The Pachamama Alliance // Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind

Hey everyone!  Hope you are all doing well on this fine Sunday.  I just wanted to share some organizations that I have discovered this past week because I'm feeling inspired by what they have to offer for the future of our planet!  Currently, I am sitting at the Portland Flea-For-All, selling the jewelry I have been busy making for the past month since I got back from Nepal.  It's pretty fun to spend a weekend here because you meet some interesting people and get the chance to advocate for yourself and share what you have to offer, which in my case, is funky jewelry!  Here's my page if you want to check it out ~ MacKenzie Rose Designs.  Thanks!

THE PACHAMAMA ALLIANCE
So over the past few days I've been looking into the Pachamama Alliance, a non-profit organization that is working towards an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet.  According to their website, they were "born out of an invitation from the Achuar people of Ecuador to work in partnership with them to preserve their land and culture by bringing forth a new worldview that honors and sustains life."  From what I have seen so far, the Pachamama Alliance seems like a very wonderful catalyst in the race for worldly transformation.  And I honestly feel so inspired when I see people really aiming to make this world a better place.  There are lots of things that need improving and I think one of the most important things that we need to work on as a population is to renew our relationship with the land and get back to our roots.

The Pachamama Alliance's main focus is to empower the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their lands and culture to educate and inspire individuals everywhere to bring forth a thriving, just, and sustainable world.  What a mission.  I think this is a goal that should really be taken to heart, and we should begin to help other indigenous people preserve their cultures all around the world.  Creating a sustainable planet is key to our survival in the future and many people think they are incapable of making change.  Improving the state of our environment should be at the top of our to-do lists because in the end, it could make or break life as we know it.  By creating more environmental organizations and conscious communities, we can make a difference.

                          The Pachamama Alliance's Awakening the Dreamer Symposium

Please check out the Pachamama Alliance website AND their sister website (Up to Us: How We Can [Actually] Change the World):

Pachamama Alliance: http://www.pachamama.org/home

Up to Us: http://www.uptous

ECOTHERAPY: HEALING WITH NATURE IN MIND
Also in the past week, I have begun to read a great book, Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind.  It discusses how, in the Western world, we have severed our connection to the very source of life, and as a result, we are possessed by an ever-growing hunger that we try to fill by consuming more and more, in the process destroying the very fabric of life that sustains us.  According to this book and other sources, ecopsychology seeks to address the sources of our cultural madness and to reestablish the lost connection with the more-than-human (natural) world.  Sustainability is a key concept in ecopsychology, boh in the sense of how we, as a epcies, can live sustainably on the earth, and how we, as individuals, can create sustainable lives and relationships.  Sustainability has a lot to do with dynamic balance, reciprocity, and interdependence.  Achieving a sustainable society will require a diversity of perspectives and the cultivation of our ability to tolerate ambiguity and chaos.  Creating enduring and sustained community is a central goal for ecopsychology and ecotherapy.  

Needless to say, this is a VERY good book so far.  It also talks a lot about how individuals acquire mental illnesses as a result of a life lived out of tune with nature and wilderness.  Once people spend more time outside, their moods lift and they feel more connected with everything around them.  People who suffer from mental illness oftentimes feel disconnected and lonely in a world that is so fast-paced and constantly evolving.  When they get out and spend more time with themselves or others in a natural environment, they almost always feel much better about themselves.  I really like how this book advocates for being more active outdoors because I personally notice a difference in my mood when I spend time exploring the woods of New England.  It's always a refreshing and awesome way to spend my time.

http://www.ecotherapyheals.com/

That's all for now!  Enjoy your Super Bowl Sunday while I get back to being a flea-er!
MacKenzie