The world desperately needs Hope. Hope that another way is possible. Hope that we can transform our human behaviors in time. Hope that the human beings of the future will have a habitable earthly home to arrive upon. Hope that the power, to make the changes we need to make, has been inside of us all along as the Wizard of Oz did say to dear Dorothy when her home flew away.
Hope came to me through water. A natural, familiar, beautiful and utterly magical substance which has the capacity to help us remember more of who we are while immersed in it, embraced by its unconditional acceptance, nourished by its quenching sensation of unity and connection that surfaces from its inherent capacity to create bonds. Water has brought me hope that by remembering more of my authentic, original self I feel more empowered to flow, adapt and regenerate through the rather drastic changes humanity is facing and will continue to face.
What I witnessed as a water therapist time and time again, in those who came to the water to face their fears, is that ultimately the fear embedded in most humans is that of dying. Intriguingly, I have found that our bodies store memories of individual and collective experiences that involve water. Beyond a single event in time that might have led to our drowning, being born is the experience we have all been through which involves being entirely immersed in warm fluid for around nine months.
In all probability the consciousness of a developing embryo immersed in the fluids of their amniotic womb does not know if they are coming or going, if they are becoming alive or dying through the sacred initiation of the birth canal. Otto Rank and Freud were right on this one, all anxiety does go back to the anxiety of birth. Being intentionally immersed in warm water as an adult can simulate the original experience of being immersed in amniotic fluid while in the womb. Understanding the hydrodynamics of water and other denser fluids allows us to harness this awareness to generate stimuli similar to those a developing embryo would have had.
Without water we could not have been born, whereas with water we can remember the journey of being born. The fascination of the subject at hand, birth, memory and water in short, merits further scientific research so that life can sustainably continue to grow rather than be replaced by artificial methods of being born. On a personal level the subject at hand became my life’s work driven by my own birth anxiety that lead me to the depths of self-awareness one can access with water.
My theory all along has has been that by supporting the entire birth journey from conception to birth and postnatally with water, human babies can experience a gentler transition from spirit into form, thereby maintaining more of their authentic essence intact. By unfolding in their own time, the chances of which are enhanced by the stronger sense of connection and bond created through water, babies I am now witnessing appear to be more present in themselves, more connected to their own needs, more embodied in their physical capacities, more resilient in their emotional engagements.
By supporting babies from their conception, during their pregnancy and water birth, into their neonatal life with water, I am now feeling real, substatial reasons for hope of a more peaceful, more connected and more aware future.
Wishing you all a Hope full New Year!