Exploring one answer through seasonal living, the wild self, regenerative community and a life in integrity with virtue and discipline.
How would a truly heart-lifting and earth-grounded life feel and look?
Way of Elmod
Scroll to explore the path
My journey follows the Heart, Earth, and Runes of Elmod, a living set of guidelines I use to actualize my answer to the question. My way is not the way, but one of many and I share this not to put it over others, but to create clarity for myself. With a hope that it also has the power to inspire others.
A living guide
The Heart-Lifting
ElmodHeart 🫀
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The reminder is to move towards self-love, inner belief and acceptance, through the release of tension and rejuvenating the flow of energy. Practices that teach us how to hold ourselves. To dig down and reach a warm, loving hand toward the inner child.
For me, this has been in part manifested in physical practices like ice-bathing and sauna, viking workouts and stretching and mobility flows. Practices that I feel has decreased tension and increased blood flow in the body. And mental ones like choosing to be calm, accepting more parts of myself and reducing self inflicted judgements. An important aspect I feel is to invite in activities that gives me the experience of “I am holding myself”. In both physical and mental difficult situations.
It is a practice of discipline to harness and let the wild self be expressed, and to live with virtue even when it is hard. All, which combined I feel has lifted the heart. Through iteration, over time.
Over time, with practice, I have observed fewer judgmental thoughts and an increase of lightness in the body. Less worry now resides in me and a fire deep within is ignited. The invitation is to try this for yourself and create your own experience. The path must be built by yourself. No one else can do it for you.
This is the art of holding oneself and becoming one's own compassionate and loving self-parent.
Who is left if all the tension and heavy energies were removed from the body?
The Earth-Grounded
ElmodEarth 🌍
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Old cultures around the Earth remind us of the interconnected Web of Life that is woven into life's very existence. We, as a whole human race, are part of this connection. The mindset that says otherwise is what creates the suffering. The solution is to move towards seeing the Earth as something that I have come from, and that is as much as part of me, as my hand is part of me. Inner self-care and love are also crucial, because is it possible to love someone else, if there is little or no love for the person inside?
I am practicing connecting back to the rhythms of the earth through cultivating a garden and feeling the elements more directly on and within the body. It is about the small steps towards a circular way of living. From connecting with the morning and evening sun, to seeing and feeling the turn of the seasons, both in the garden, in nature and within myself, and being part of a larger community, integrating and embodying traditional and regenerative practices. This I feel is a practice of virtue and living in integrity with the land. Cultivating discipline to integrate and let the wild energies run through the body.
Is it possible to move towards a more holistic and connected way of living? My own observations says yes to this. Momentum is built not by one huge lift, but by many small lifts over a longer period of time, making a transition possible. I observe that by cultivating a garden and growing vegetables, I naturally feel more connected to Nature. By making space for sensations and feelings in the body, I feel that it is easier to ground myself into Mother Earth.
How would a fully regenerative life look and feel, and how would a community of people live together to cultivate and give life to that?
The Wisdom
ElmodRunes 📜
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The Stoics in Greek and Roman times would remind us that knowledge and wisdom comes in a pair, and a healthy society exist in the middle way between two extremes. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts and information, but wisdom tells us how and when to use it. We might have many knowledge Universities, but are they balanced with Wisdom Universities? What is all of this knowledge good for, if fewer people know how to apply it, and maybe more importantly, know when enough is enough?
I practice looking within myself to listen to what my own experience is telling me. My experience of growing vegetables tells me that by taking care for the soil, I take care of the vegetables, and ultimately, take care for myself. Wisdom here, is seeing the hidden thread between the soil, the vegetables and myself. Knowing if I destroy or put pollutants in the soil, I also put it into myself. Wisdom tells me it is a cycle of consequence that comes back to itself.
These wisdoms I call The Runes of Elmod which are explored, expressed and documented in The Book of Runes. Living principles that I myself has cultivated, and give me a sense of direction and clarity in life.
I observe that by balancing knowledge with wisdom, I create the capacity to live a better life that are aligned with virtue, inner integrity and moving towards actually doing the right thing. Which I feel is to know when is enough and calm our collective selves down. To take a deep breath and ask which direction we all feel called to move towards. On answer can be to rise our heart towards Father Sun and grounding our feets towards Mother Earth.
How would a society feel and look if its main goal was to cultivate and re-create more Life? Giving more back than was taken away, and creating more abundance than depletion.
The Way of Elmod
Heart and Earth United
A magical, profound and beautiful work in progress…