The Future We Choose – Wonderment: A Yoga Nidra
Channel: Greenbelt Festival
Date: 2022-05-25

Wonderment ˈwʌn.də.mənt

'My sense of God is not a deity, but a profound sense of wonder.' Albert Einstein

This piece is a collaboration between Jackson M Phoenix and Lucy McCarthy. A meditation on wonderment through two lenses – Yoga Nidra for Lucy, visual art for me.

The drawing, a portion of which gradually comes into view through the guided journey, is a drawing of how it felt, for me, to fall in love. The wonder inherent in love, in two souls connecting and, through this, remembering themselves to be, in truth, One.

My relationship to wonder has transformed in the past few years, in parallel to the transformation of my identity through gender transition. Having spent decades distanced from reality by layers of untruth, wonder was something that was mostly unavailable to me.

Through my transition, my experience has been of being reborn, time and again, to stumble to my feet, unskinned, unprotected, and raw to the world. Whilst there is great vulnerability and often pain in this, the gift of it has been a new-forged relationship with wonder. As I open, and continue to open, to my truth, I also open to a raw and immediate relationship with the sublimity of existence.

And, at the heart of this opening, is wonder.

In my physical body, I experience the sensation of wonder in my chest, my heart-space. Like a deep inhale, it is a taking-in, an absorption, a fuel.

The experience of ‘life’ is extraordinary. To be a spark of consciousness embedded in matter, existing within all that has blossomed through the cosmic aeons, of which we are an intrinsic part. I believe the state of wonder, a reverence for all it really is, is the core of what it is to be in relationship with existence in a way that truly sees it. And that this seeing is essential in underpinning the deep and transformative change we must seek in our relationship with all beings and the natural world.

That, ultimately, deep change begins in a heightening of consciousness.

There are many ways in which to engage in wonder: spirituality, art, science, human connection, immersion in the natural world. And, also, simply to quieten and turn into ourselves. To stop for long enough that we can pan out and really see the mystery and beauty of it all. To make it a practice to pause regularly, to return, again and again, to the state of wonder which is both our birth-state and our birth-right.

I hope this Yoga Nidra, created with and from love, will help.

Jackson M Phoenix

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We want to hear your vision.

Forgetting what you think is possible or likely, what could a radically better future for humanity and our planet look like? What is the boldest, most courageous and loving vision you can summon?

To share your vision, leave us a voicemail on +44 (0)7455 363 164.

Your response will be woven into the final The Future We Choose artwork: a collected, collective (re)visioning, premiering at Greenbelt Festival 2022.

What is the future you choose?

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A collaboration between Jackson M Phoenix, Barney White and you, The Future We Choose will craft a radical new collective vision for our shared future.

At this point of global disruption, we are at a place where a change of direction is essential, and we find ourselves in the handful of generations who have the opportunity to make this our legacy.

It is clear we need to rethink our direction of travel as a species – but to change direction, we must have a new destination in mind.

The Future We Choose is a shared space for brave thinking, real dialogue, deep listening, and collective (re)visioning.

Initially comprising six multi-artform pieces, from films to jigsaws to inner journeys, each will explore a quality essential to profound (re)visioning: deep listening, interconnectedness, higher consciousness, and wonderment.

This initial series of works will broadcast a global call for responses to the question:

Forgetting what you think is possible or likely, what could a radically better future for humanity and our planet look like?

Your response to this call will become part of the final artwork, premiering at Greenbelt Festival 2022: a collective (re)visioning installation, an inhabitable space in which to immerse in this bold and radical new collective vision for our future.

The Future We Choose will place our collective vision in clear sight, inspiring action and catalysing momentum towards radical change.

What is it, the future you choose?

To share your vision, leave us a voicemail on +44 (0)7455 363 164.

#TheFutureWeChoose
Created by Jackson M. Phoenix and Barney White.
Commissioned by Greenbelt Festival

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