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Embracing the inconvenient

Sometimes the struggle is the whole point
The other day, I swiped across the off-white surface of the book I was reading. Nothing happened. I tapped harder on a single word, hoping the definition might pop up and save me from having to reach up onto the shelf and pull down the dictionary for an analog search. Sometimes, I love convenience.
But other times, convenience reduces friction and makes life feel too slippery.
Sometimes, it is only inconvenience that gives us a chance to connect to one another, to break out of our insulated bubbles of our Spotify channels, our podcast stream, to speak to the person next to us, say when the internet goes down or our phone battery dies.
But it wasn’t until I read Tim Wu’s wonderful essay entitled “The Tyranny of Convenience” that I got it what was irking me about convenience:
“Today’s cult of convenience fails to acknowledge that difficulty is a constitutive feature of human experience. Convenience is all destination and no journey. But climbing a mountain is different from taking the tram to the top, even if you end up at the same place. We are becoming people who care mainly or only about outcomes. We are at risk of making most of our life experiences a series of trolley rides.”
Does this resonate for you?
Inconveniently yours,
Amy

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Conscious connection….consent

During this stormy winter month, I have been pondering aliveness and eros. Not a new theme for me, yet in the uncomfortable place of change or upheaval, I move towards cultivation of aliveness.
When aliveness involves connection with others, a central aspect of conscious connection is consent. Today I have two great resources on consent that I want to share.
I am thrilled to pass on the announcement that Betty Martin’s work with consent is expanded into a School of Consent. A team of trainers is now available to teach and offer—to individuals, groups, professionals, and businesses—the ‘Wheel of Consent’ and a consent curriculum. The website has gifts, downloads, and introductory teachings about consent.
A more local resource I know of is the Consent Academy, started in 2016. This website is packed full of interesting articles and insights on building a consent culture. I appreciated the variety of voices available.
Enjoy…
Alex

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Podcast

The Hunt for Buried Pleasure: Genital Anatomy, Birth, Sex, and more with Sheri Winston

Pleasure Lab podcast, Season 2, Episode #10: Listen as Zed interviews Sheri Winston.
Check out more of Sheri Winston’s work at Intimate Arts Center, and pick up one of her books at your local independent bookstore (or, if you must, on Amazon: Women’s Anatomy of Arousal: Secret Maps to Buried Pleasure & Succulent Sex Craft: Your Hands-On Guide to Erotic Play and Practice). Keep track of Sheri on Twitter and Facebook, too.
Music: Grateful to Little Dog Big Ears for their Creative Commons licensed music She Sees Mice (intro and outro). Make sure to subscribe in iTunes or Sticher. And give us a 5-star review in iTunes, it helps us reach more beloved explorers.

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rise – emerge – appear – materialize

To be honest, dear beloveds, time is moving too fast for me. I have more energy, but that means I make more plans and show up more places and meet with more people, and part of me wants to crawl back into the cave of winter where I can read all the books and curl up with Darby (my 12 year old cat).
The emergence is also calling me, so here I am, putting things on my calendar, writing words in linear sentences that sometimes make sense.
But I think I will sit and breathe and pause right now, instead of writing more of this.
<3 Zed PS: Sharon Salzberg has her Real Happiness Meditation Challenge going on right now, and I love getting 5-10 minute audio meditations in my inbox in the morning, and I haven’t done today’s yet. So here I go.

A little bit of Body Trust housekeeping:

Would you like to write a guest newsletter/blog post for us? We have certain themes every month, following the wheel of the year, and we would welcome your additional thoughts on them. March is sprouting and detoxing; April is emerging conscious contact. Send ideas to me (Zed) if you’ve got something to share.
Morning meditations on Mondays & Thursdays are still happening — 7am PT/10am ET. The Facebook event goes through February 22nd, but I plan to keep attending, as long as there are other beloveds to be there too. Come join.
Speaking of generously supporting us, we have a Patreon page! Please consider becoming a patreon at any amount — it helps us to “keep the lights on,” as they say. Though we don’t have any physical space, we do still have digital expenses, not to mention all of the time that we put into these newsletters, the meditations, the coloring book, the blog, and more. Our goal is for the majority of what we do to remain free as our gift to our beloveds, and we really appreciate anything you have to give. <3

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Newsletter

Can you sense the pace of change?

Things are quickening, beginning the process of change and growth, starting to stir. We take collective note through Groundhog Day and Imbolc but, sometimes, it’s really hard to sense the ‘readying’. Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate the slowly evolving drama.
So take a look at the NOVA video and see all the many ways—pretty and grotesque—that plants unfold. As I watched, I could feel that very same process in my body.
Where are you moving out? Is that process of change perhaps a little less pretty than you thought it might be? I know it is for me, but that’s OK.
Watch and feel.

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Newsletter

Are your nose hairs freezing?

Now, I realize the irony of saying that from the warm, dry, safety of California. My nostalgia for all things snowy and icy may indeed be a romanticized version of the past. Have I forgotten the freezing of nose hairs? The scraping of windshields with a credit card? The disconcerting ways a car can pirouette when it finds itself on black ice?
But the truth is that every time I return to a winter climate I find myself relaxing in a way that a sunny beach never evokes.
The bundling of layers (long underwear, turtle neck, sweater, jacket, hat . . .) makes me feels like a warrior. The starkness of tree branches denuded of leaves, making their essential skeletal forms stand in stark relief, greet me like queer dance party of diversity (who knew there were so many different shapes, sizes, and branch configurations that could still describe “a tree”). Even the acoustics of sub-freezing temperatures brightens my ears, perking them to the crunch of frozen snow underfoot, the crack of ice stretching in it’s pond, the clear echo of chickadees flitting branch to branch. Winter is a synesthesist’s delight with sense stretched and altered and blended in surprising ways.
In winter’s barren landscape, I feel held and met.
Things are clean.
Essential.
Crystalline.
Which brings clarity . . . or atleast quiet . . . and hope to know what’s next.
How goes your wintertime? Anything crystalizing?
— Amy

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Things that start with P

Please peruse the Patreon!
Plus, the Pleasure Lab Podcast

Announcing: Body Trust’s Patreon (P #1)!

We’ve finally done it — we launched a Patreon page! Patreon is a way for you to pledge a few (or many!) dollars every month to support our ongoing efforts, and you get to support and be part of an amazing spiritual community based on trust, consent, whole body aliveness, whimsy, and experimentation. We’ll make sure you get some fun perks from behind the scenes … a look into our processes, some individual conversations with all of us, and the first look at what we produce. But mostly, you get the pleasure of contributing (financial) energy to our offerings, and helping us make them even better than they already are.
While workshop tuition helps, it doesn’t cover all of Body Trust’s expenses. That’s where you can come in. Even just a few dollars a month helps support those not-so-sexy back-end costs (not that kind of back-end! You know, like web hosting and time to edit podcasts). It also helps us offer scholarships to some of our in-person events. We’ll continue doing what we love — following our paths and gifts, following what emerges during the rotation of the planet and in our own selves, and offering forms out to you to join us in the explorations. With your help, we can do even more.
We do understand that sometimes contributing financially just isn’t possible. We don’t ever want it to be a hardship for you, and we hope you’ll keep engaging with us in all the ways you’d like to. And, we know sometimes it’s possible for folks to give even more. So much thanks for all of you!

Click here + support us on Patreon

The Pleasure Lab Podcast (P #2)

Season two of the Pleasure Lab — interviews with embodiment pioneers — is going so well! Jen Cross, Betty Martin, Jay Craver, Mark Fleming — we have interviewed some amazing people, and there are even more to come.
This month’s is with Roz Dischiavo who runs the Institute for Sexuality Education and Enlightenment. Check it out here — & don’t forget to subscribe and rate us in iTunes! It really helps people find us.
What’s going on for you? Do you have any special projects you’re working on?
— Zed

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Podcast

Scholarship, balance, and the oddballs of sex: Roz Dischiavo in conversation with Zed, Season 2, episode 9

Thank you, Roz Dischiavo! Check out her work at the Institute of Sexuality and Enlightenment.
Roz also mentioned TASHRA, The Alternative Sexualities Health Research Alliance, and her research on fantasies is available directly from her, via info@instituteforsexuality.com
Music: Grateful to Little Dog Big Ears for their Creative Commons licensed music She Sees Mice (intro and outro). Make sure to subscribe in iTunes or Sticher. And give us a 5-star review in iTunes, it helps us reach more beloved explorers.

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Newsletter

“Put your arms around me now.”

Winter is upon us now
No turning back this time
The great north star has made her vow
No matter what occurs on this earth
She will shine
Put your arms around me now
For this is the darkest time
Put your arms around me now
And in the morning, I will shine
— Libby Roderick, Winter
When I think of winter, I often get this song stuck in my head. You’re probably asking yourself, “Wait a minute Zed, doesn’t Tori Amos also have a song called Winter? You don’t get THAT one in your head?” But no, in fact, this is the one that comes to me. Even though they were published at almost the same time (Tori’s in 1992 and Libby’s in 1993), somehow the guitar and sweetness of Libby’s version is what comes into my ears.
Growing up in Alaska, it felt like winter began in October. We’d almost always have snow on the ground by then (and it would stay until my birthday in April). Trick-or-treating was done in the dark, with glowsticks, and with snowpants or big boots to go with my halloween costume. So I don’t think of winter solstice as being the beginning of winter — but officially, it is.
Since we are past the solstice now, and the days are growing longer in the northern hemisphere, I also think about the passing of the dark and how valuable those long winter nights are for reflection, pause, cozy blankets, good books, mugs of hot drinks, outside snowy adventures, layers of soft and scratchy and other multiple other sensate fabrics. There is great value and insight in there, not just in the bright of the summer. It behooves us to remember and celebrate all the pieces, not just the sunshine.
Spoken like a northerner, perhaps. 🙂 Well, hopefully you’ll enjoy this throwback to early-90s feminist-folk anyway.
— Zed

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Newsletter

You’re invited: Morning Meditation Practice

On this day, in the first week of January, a group of meditators gathered to start our morning meditation series. On the west coast, it was still dark when we sat, on the east coast and south, folks were experiencing the cold blast. And we sat together in silent meditation.
Come join us to notice the change in the time of dawn, the moon cycle and the winter expression. Join us in stillness and noticing your breath, join us in community.
Here are the details:
Mondays & Thursdays January – February 2018
6:50-7:30am PT / 9:50-10:30am ET
Online in Body Trust’s virtual temple
Free, donations graciously accepted
We’ll start with a brief check-in and a little guidance for proper body alignment in order to find a seated position that can be sustained through the meditation, then we’ll have a 25 minute guided or quiet meditation, and complete. Drop ins are welcome; anyone can join, please do invite your friends.
Schedule:
6:50am PST – 7:00am PST Join, check in, and organize your sitting position
7:00am PST – 7:25am PST Meditation time (mostly silent)
7:25am PST – 7:30am PST Completion & goodbyes
Join us on Zoom — just click here at 6:50am. In exchange for this energy output, please make a donation.