How Hyper-Individualism is Making Us Sick
As a white female settler in the healing profession, I want to take a moment to recognize the history of colonization in the mental health and wellness industry, and the focus on hyper-individualism, and individual success, at the cost of others, which has caused significant illness in our society.
I acknowledge that I am writing this piece from the traditional lands of the Sinixt peoples. The day before I posted this, was a new statutory holiday in recognition of the efforts towards Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. And In reflection, I wanted to take the time to write a piece on the ways in which land-based knowings have inspired me, and the importance of re-wilding psychology.
I honour, and am grateful for the practices of the first peoples, and believe the stewardship and protection of the earth will in-turn solve many, if not all, of our contemporary ailments.
Deconstructing colonialism, and unraveling the narratives from industrialized culture, is a hand-over-heart step toward generative well-being, and a future for our children.
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My dad always referred to the acreage on which I grew-up on, as boney. I feel that more so now as I try to carve my way into living on this land with my new family. A whole generation later, and the land is still holding strong to it’s rugged ways.
As I walk the earth, the fallen tree branches crack under my foot. As I dig into the ground, my shovel and rake bounce off of mysteriously sized rocks. It’s as though I can hear the deep belly laugh resonance of the boulder, and the child-like cackle from the smaller stones’ haptics in my tools.
I work my way through the ground in close proximity to a creek which feeds our wells, and hydrates the animals that call this home.
Right now, the creek bed is silent.
This land has fostered my deep love for the wild. I’ve grown up with this creek, knowing it’s patterns, listening to it’s powerful bellow in the spring as it moves boulders with melting snow. With the patterns of the last decade, I’ve learned that at this time of year, I get to see the creek bed’s bones laying naked after the predictably hot months. The rocks, moss, lichen, fallen trees, sand, and grit look chaotic in their time of rest, but there’s also a sense of charm. It’s like a playful flop into some lush grass, as you return to the trailhead after a strenuous adventure in the mountains. There’s a sigh of relief-at-last, acknowledging the hard work and accomplishment.
But this creek also used to run year round. Fish used to spawn in it’s pools. Now it’s just bone-dry. Boney, mimicking the rest of the land.
The noticeable change in our seasonal weather patterns sit heavily in my heart, and my bones.
Taking pause and honoring the cycles of the year guides my awareness of the eco-system to which I belong. It reminds me of my responsibility to the more-than-humans that weave through these wooded hills, and grow amongst the earth’s bones.
What exactly do I mean by responsibility to the more-than-humans?
When we move amongst the living world as though we are part of a greater community, and not just a community of humans, but respecting the lives of the plants, animals, and the bones of the earth as equal inhabitants- we act in ways that reflect responsibility to something much greater than our individualistic experience. This re-membering of our land-based roots, is a path towards belonging to something greater than ourselves.
We have become a society focused on individualism- happiness, wealth, etc., and this is making us ill.
Belonging to something greater than ourselves, you’ll hear me say it often.
Our modern social construct, and the field of psychology often leaves out the importance of belonging to this earth- to something greater than our individual experience.
What a beautiful knowing, to re-member that we are related to everything.
Of course this knowing is the ethos and teachings of our first peoples. The peoples who colonialism tried to destroy, to pave the way for rapacious resource extraction from the earth, and set on-going precedent for power-over the earth, and each other.
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When I look at my 9 month-old child, I think about the world I want him to know.
The world I want him to know is full of life. Life of all kinds. And I want him to know those lives, I want him to know the magic of cedar, and the wisdom of the dry creek-bed. I want him to ask the forest for advice, and listen (not just with his ears), truly listen with his heart- to the bees, as they move from one flower to the next, continuing the life-death-life cycle through pollination. I want him to learn about the importance of reciprocal relationships, like the communication between the network of mycelia, and the old-growth tree giants. I hope he remains curious of the cycles that make us feel alive, and the ones that call us to rest, just like the spring-summer-fall-winter seasonal changes.
I wish for him to live in a world that is full of life, and not just human life.
There is an ‘othering’ that happens to the plants, animals, minerals, mountains, mycelia and what cannot be seen, due to the perception that plants, animals and the lands around us are simply resources for human consumption. A colonial, top-down, staggeringly steep pyramid perspective.
The re-wilding of psychology is important, because our modern society has become so dislocated from land-based living that we are on a path of (planned?) obsolescence as we engage in an industrial-based economy, and the ever-unfulfilling seeking of individual success (aka ‘happiness’). There is nothing generative or life-giving about seeking personal success over community flourishing. There is no long-term fulfillment in solely belonging to the needs of the self, and forever taking, taking, taking. There has to be a ‘give’ at some point, and perhaps that is the mental health suffering we see so pervasively. Our mental health ‘giving’ in.
I believe there are strong ties between our dislocation from the earth, and the rampant illnesses we see today. The suffering within the human experience mirrors the suffering we see in our environment. And I often wonder, whether there is a collective trauma driving human behaviour that is a result of amnesia towards our land-based ancestral origins.
Although it sounds simple. I see one of the starting points leading towards healing, is an exploration of belonging to more than the self, and a desire for true accountability to the greater community.
Individualism does not need to negate community responsibility.
And, when I say community, I include the more-than-humans.
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A great starting point in community responsibility is learning about the lands and traditional territories on which you have settled, and the people who steward those lands.
Here is a map of the traditional territories by the non-profit, native land (I recommend turning off all filters first, gain your bearings, and then add in the filters to learn more about your location).
furthermore, to keep the momentum around the truth + reconciliation in Canada that extends beyond a statutory holiday, I wanted to share and encourage some calls to action in reflection of the 94 Calls to Action released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
I invite you to leave comments on my instagram post about the traditional territories you are a settler on, or anything new you may have discovered.
Wild blessings,
Jessica Rita
