 2017
Self-Care: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out
When we value the nurturing of our vitality and well being through consistent self-care practice, we become happier, more compassionate, more effective in our lives, as we add to our longevity. - Fast Wisdom 30 April, 2017
The Edge Gift: Dynamic Zone of Creation
The most dynamic zones in nature are the edges of habitat zones where, for instance, forests meet meadows. It is also at the edges of our perceptions where we can challenge our certainties and new, expansive relationships with life can emerge. - Fast Wisdom 31 May, 2017
Air Omnipresent
Awareness of air, the Blessed busybody which fills and surrounds all life, can awaken connection to everything, everyone, everywhere. - Fast Wisdom 32 June, 2017
Initiation: Path to Ancestral Connection
The difficulties we experience in life endow us with wisdom which connects us to something greater than ourselves. - Fast Wisdom 33 July, 2017
Resile: Leap Back into Your Original Peace
When the world offends us and we recoil in some way, we always have our breath to bring us back into the here and now of our original peace. - Fast Wisdom 34 August, 2017
Total Solar Eclipse: Occult of Surrender
The Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 was a force too big to see, but those forces find us when we may least expect it. When our assumptions are eclipsed by circumstance, passion or crisis, everything falls apart and falls away. Then our indelible purpose and clearer perception - our essence, which is ultimately aligned with the cosmos - has a greater chance to be revealed. - Fast Wisdom 35 September, 2017
Forgiveness: Winging Our Way Back into Life & Love
Our relationships with others is a reflection of our relationship with ourselves. When we feel wounded in our relationships, we are already harming ourselves in some way. Forgiving ourselves is not easy because acceptance of what we do not like about ourselves isn't easy. But by forgiving ourselves, the love inside us can come back out to meet the love inside others. - Fast Wisdom 36 October, 2017
Community Grieving: Path to the Phoenix Rising
Feeling our emotions, sharing them and being a compassionate listener for others with theirs helps us to grieve as a community and rise from the ashes of loss like the Phoenix. - Fast Wisdom 37 November, 2017
The Abundant Question: Your Core Voice
Asking the question of others and oneself, "What would you like to know most about you right now?" engenders life and relationship with an abundance of meaningful connection to ourselves, others and something greater than ourselves of which we are part. - Fast Wisdom 38 December 2017
Fully Awake: Living as if Everything Counts on This One Step
What if we lived as if everything counted on this one step, fully alive and vulnerable; fiercely committed to the path of inner freedom. Forgiveness of even the parts of ourselves which can be hurt can transform our fears and judgements of others and ourselves into deepened intensity on this personal path. - Fast Wisdom 39 January 2018
Tree of Arising: The Re-Greening of Humanity
We were designed for connection. Connection to ourselves, each other and nature. The positive sensations of connection of safety, trust, belonging and gift of life between you and another are your birthright. Appreciating beauty, animals, children and committing acts of kindness are simple ways to reconnect, like the rich connection culture of the San Bushmen of the Kalahari. - Fast Wisdom 40 February 2018
Saint Valentine, Meet the Iroquois Nation: Return of the Feminine
Giving and receiving in generous reciprocity is an expression of the balance between masculine and feminine energies. "Valentine" means "healthy and in balance". The US Constitution was adopted from the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Nation, omitting the Feminine influence. Renewing the Feminine and Masculine in celebration on Valentines Day brings balance between the give and take of relationships. - Fast Wisdom 41 March 2018
Nature Perfectly Imperfect: Everything in its Place, as it is Meant to Be
Simply noticing and accepting everything as it is inside and outside of ourselves can clarify what we need to change, and what we can allow to be just as it is. - Fast Wisdom 42 April 2018
The Kalahari Tracking Club: Nature and Community Connection as Healer
Traveling to the ancient and raw landscape of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, I discover how the primitive sophistication of deep connection is cultivated and refined by the San Bushmen, the first humans. All healing is re-connection. Healing connections between people, within the body, within one’s self, between modern people and the Earth when we let our modern self be tracked by our ancestral self. - Fast Wisdom 43 May 2018
Seeing the Unseen: The "Hunch" as Visible Evidence of the Invisible
When we allow our assumptions about what is seen to hesitate, we allow ourselves to become aware of what is below the surface that holds potential for new awareness to grow. - Fast Wisdom 44 June 2018
Wisdom River: Elderhood Wanders Upstream
When multi-generational gatherings flourish, ancestral wisdom is available to all ages. Yet, elder wisdom transmits up the river of life, infusing the young with hard-earned lifetime of experience sense of consequence. - Fast Wisdom 45 July 2018
Goodwill in the Leader: When the "Lesson" Winks You Awake
The story of Jahid, a homeless man, and his gentle wisdom reminds us that every person has a unique gift, and that a peaceful and vibrant society welcomes and nurtures every person's gift. - Fast Wisdom 46 August 2018
The Sacred Fire in Your Heart: How Does Your Flame Burn Bright?
Fire, primordial, biological, spiritual is at the heart of life and vitality. Fire seems to be ever present where desire, action and creation activate our connection to living. - Fast Wisdom 47 September 2018
The Song of the Birds: Listening into Unity
The music of J.S. Bach's Suites for Unaccompanied Cello have roots in ancient Bird Language. Listening to music, birds, each other, and all of Creation connects us to everything. Listening is the intra- and inter-relational connective tissue of Creation, life and love. - Fast Wisdom 48 October 2018
On the Origins of Governance: The Trophic Cascade Brings Harmony
Imagine our human community being as inclusive as nature’s community - the balance of assertion and yielding in the spirit of what is best for all - unity above all else. Every voice heard and each individual valued; a form of governance that protects each person’s gift as necessary for the survival of all. True equality. - Fast Wisdom 49 November 2018
On the Origins of Gratitude: Our Gifts from the Earth
Are the collaborative, cooperative and creative elements of a person’s gifts also a reflection of those elements in nature? Could it be that our unique gifts are an expression of nature? - Fast Wisdom 50 December 2018
A Solstice Sojourner's Log: Peering into Darkness
During the ten darkest days of the year, a winter holiday road trip invites reflections on light, darkness and peace. Perhaps it’s not about how much light there is, but how much darkness we allow ourselves to belong to. Peace may mean nothing more than that.
- Fast Wisdom 51 January 2019
Solace: Crossing the Rubicon to a New Peace
Sometimes walking out into a storm in nature or the storm of our own uncertainty can clean out old ways and reveal new perspectives and paths. - Fast Wisdom 52 February 2019
The Baseline of Humility: Lighting One's Own and Other's Uniqueness
Just as when we discern the unique properties of a certain wood and the conditions required to successfully ignite it, so we best discern the unique qualities and state of ourselves and others in the moment to bring our and their inner fire alive. - Fast Wisdom 53 March 2019
Ascendant Risk: Tread of the Dance Shoes of Transformation
Climbing a shear cliff is risky, requiring focus, commitment and relaxation. Risks in our lives require the same to meld into the new environment which has the power to transform us. - Fast Wisdom 54 May 2019
The Wisdom of Play: Life's Foundation for Success
Play encourages cooperation, creativity, confidence and most likely accounts for human survival more than fear/threat response.
- Fast Wisdom 55 July 2019
Inter-Dependence Day: Nature as Freedom
The connection and sense of belonging that shared curiosity and collaborative problem-solving in nature usually produces a sense of freedom within and among people. America's very Constitution was gifted to the Founding Fathers by the Indigenous Haudenosaunee Indians, who derived their tried-and-true for hundreds of years successful form of Democracy from the relationships in nature. - Fast Wisdom 56 September 2019
Tending the Waters: The Pure Spring of Belonging
In all of its forms from rarified mist to underground aquifers, water connects all living things with each other.
Copyright ©2014 Lonner Holden