Working with Medicine Wheels: North (Part 3 of 4), by Jude Catallo & Scott Emerson

Know this. When the ego weeps for what it has lost, the soul rejoices in freedom for what it has found.

The use of the Medicine Wheel and its four compass points in the spiritual and healing practice of the indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere of Earth stretches back a least 5,000 years, likely much longer. Each direction is associated with one of the four energetic bodies that make up the human energy field: the particle or physical world (the body), the realm of emotions and thoughts (the mind), the realm of myth (the soul), and the world of Spirit (energy). For many thousands of years, the shamans of the Americas have used each direction of the Medicine Wheel as an interdependent doorway to unique perceptual levels, or “ways of being,” in order to recover an individual’s true essence, personal power, energy, and inner wisdom for healing. Each direction of your Medicine Wheel mandala offers a unique perspective on any aspect of your life that you feel you are ready to change in order to affect personal healing—South, things with which you strongly identify, West, things from which you are mentally differentiating yourself, North, things you newly integrate into your life, and East, transcendence and full incorporation into your luminous energy field.

Movement around the directions and perspectives of your Medicine Wheels over time also possesses great power for spiritual growth. Eventually, as you spiral around and around the four directions in a series of private ceremonies, you will discover your true authentic self within the eye or center of the Medicine Wheel. Here the gifts, teachings, and power of the four archetypes converge in harmony and balance with a fifth unifying, fundamental property of the universe. This is an expansive, infinite, frequency resonance that is alive and felt through the heart, a consciousness, somewhat like unconditional love, that links everything everywhere and simultaneously stokes your own life force.

To have the most power, Medicine Wheels should be done by you privately,

electronic gadget-free,in a special natural setting, and accepting the Earth’s wild card role in the process. It is most important that your ceremony be within a sacred space.

You can create sacred space as a healing bubble around your chosen Medicine Wheel site by “calling” to the four direction master archetypes (S-Serpent, W–Jaguar, N–Hummingbird, E–Eagle, as well as down-Mother Earth, and up-Father Sky). With humility and gratitude, ask for their power and assistance in your personal healing work. Use a compass if you’re not certain of directions. The creative and intimate process of constructing your Medicine Wheel in a natural setting, using natural items that come to you at your chosen site, quiets the mind and creates a highly meditative state. In sacred space there is no time, and you can trust your instincts and synchronicity.

The realm of the soul is associated with the North direction.

Among many indigenous people of the Americas, Hummingbird is recognized as the archetype of the North. In North America, the Lakota Sioux word for the North is Waziyata, and is associated with night, winter, and old age. White is the Lakota color for the North. The language of the North is art and myth.

When we connect with the energy of Hummingbird, we experience the pure sweet essence of our soul, the place where the divine resides within us and where we also gain the awareness that we are eternal beings. The perceptual state here is that things are what they truly are. Hummingbirds possess a beautiful resilience and great endurance for long migrations between North and South America each year, yet can hover and change directions quickly. This archetype feeds on the flowers and the sweetness of life, and ignores that which is not supportive of life. Hummingbird represents the courage, determination and guidance required to embark, endure, and succeed in the voyage of our divine essence through sacred space and time. This archetype teaches us how to be in right relationship with the sweetness of ourselves, the natural world, evolution, and community as we co-create with the Great Spirit on this grand journey.

The four teachings of the North provide a portal to the way of the seer “who enters the stillness of the soul and dreams the world into being.”

They are: Beginner’s Mind, Living Consequently, Transparency, and Integrity. Become more childlike. Refuse to allow the baggage of your stories and preconceived notions to weigh you down and cloud your assessment of fresh ideas and opportunities that present themselves to you. Recognize the impact of each thought, intention, and action, and be sure they are in a supportive and healing relationship with all of life. Refuse to hide parts of yourself from others. Be who you are and say who you are. Be true to your word, and recognize its power to create reality.

For so many of us, the momentum of our life is on cruise control, leading us to a fate as opposed to our higher purpose, or our destiny. In order to change this momentum, we must get rid of some of the mass of our life (physical stuff, roles) that no longer serve us, as well as decouple ourselves from the time sickness of our culture. The tools we have to make big positive changes in our lives, to slow or halt our momentum toward fate, are de-cluttering our physical space and letting go of roles that drain our energy, and a regular meditation practice that facilitates an escape from the time sickness.

Healing work with the Medicine Wheel honoring the North and the Hummingbird archetype begins with the creation of a mandala in the sand, snow, grass, or forest floor. Find a stone to become your essence stone. Hold this stone with eyes closed and begin the 4/7/8 breath—4-count inhale, 7-count hold, 8-count exhale. Do this for at least 7 cycles as you let go of your mind and thoughts. Now continue the breathing pattern with the silent mantra on the inhale “I Am.” Hold at the top of the inhale and let yourself slip between the moments into timelessness. What do you see or feel here? Then exhale with the silent mantra “Only the Breath.” Repeat this until you begin to see and feel your authentic self and perhaps even a different higher destiny for this self, or your soul. Now blow any of these images or feelings into your essence stone and place it into the North quadrant of your Medicine Wheel. If you saw or felt nothing, blow that into your stone and place it.

Reflect on your last Medicine Wheel honoring the West.

How successful have you been at letting go of either the mental or emotional attachment of roles that remained in the West quadrant of your mandala? Are you ready to work on the distortion they may be causing to your authentic self? If so, find a stick representing the role, powerfully blow your new intention into it, and place it into the North quadrant. How ’bout those roles you placed into the North quadrant that you determined were distorting and masking your soul’s true essence that you threw into the fire last time? Are you ready to permanently free your soul from this distortion, remove this energetic imprint from your luminous energy field, and change your fate? If so, find a stick representing this role and powerfully blow your new intention into it. Place it into the East quadrant of your mandala. If no movement is possible, leave the role sticks where they were last time.

What about the teachings from the South or the West that you may be working on at the level of mental acceptance? Are you ready to begin experimenting with these in your daily life? If so, move these objects you have retained from last time into the North quadrant. Are you ready for any teachings you moved into the North last time to transcend from the level of just feeling and experiencing the way they are working into a new you that actually becomes these teachings? If so, move these teaching objects into the East part of your Medicine Wheel. Lastly, are there any of the teachings of the North that you are ready to work on and accept at the mental level? If so, find a new object representing each new teaching and place it into the West quadrant. If not, leave these for future work. Go, and return the next day.

Pick up and hold your essence stone and repeat the breath work exercise. Again, blow any images or feelings into the stone. Place it into the center of your Medicine Wheel. Gaze at your Medicine Wheel and appreciate its timeless pattern of sticks and objects without thinking about them. Appreciate how it is a reflection of your current self and how it may feel different from your authentic self. With gratitude, turn your gaze out and appreciate the natural setting you are “finding yourself” within. Savor in timelessness the experience of moving from thinking into feeling into being. Leave, and return the next day.

Destroy your Medicine Wheel and close sacred space. Take your essence stone as a sacred object to retain as a gateway to your authentic self. Collect your role sticks for the fire ceremony, and teaching objects as previously described, for your next Medicine Wheel ceremony honoring the East direction.

Jude Catallo and Scott Emerson, MD of timelesshealing.org are both graduates of The Four Winds Society: Shamanic Energy Medicine Intensive Apprenticeship 2017 – ongoing; members of the Oklaweva Native American Church 2016 – ongoing; & Andean Cosmic Vision Apprenticeship, Don Theo Paredes 2003 – ongoing.

Working with Medicine Wheels: West (Part 2 of 4), by Jude Catallo & Scott Emerson

Know this. Wherever you place your personal intention, into fear and contraction, or into expansion and light, you will give it power.

The use of the Medicine Wheel and its four compass points in the spiritual and healing practice of the indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere of Earth stretches back a least 5000 years, likely much longer. This is actually the traditional and original “Western medicine”—a knowledge and practice almost lost to those of us living today. Although some of the details of different tribes’ medicine wheels, such as the animal archetypes for each direction, differ from North to Central to South America, the major concepts appear similar.

Each direction is associated with one of the four energetic bodies that make up the human energy field:

the particle or physical world (the body), the realm of emotions and thoughts (the mind), the realm of myth (the soul), and the world of spirit (energy). In North America, the Lakota Sioux also associate each direction with the time of day, the time of year, and the time of life. For many thousands of years, the shamans of the Americas have used each direction of the Medicine Wheel as an interdependent doorway to unique perceptual levels, or “ways of being,” in order to recover an individual’s true essence, personal power, energy, and inner wisdom for healing. The Laika people, isolated in the Peruvian Andes Mountains, seem to have a well-preserved and undistorted record of the use and meaning of their Medicine Wheel. Thus, their version is used in our personal energy medicine and integrative medicine practice.

The realm of emotions and thoughts (the mind) is associated with the WEST direction. Within the Americas, West is predominantly represented by the JAGUAR archetype. In North America, the Lakota Sioux word for the west direction is Wiyopeyata, and is associated with evening, autumn, and adulthood. Red is the Lakota color for the South, and black is the color of the West.

The word “jaguar” comes from the Native American word “yaguar” which means “he who kills with one leap.” For the indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States, Mexico, and South America, Jaguar represents the healing power of fearlessness. The perceptual state here is that nothing is exactly as it appears to be. This archetype journeys and can track through the darkest domains beyond death and back, revealing that death is part of life, not to be feared, and not the end of our being. Jaguar medicine can also provide sudden leaps of clarity, especially when dealing with complex situations and confusing landscapes in our lives. Jaguar’s presence gives us the confidence to step out and boldly explore, with the certainty that life provides us with everything we need.

The Four Teachings of the West provide a portal to the way of the luminous warrior “who has no enemies in this world or the next.”

They are: Fearlessness, Non-Doing, Certainty, and Non-Engagement. Because anger and violence are rooted in fear, letting go of fear allows us to approach people and situations as a luminous warrior, projecting our light instead of our shadow. Discover the power of just observing the way the universe and events are flowing. Don’t jump to fix everything, but in communion with Spirit, allow time and the world to create some of its own resolution. Be efficient with your energy. If you do decide to act, use your luminous sword with ethical and impeccable action. Allow yourself no other option but success. Don’t allow yourself to get dragged down into the drama of rescuer, perpetrator, or victim roles.

Each direction also offers a unique perspective on any aspect of your life that you feel you are ready to change in order to affect personal healing—the South, things with which you strongly identify, the West—things from which you are mentally differentiating yourself, the North—things you are newly integrating into your life, and East—transcendence and full integration into your luminous energy body. Movement around the directions and perspectives of your Medicine Wheels over time possesses great power for spiritual growth. To have the most power, they should be done by you privately, electronic gadget-free, in a special natural setting, and accepting the Earth’s wildcard role in the process. The days of a new or a full moon, or solstices and equinoxes are preferred. It is most important that your ceremony be held within a sacred space.

You can create sacred space as a healing bubble around your chosen Medicine Wheel site by “calling” to the four direction master archetypes (S-Serpent, W–Jaguar, N–Hummingbird, E–Eagle, as well as down—Mother Earth, and up—Father Sky). With humility and gratitude, ask for their power and assistance in your personal healing work. We have found soft rattling or drumming and offering tobacco gifts to the “spirits of the site” greatly facilitate this “calling.” Use a compass if you’re not certain of the directions. The creative and intimate process of constructing your Medicine Wheel in a natural setting, using natural items that come to you at your chosen site, quiets the mind and creates a highly meditative state. In sacred space there is no time, and you can trust your instincts and synchronicity.

Healing work with the Medicine Wheel honoring the West and the Jaguar archetype begins with the creation of a mandala

in the sand, snow, or grass, preferably with a westward vista. Reflect on your last Medicine Wheel honoring the South. How successful have you been with letting go of the conscious attachment to your roles you threw into the fire last time? Are you ready to let go of these further and relinquish not just the mental and emotional attachment, but also the feelings they may exert at a deeper level, masking the true essence of your soul? If so, find a stick for each of these roles, and place these into the North quadrant of the Medicine Wheel. If not, leave them in the West quadrant for a further time and a future fire ceremony.

What about the teachings of the South you may have placed in the West? Are you ready to move any of these from the level of mere mental acknowledgment to actually incorporating them into the way you act within life’s laboratory, and place them into the North quadrant of your Medicine Wheel? If not, leave the two objects from your last Medicine Wheel in the West quadrant for further work.

Lastly, are you ready to mentally and emotionally acknowledge any of the teachings of the West?

If so, find one or more objects to place in the West of your mandala. If not, leave that for a future Medicine Wheel. Leave and return the following day. Powerfully blow the distortion your roles may be causing to your soul’s true essence into the chosen role sticks in the West, but retain the lessons the role has taught you. Put them into the North space of the mandala. Place any of the new “West teachings” objects into the West space as you also move these “teachings” firmly into your awareness. Move any of the South teachings from last time into the North if you are ready to fully incorporate them into your new life. Savor, in timelessness, how this all feels.

If you can’t honestly do this, and no further movement seems possible at this time, just leave things as they were with the last Medicine Wheel ceremony, and continue to work on those roles and teachings. Keep it comfortable and simple. Leave and return the next day. Feel if any further movement is possible (roles, teachings). Collect your role sticks and “teachings” objects. Destroy your Medicine Wheel. Leave no trace! Close sacred space by thanking and releasing the four archetypes as well as Mother Earth and Father Sky. Within the next two weeks, build a fire safely somewhere, open sacred space, and in a fire ceremony, throw your role sticks and their perspectives into the fire as you stomp your foot, intending for a mental or a soul’s attachment to them to be destroyed. Retain the objects representing “teachings” as daily reminders, and to be used in the next Medicine Wheel. Now take the time to see how these mental, emotional, and soul-liberating changes begin to work in your life until your next Medicine Wheel ceremony, honoring the North direction.

*Sources for information referenced here are available from the authors upon request.

Inner Nutrition: Your Recipe for Juicy Living Roslyn Elena McGrath

Does the crisp air and brilliant hues of autumn sharpen your senses and bring out your zest for new ventures?

Or do you feel you’re returning to a more hum-drum existence after all the warmth and activity jam-packed into a U.P. summer?

The back-to-school season can bring new opportunities to feel more engaged in your life and excited by new possibilities. Those times when you are tired, bored, or frustrated may stem from unconsciously avoiding your true priorities, allowing distractions to shift your focus away from them.

Fear is a part of our human experience and gives us the opportunity to move through, and potentially transform, our experience of this emotion. Fear is ultimately at the root of what generates distractions from fully and authentically expressing ourselves. When you allow yourself to surrender to your inner being’s true priorities, in tandem with support from your outer being/personality, “juicy living” begins. Each person’s recipe for this is as unique as their individual nature, but certain ingredients remain consistent.

Authenticity

Your being, particularly your body, continuously signals whether you are being true to your unique nature in thought, word, and deed. Joy, peace, enthusiasm, and lightness are a few examples of your “yes” signals; anger, frustration repression sorrow, and dis-ease of your “no.”

This is not meant to indicate that your “yes” signals are how you “should” feel, and your “no” signals how you should “not.” All emotions provide valuable experiences. They can help clarify your true priorities, and also realize when you may need to take a different approach.

Courage

It takes courage to authentically express yourself in a world filled with challenges, not knowing for sure if or when you’ll receive the benefits you desire, or if those around you will accept you and your choices. Courage allows you to step through your fears to discover your own wholeness and claim your place in the world. What requires courage for one person may be completely different for another, but it is a hero’s journey for all.

Commitment

Your deep “yes” is fundamental to receiving meaningful benefit from your choices, for you really do reap what you sow. Hesitant and partial commitment tends to bring a mixed bag of consequences. Full commitment opens you to receive its benefits, as well as to respond constructively to challenges encountered, helping you to maintain the long view.

Self-Expression

Acting upon your heartfelt desires is required to live your fullness. Not doing so means the energy you naturally have for this becomes stagnant, eventually culminating in dis-ease-mentally, emotionally, physically, and/or spiritually. When you move this energy out into the world, the world is then better able to support you in response. That is not to say you won’t have challenges, for the challenges are part of the juiciness as well.

Flexibility

As challenges present themselves to you, it’s vital to remain flexible, keeping the essence of your desires as your focus, for your rewards may reveal themselves in a variety of unexpected forms. Remind yourself that you are indeed a growing and changing being, and as such, the forms of your authentic expression and commitment may metamorphose, keeping your living juicy.

In gathering your ingredients for a juicier life, remember also to call upon all the forms of trustworthy support available to you mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and be open to discovering additional ones too. The Universe is vast, so its possibilities and your own potential are also.

Here’s to your uniquely juicy living, adding to the richness of what life has to offer us!

Adapted with permission from Messages for Personal Growth with Roslyn Elena McGrath, Spring 2005 issue of Inspired Times: Sharing Discoveries along the Path of Total Well-Being.

Roslyn Elena McGrath of Empowering Lightworks LLC offers real world options for helping you create a more uplifting life experience through her personal growth and inspirational books, workshops, private sessions, meditations, recordings, card sets, YOOPtopia in Action, and this magazine. Visit http://www.EmpoweringLightworks.com for more info.

Creative Inspiration: Music to Our Ears & Lives, by Kevin McGrath

Whether you’re listening to the wind dance through the leaves or the song of a robin while sitting under a tree,

or perhaps the rhythmic caw of a resident crow, music is and has always been around for those willing and able to allow themselves to appreciate it. Even the thunderous beat of the big lake during an autumn storm creates a percussive melody for those paying attention.

Taking a walk along the shoreline near Picnic Rocks in Marquette, especially during the morning hours, brings a symphony of chatter among the gulls, creating wonderful music for all to hear within a sonic breeze.

Nature and humanity’s music is available to us in all volumes, tempos, and genres. For me, it’s my fuel. It energizes me, motivates me, relaxes me, gets me in the zone, takes me to another place and time.

Most every trip I take, I look into all nearby concert venues to see if a band or musician is performing. More times than not, I’m able to include a concert in my plans. I’ve attended hundreds over the years, and they always make my trips worthwhile.

I also partake of the U.P.’s ever-growing musical offerings at local venues and festivals throughout the year, and have enjoyed many amazingly talented well-known and lesser known soloists and groups within a five-minute to two-hour reach.

I have learned to enjoy the music while dancing, but simply sitting back and absorbing it never disappoints me. They are two totally different experiences for me, and both of the charts in their own ways.

Music brings flavor and richness to my creative pulses, and keeps me moving forward with a project.

Though I prefer live over recorded, I still enjoy the secondhand option immensely. It can take me through a whole series of emotions. And with YouTube, I can put together a repertoire to my liking, knowing which pieces play on certain emotions.

I wonder about those who don’t care for music. Are they truly happy missing out on one of life’s greatest pleasures? I read recently that music uses your entire brain and is extremely healthy for you. There’s plenty of research available showing the healthy benefits music may offer each of us, such as possibly promoting heart health, elevating your mood, helping to reduce stress and relieve symptoms of depression, stimulating recall, increasing workout endurance, and more. But to me, regardless of what any leading health authorities have to say, the most important thing is to feel the benefits for yourself by opening up and giving yourself permission to go wherever the music is going to take you by listening to it at a strong, yet safe volume.

Music isn’t given enough credit in the creative process,

even though most creative people I know listen to it without hesitation when working on a project. I end this tribute to music by referring you to the chorus of an ABBA song entitled “Thank You for the Music.” May its lyrics ring through your heart and head, and inspire you to bring more music and appreciation for it into your life!

Kevin McGrath is a music lover and can be found at music festival, concerts, or other live music venues.

Spotlight On… Rohana Yoga & Wellness with Owner Be Embley-Reynolds

What is Rohana Yoga & Wellness?

Rohana is a wellness center that incorporates traditional yoga, bodywork, acupuncture, ayurvedic healing, and other modalities. Through our offerings, you can achieve relief from pain, find improved physical functioning, a balanced mind, and a heightened sense of body awareness, vitality, and well-being.

We have a wide variety of highly trained teachers sharing a traditional approach. Our restorative healing classes are very accessible to people of all levels of ability and experience. Some of our yoga teachers offer private sessions. We also have practitioners offering bodywork, massage, doTerra aromatherapy, AromaTouch massage, cranial sacral work, Reiki, reflexology, acupuncture, Chinese massage, and other types of Chinese bodywork. Ayurvedic healing services are also available.

People feel really comfortable in the space and with the teachers, no matter where they are in their practice. Our yoga studio focuses on yoga as a whole, so it’s not just the physical aspect. Meditation is also a big part of it. You just come as you are. People feel welcome and good, and it’s not intimidating.

When and how did Rohana start?

Rohana began in May, 2017 with the intention of creating a wellness center with pro-active, restorative and preventive practices to help people with their health issues, and to live well and help avoid health issues. We offered yoga and massage to start, and now have thirteen teachers and practitioners offering a full spectrum of yoga classes and wellness services.

What is your role in Rohana?

I facilitate the business end, and work with our teachers and practitioners to support them in providing the services we have.

I’m honored and humbled to work with the women who make Rohana what it is–the training they have and the energy and love they have that goes into their teaching and treatments is pretty incredible. I’m really grateful to be involved in something that helps people heal and address chronic issues in a more natural way, or find more peace in their life. It’s a big deal to me to be a part of Rohana because our intention was to create a healing space. In fact, the name Rohana was chosen because it roughly translates to healing in Sanskrit.

I began practicing yoga regularly in 2016, and completed my 200-hour RYT yoga teaching training this past April. It brought lots of benefits to my personal practice and knowledge of yoga as a whole. I look forward to continuing to develop by learning more from the very well-trained teachers we have here to further prepare me to teach yoga classes in the future.

So who comes to Rohana & why?

We have such a wide variety of students. Many are just beginning their practice. Because we have a lot of different teachers, people can find what they’re looking for in a class. Friends have told them they’re feeling better, and having a good time, and they continue coming because they connect with the teachers and practitioners.

The women who make up Rohana are genuine in their approach, and communicate and treat people with love in a genuine space of wanting to help people find their center on the mat, or relief from pain. From our wide variety of offerings, people find some healing, centering, and peace in our space.

We’re also blessed to overlook Marquette’s ore dock and lower harbor. The studio has a lot of windows, and will get the breeze off the lake. It’s a beautiful space to practice in—the trees and Rosewood Walkway make it feel like you’re in a treehouse. And overlooking the lake gives an incredible view to enjoy while you’re practicing yoga or receiving a treatment.

What would you most like people to understand about Rohana?

We want to help people try something new or address issues in a different way. It doesn’t matter if you’re brand new to a more holistic approach to self-care—everything we offer is very accessible and there are a lot of people who are happy to explain or introduce anything the person may be new to or have question about. We offer a two-week unlimited membership for $20 so new yoga students can try several classes and different teachers. Our Restorative Yoga & Slow Flow Yoga classes are especially good starting places for many people.

What are the newest developments at Rohana?

We’ve brought in a very highly trained acupuncturist this year–Rachel DeLuca. Her practice also includes Chinese herbal medicine, moxibustion (an herb often used in combination with acupuncture), and cupping (special cups used on the skin to create suction, helping to relieve muscle tension, move congested phlegm, detox one’s system, etc.).

Rachel is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, a Diplomate in Oriental Medicine recognized by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), and has also completed a four-month residency in Qi Gong & therapeutic Tai Chi. She’ll be teaching four-week series of classes for each season. “Staying Healthy with the Season According to Chinese Medicine,” incorporates Chinese medicine, some tai chi, chi gong, yoga poses, and suggestions on how to live well in each season. The first series begins September 21st.

Rachel will describe more about the series at a tea ceremony she’s conducting on Aug. 31 in which she’ll share knowledge learned on a trip to China on loose leaf tea and its health benefits.

What’s next for Rohana?

We intend to continue to expand our wellness offerings, and to partner with other like-minded businesses in the community. For example, we’ve held classes at the Marquette Food Co-op the last two winters because it may be less intimidating for some people to drop into a class there for the first time than at the yoga studio.

Green Living: Working Toward Well-Being, by Steve Waller

Ah, the good life!

We crave it. We work for it. We envy it. Can we define it? Would we know if we are already living it or is it always on the horizon, just out of reach? As Alice in Wonderland asks, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cheshire Cat. And if you don’t care where you get to, it doesn’t matter which way you go.

To get to the good life, to live the dream, you have to know which way to go. You need clear targets and a way to know how to reach them. A common assumption is that more wealth equals the good life, that a winning lottery ticket hits the bullseye. That’s the wrong direction.

Defining the good life is so vital that it has been the subject of scientific studies for decades.

In science, the good life is often called well-being, and is broken into subjective well-being–your emotional feelings of happiness, and objective well-being–measurable conditions affecting the quality of daily life.

The measurable conditions of well-being are by no means absolute, but certain elements are accepted as necessary: good living standards, robust health, a sustainable environment, vital communities, an educated populace, balanced time use, high levels of democratic participation, moderate income, and access to and participation in leisure and culture. These are measurable targets to move toward. We create our well-being by the choices we make, but one of the elements requires special effort.

Environmental sustainability,

an element we absolutely depend on for the rest of our well-being, is not something individuals or even communities can easily control. The environment is too large for a local community. Subtract any part of an environmentally sustainable source of clean water, clean air, and healthy food from the other elements and well-being, regardless of income, would be essentially impossible. It’s just that critical.

Local organizations are crucial to local environment, but what actually sustains us is not local. Air, water quality, energy, and resources are bigger than a local community. We need to become educated on the environment beyond backyards and local communities. The environment is the global biological machine that supports the world.

Do you know anyone who has read the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) report (summarized here: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/)? Probably not. That SDG report indicates the state of the world’s wildlife and focuses on most factors of well-being. It is the most comprehensive report on the planet. It also says we have work to do, changes to make, and fast.

Individual citizens are almost powerless to influence or control global environmental sustainability. Even when we try, our efforts are feeble in the face of opposition, and inferior to the scale of what needs to be done. Instead, we need to concede that the solution rests with powerful people. Yes, we need to defer to, no, encourage and empower the rare people who can connect with others around the world, and can affect the policies and practices that encourage environmental sustainability.

Become educated in the big picture.

There are abundant free reports online to educate you and help you focus on effective strategies. Know what your government is or is not doing. Get involved. You can’t influence environmental stability alone, but you can join powerful organizations that can lobby and act on your behalf. Contribute to the big influential organizations. That money is not an expense, it’s your tax-deductible investment in the good life. Make choices. Take actions. It’s your well-being we are talking about.

Steve Waller’s family lives in a wind- and solar-powered home. He has been involved with conservation and energy issues since the 1970s and frequently teaches about energy. He and a partner own a U.P. wind/solar business called Lean Clean Energy. He can be reached at Steve@UPWallers.net.

Community Improvement: YOOPtopia in Action, by Roslyn Elena McGrath

What do you think makes the U.P. a great place to live?

And what do you think would help make it, and its ability to impact the world in a positive way even better?

In addition to all of the U.P.’s natural charms, what’s struck me most during my twenty-five years of U.P. living, (with thirteen of them spent connecting with many in the process of publishing Health & Happiness U.P. Magazine and six on previous publications), is how many people, businesses and organizations strive to act on their particular vision of how this beautiful area and world can become a better place—what I call a “Yooptopia.”

The huge growth I’ve witnessed in purpose-driven businesses, holistic wellness, and non-profit organizations has inspired me to highlight this by founding YOOPtopia in Action. Thus far, this has taken shape in an online home showcasing good-for-you-and-the-planet U.P. businesses, organizations, and events for both residents and visitors, plus a seasonal meet-up for members.

At www.Yooptopian.com, you’ll find a guide to good-for-you-and-the-planet businesses, organizations, and activities in our beautiful Upper Peninsula. Eco-friendly, holistic, altruistic, and fun events, products, services, and volunteer opportunities, plus selected articles from Health & Happiness U.P. Magazine, and personal and business membership opportunities await you there, and in highlights at Facebook.com/Yooptopian. I also hope you’ll share with us your own positive visions, accounts, and responses to Yooptopian projects in action found there.

While no person, business, or organization is perfect, in their individual ways, YOOPtopia in Action members are taking steps to help improve our world. By frequenting these businesses, supporting these organizations, and following and sharing YOOPtopia in Action’s site and Facebook page, you can amplify their impact while making healthy choices for yourself, your family, your community and planet, which ultimately is what Health & Happiness is all about.

As an additional part of Health & Happiness’s community support, in a few short months, we’ll be making our annual donation to a local U.P. children’s organization, plus sharing a feature article on it in our next issue. At www.Yooptopian.com, you can tell us which organization you think we should choose and why. And be sure to subscribe to the site for upcoming opportunities to vote for your choice!

Together, we make things better!

Roslyn Elena McGrath of Empowering Lightworks LLC offers real world options for helping to collaboratively create a more uplifting world through her personal growth and inspiration books, workshops, private sessions, products, YOOPtopia in Action, and this magazine. Visit http://www.yooptopian.com, healthandhappinessupmag.com, and http://www.EmpoweringLightworks.com for more info.