THOUGHTS ON THE GULF

FEELING THAT TREMOR IN THE FORCE?
I first felt what is best described by the Star Wars phrase, “a tremor in the force” when I was around nine years old. I so clearly remember that morning. I walked into my parent’s bedroom as they were drinking their first cup of tea for the day when they told me The American President, President Kennedy had been shot to death. Suddenly and strangely I felt like my whole world changed that day even though I was just a little girl in England who had no idea then that one day she would become an American citizen.
I felt it again the day Princess of Wales, Lady Diana, died. I knew to the depth of my bones that day that my nation was in shock and mourning. Only this once in all the years that I have lived in American did I feel the need to reach out and talk to my British friends here and somehow link into the grief and sadness we knew was hanging over our island for some kind of group comfort.
Then came 9/11 and I sat and watched with my American family hardly able to take on board what I was seeing. In the following days I experienced for myself what it was like to be in and part of a nation in shock and sorrow.
Now, with America being engaged in the longest war we have ever fought and fairly regular news of terrorist attacks we each have found our own way to cope with troubling news stories that so rarely come to our doorstep. Until now most for most of us the pain and sorrow is felt in distant lands or in the scattered homes of our returning veterans. But, the events in the Gulf of Mexico in these last few months has changed that. Now we have an oil spill that might just be biggest man-made disaster in the history of the planet. This dreadful accident killed 11 good men and injured and burnt many others. It’s toxic plume has killed unknown hundreds of thousands of our fellow creatures and is ruining the lives and livelihoods of countless Americans. With no end in sight the trouble may well spread to Mexico, the Caribbean and where ever else the current will eventually transport this mess. We are now witnessing a silent but still deadly storm, moving from dark cold places through our blue waters, onto our white beaches and choking our pristine marshlands bringing with it death and destruction that will remain for generations.
When I first heard the word ecopsychology I must admit I thought it was the latest wave of California madness supported by grey haired intellectuals, tree hugging hippies, raw food vegans and the like. It took a disaster of this magnitude to wake me up to the truth of what is a core belief of ecopsychology. That is, that we are all connected, consciously or unconsciously we all feel when there is a “tremor in the force”. There is indeed a synergistic relation between planetary and personal well being; that the needs of the one of us, plant, animal or human are relevant to the needs of all others. We are all connected and we indeed do feel one another’s pain. For me this time the impact is being felt slowly and deeply. Unlike the oil that continues to gush, real news about what is going on in our Gulf is only very slowly immerging. But it is on all our minds, and looms in all our mental peripheral fields. I know it is the minds of our clients.
We acknowledge the stress of city living, long commutes, noise, over stimulation by the media. I am suggesting we need to recognize a new and even more powerful stresser, alienation from our environment and the stress of the of the impact from the “crazy” decisions that are made when personnel in International companies are disconnected. We must open our eyes, hearts and minds and look become part of the ecopsychology movement. We must find ways through our spa facilities and spa treatment to contribute to it’s goal to find ways of healing alienation and to build a sane society and a sustainable culture.
The term comes from Theodore Rosak’s book, The Voice of the Earth. Written in 1992 he called for a study of why people continue to behave in “crazy” ways that damage the very earth that supports all our lives and for the development of new ways to motivate people to positive action and positive protest. Personally, I feel spa especially green spas have a huge role to play in this new field. First, we can reassure our clients that they are not nuts or alone in feeling stressed by environmental disasters be they manmade such as in the Gulf or natural such as the earthquake in Haiti. Then, we can hopefully be part of the solution helping by offering touch and connection with natural elements such as oil, water, warm and clay, to reconnect, raise respect and revitalize ourselves and our planet.
On a purely practical level if you have a client that says they have a deep sense of overwhelming, immobilizing sadness and anger about the oil spill you might connect them with this prayer by Dr. Masaru Emoto, the author of "The Hidden Messages in Water". He's the Japanese scientist who has researched and written about how our thoughts and words affect the molecular structure water. Here is the prayer, but watching the you tube clip is really a worthwhile way to use a few minutes of your precious time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U56ngpGDG_4.
To the water, whales, dolphins, pelicans, fishes, shellfishes, planktons, corals, algae and all creatures in our Gulf of Mexico:

I apologize.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you."

- Dr. Masaru Emoto

Melanie Sachs