This past weekend, my husband and I flew out to B.C. for the third year to attend The New Human event organized by Dr. Kevin Preston and his team. If you have been following me, you will likely have seen my reflections on the past two years, when the keynote speaker was Dr. Zach Bush. Both were incredibly inspiring years. This year, the keynote speakers included Richard Rudd and Blu of Earth. The event was rounded out by other incredibly talented presenters covering Qigong, music, storytelling and art, as well as a Zoom conversation with a mother and her autistic son.
Richard Rudd is an international spiritual teacher, award-winning poet and founder of the Gene Keys Synthesis, a contemplative system exploring human potential. Blu of Earth is a multidisciplinary artist, author and host of the Deja Blu podcast, which reaches more than four million listeners.
The whole energy and experience this year was more contemplative for me. A foundational aspect of the Gene Keys is just that: contemplation and the art of pausing. It means tuning into the body, relaxing the mind, opening our awareness to what we are thinking and feeling, and attuning to the wisdom of our body. These pauses can be a few short breaths in your day, a walk that isn’t spent on a podcast or part of a timed workout schedule, or sitting with a cup of tea.
We all received a book written by Richard titled Contemplation: Expand Time, Transform Your Emotions and Unleash Your Natural Brilliance. In the introduction, he writes that he has learned over his years of practice that a contemplative person is:
These traits are certainly desirable in our current world climate. Having grown up as a doing person, I have found the pause a difficult theme to grasp and to give myself permission to experience. Over the past few years, I have gradually been allowing myself to add this valuable practice to my life, and I have noticed a greater capacity to be less rigid in my plans and to go with the flow of what is showing up. It is a softening that starts with what I am thinking and expands into my emotional and physical body.
Another gem of the weekend was practising Qigong with Stephanie Nosco. Stephanie took us through a couple of 30-minute flows over the weekend that were so simple, yet so powerful. One focused on opening the heart and pericardium, and the other was aimed at our digestion and moving out the stagnant energy in our lower dantian.
(The lower dantian is the primary energy centre in traditional Chinese medicine, Taoist internal alchemy and internal martial arts. It is located roughly two to three finger-widths below and slightly behind the navel, in the lower abdomen.)
As we came to the end of the heart session, I had tears streaming down my face, and my heart felt like it had expanded to twice its size in my chest. It was a beautiful feeling. After the digestive flow, my body felt alive, connected and ready for the day. It was a joy to experience this in my body, and I look forward to continuing it in some capacity.
To wrap up some of the highlights of the weekend, I want to share how good it feels to be in a room with like-minded people. There were 444 participants, along with a host of volunteers, the presenters, and vendors who came with conscious products and services to support a healthy lifestyle. Though we definitely did not get the opportunity to meet everyone, all those we did meet, whether we had a conversation or simply shared a few words and smiles, felt like a community of kind, creative and inspired humans on a path to make the world a better place. That is very uplifting and hopeful.
I expect that I will continue to integrate these teachings and bring some of them into more focus in the coming weeks and months. I am so grateful to share these experiences with my husband, and I hold so much optimism for our future. I invite you to look up some of the humans who were part of this year’s event:
Happy Harvest Month!
Reiki Master, Biophoton Light Therapist and Enneagram coach, Karen Armstrong has a valuable set of resources to support people on their journey to better understanding themselves and the messages of the mind, body and soul.
