The importance of thriving
the action of thriving is in itself a way to dismantle the paradigms around us.
Today I leave you a seed to plant, a very exciting dancing playlist, and some suggestions to stimulate your senses. Enjoy!
These days, I have been home a lot because I am going through a transition in my life, and when I feel tender and vulnerable, I know I need to slow down, take care of myself, and do what I love to do. One of the things I love to do is spend hours listening to my heroines speak. In one of her most beautiful interviews, Toni Morrison is asked a question from the audience: How do you survive whole in a world where we’re all victims of something?
She pauses, in her grace and elegance, and then says something that remained with me, she says “Sometimes you don’t survive whole. But the grandeur of life is that attempt, it’s not about that solution, it is about being as fearless as one can, and behaving as beautiful as one can, under completely impossible circumstances. It’s that which makes it elegant. Good is just more interesting, more complex, and more demanding. Evil is silly, it’s not a compelling idea, and it’s predictable. The opposite, which is survival, blossoming, endurance, those things are just more compelling intellectually, and spiritually.”
Morrison speaks with poise and sharpness, listening to her is extremely healing. It reminded me of a conversation that I participated in a few years ago where Minna Salami and Dr Miryam Francois discussed race, identity and feminism.
Someone asked: “Thriving in the patriarchy you say, but shouldn’t we dismantle the patriarchy?”. Immediately, the image of a flower blooming through concrete entered my mind.
In a way, to thrive within the patriarchy is to dismantle it; a flower growing through concrete must break the hard surface in order to thrive. Because to thrive we must water ourselves, be joyful, and sit comfortably in pain and discomfort. A fundamental part of political life is to thrive and to do so willfully.
The action of thriving is in itself a way to destroy the paradigms created around us and to thrive, we must explore the erotic, the emotional, the poetic, and the nurturing bond towards nature. This is also why this newsletter exists, and why it incorporates embodiment practices, it is an invitation to thrive in whichever way feels comfortable to you. To train your poetic muscles, a gateway to thriving. It is an invitation to water our own growth.
Ritual/Embodiment practice for thriving:
☕️: Ginger, hibiscus, cinnamon, rose
👃: Petitgrain, Neroli, Citruses, Ylang Ylang, Jasmine
💃 Playlist to move to here