Restorative Practices of Wellbeing

Pioneering connection phenomenologist maps a medicine of the ancestral future, suggesting that over two thirds of American adults are carrying trauma from early childhood adversity. This trauma activates the toxic stress response, shaping how we feel in our bodies, emotional landscape, and thoughts. Over the past 10,000 years, humans have deviated from this ancestral nest at an accelerating rate, leading to disconnection and a lack of safety. Gabriel Kram's book teaches over 300 restorative practices of wellbeing to connect with Self, Others, and the Living World, providing a (r)evolutionary approach to wellbeing so ancient it hasn't been invented yet.

Format: Hardback
Length: 416 pages
Publication date: 03 May 2022
Publisher: Applied Mindfulness, Inc

Drawing on cutting-edge neurophysiology and ancient awareness practices, a pioneering connection phenomenologist maps a medicine of the ancestral future.

The landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences study, the largest epidemiological study of trauma ever done, suggests that more than two-thirds of American adults are carrying trauma from early childhood adversity. Yet the study did not even conceptualize social trauma: the impacts of racism, sexism, and other forms of structural oppression, or ecological trauma: the trauma of being disconnected from the Living World. By this metric, almost all modern people are traumatized.

Trauma activates the toxic stress response, which translates to a wide variety of stress-related adverse health outcomes later in life. It shapes how we feel in our bodies, our emotional landscape, and structures the thoughts we are able to think. It shapes how we see ourselves, how we interpret the world, and the behaviors available to us.

For the two million years that humans have lived on earth, we have sought to nourish thriving in our children by creating a kind of developmental nest for them. For humans, this nest is of culture, and its function is to connect us with three things: ourselves, one another, and the Living World. When this is done properly, the human nervous system becomes baselined in safety and connection, turning on the Connection System, the physiological fountain of wellbeing and resilience.

Over the past 10,000 years, humans have deviated from this ancestral nest at an accelerating rate, which has intensified over the past 500 years. Most modern humans, therefore, do not feel safe, and are therefore not able to reside in the biology of wellbeing. Humans who are disconnected do not care for themselves, one another, or the Living World.

Weight: 1042g
Dimension: 196 x 241 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781736280317