Transformative healing

Since the shocking events of early December, a few people have been working to transform and facilitate the trauma and emotions that were triggered. They have been offering differing therapeutic, movement and other modalities.

From 10 December until 31 December, Rosa and Francesco offered 21 days of exercises themed ‘Peace through the body’. Rosa had read some of the young people’s posts on Facebook and realised “how traumatised they were, unable to sleep, unused to violence in our community”. She decided to offer something from her Awareness through the Body (ATB) training. Initially she presumed it would be one to one sessions, but when she enquired with Pitanga, Andrea suggested a wider group offering to the community. The one-hour ATB session focussed on the witness consciousness – to deepen the ability to hold another viewpoint when upsetting events are happening. Then Yoga Nidra to deeply relax and release, and finally an invocation to peace where the group came together in a circle.

In the midst of volatility, it allowed a peaceful and unified energy to be part of community life. After that course at the end of January, Rosa began new weekly ATB classes on the theme of emotions, to help people to deepen their awareness and, “to watch and embrace emotions, yet not let it make decisions for them”.

Rosa notices that there is currently in Auroville “a lot of distrust, judgements and labelling happening which is stopping our connection and oneness.” Fundamentally she has faith that Auroville is “a laboratory of human transformation. Anything that happens in the world is also here and we need to respond to it to be transformed. There is a lack of trust going on in why Mother put us all together.”

She notices what she calls the divine’s humour – that the pandemic’s name is ‘corona’, another version of ‘crown’ – and here we are, in this laboratory of evolution, with a serious dispute over a crown way at the same time as there has been two years of global polarisation as we struggle with the Corona Virus. She senses an opportunity for deeper change if we can start here in Auroville which can spill over into the world. Rosa comments that she loves ATB as “it’s a way back home, to the body, and it can help us to change ''.

When the Youth Centre was torn down in early December, Dariya spent a few weeks volunteering, repairing, rebuilding and cleaning up. She returned to her existing holistic activities but wanted to support the youth and others whose trauma she witnessed. Previously her Aquatic Bodywork sessions in Quiet was only for groups, but in January she also gave individual sessions to “people who have been active or engaged in this drama”, mainly youth and stressed-out working group members. She offered to help the youth “make community, with actions plans, communication skill development so that they could move on collectively. However, the truth is that there is so much insecurity, so it’s a bit like driving with the foot on the brake and the accelerator at the same time.”

With her partner Daniel she also offered regular breathwork sessions, the Quantum Light Breath, to help our emotions move through deep breathing. Initially the idea was for young people but as they were not interested she offered it to others who have needed the time to breathe and “help move some of those feelings.”

Every Monday at 5.30pm in Cripa, Dariya leads a dance class. She noted that she has been dancing here for “twenty plus years and for me dance in general is a real regulating awareness practice. Since December this is one possibility of how we can ground the trauma through the body”. When asked what she noticed was different in the dances now, she replies that the “energy was obviously so built up in the community, there was more intentional shaking and releasing in that way. In dance the family sense is there, a full community scene, it can be so beautiful.”

Singing circles were offered which Dariya felt were “giving a voice… every time it’s like a prayer that again brings a certain kind of balance, personally and collectively.”

Dariya lightly suggests an “old joke of aquatic body workers, that if the Working Committee or Council members could meet after a watsu session, it would be very different, as the ‘us and them’ would be finished. There could be so much potential”. She holds the vision that an Aquatic Body Centre will be built in the centre of Auroville to support this.

Rosa, Daniel and Dariya were all part of a blue t-shirted greeting team who offered hugs to all who arrived at the recent Residents Assembly Meeting, which arose out of a Youth Centre meeting on taking the next steps.

There were many other offerings from the community. The Peace Builders, initially a dozen people, met around the peace table in Unity Pavilion. As they described it in News and Notes, “The meeting had the aim of bringing together Aurovilians to try to find concrete proposals together to overcome this difficult moment, starting from listening to the heart and wisdom of each one. The atmosphere in the room was peaceful and collaborative. All agreed on the need to bridge the disagreements by using compassionate and peaceful courage to bring everyone back to their true centre, which perhaps got lost in the painful events. Collaboration is the only way forward.” This led to an initiative to meet on Sundays at 5pm at the Matrimandir to call for peace.

The pool of Silent Presence Keepers offered an opportunity for people in their homes to participate in a collective meditation every evening at 8.30pm for 30 minutes. “We would like to support everyone’s efforts to calm down after very agitated days and to create a silent space for the Divine consciousness to land in us and act. Anyone can join from wherever you are at that moment.”

Chandra gave a concert with her Bansuri flute in Darkali, in December by the water catchment. To reach the venue, people walked through the recent forest clearance and then the untouched forest. Her music allowed a peace, depth and soothing connection to nature which supported our inner nature to be present.

On 19 December there was a ‘come-unity’ celebration of the unity in diversity of our human culture on Bharat Nivas’ Bhavishyate roof terrace.

There are no doubt plenty of others who offered an open heart, a listening ear, a hug, or a reaching out to people who in this instance are nominally on a different side. These are some of the quiet steps going on right now to transcend and move on together in an integrated way through the divisiveness of recent events.