I have been blessed to do some work with the indescribably wonderful Laura Geiger, the experience has been rich and magical and has included somatic practice. We have talked a lot about yield in the context of readiness and responding to a life impulse as part of our embodied being and becoming. I really wanted to write about this and make links to one of David Holmgren’s permaculture principles. I find having diverse perspectives can help people to see more possibilities and bring things into their own personal experiencing.
So the word yield is rich with meaning. It originated from the proto- Germanic word ‘geld’ which meant to pay. The sense of the word yield also speaks to producing, bearing, ripeness and surrender. Obtaining a yield might be interpreted as something we have to do or strive for, certainly this seems to be the way it is lived in capitalist systems. I’d like to offer more space around this and hopefully this will lead you to your own personal yields and yielding!
First of all it can be a relief to consider ones very existence as a ripe fruit of nature. A fruit matured and nurtured over thousands, millions, timeless ions, tended to by our ancestors. That we exist at all is miraculous. We are soft, tender and delicious. Within us is infinite potential. The sperm that made it to the egg and then was chosen (or for some folks was injected into the egg), grew into you! So you are already the yield of your ancestors and your own accumulations over this lifetime. Yielding does not have to be something we have yet to obtain, it is something we must observe and gather, or an invitation from life. For example in every situation there is the possibility for yield, for harvest, for abundance, or for more yielding – surrender, curiosity and receptivity.
Babies learn to yield as part of their developmental process. Yield in this context is a kind of awakened, softening, a relaxed not knowing, a sacred pause, resting into the support of the earth until the next urge to look, reach and explore arises organically within the body. Many of us miss this part of our somatic learning and it can lead to cycles of stuckness, tension, force and collapse. So learning to yield is also learning to listen to life within and to trust it will call us into gift, story and reciprocity. How wonderful, yielding to the call of life from that place of perfect timing, of surrender, of readiness and felt sense trust in belonging within wider life systems and intelligence. What a beautiful antidote to isolation.
At a personal level I am shifting into a deeper trust of life as Alex, and the call right now is to move into a dharna based practice, it feels expansive, integrous, liberating, inspiring, inclusive and vital. I don’t know where this call will lead but I am ready to follow and explore. I am also listening to a call to surrender ‘notions of I am’ and to make a choice to find (obtain) the yield in every moment and also to wonder is there a way this experience could be more pleasurable, since pleasure and desire is what drives all life, all relationship and all creative expansion. I will right more about what has inspired my switching to dharna as a method of reciprocity in my business and my desire to let go of ‘notions of I am’ in my next post. Thanks for reading and if you want support check out my offerings
Love Alex
