Once upon a time in the world everything, in a way, was alive with meaning. Rivers, cross roads, mountains, certain trees and rocks on the path, even dung heaps — all carried a specific expression of spiritual energy. It could even be a god or goddess him or herself — a vessel of a larger, unseen, reality. The world was animated and alive with meaning and potent primal energies.
Depending on what a human needed — or simply out of appreciation — they would pray or make offerings and honour that specific tree or god, whispering prayers, pouring libations. A ritual of the way.
Our bodies were also seen this way, with their meridian lines as rivers, organs like countries and, even, becoming identified with the greater universe — microcosm and macrocosm becoming one — as the illusionary lines that seem to separate us and it, inner and outer, myself and the outer world, fall away.
Largely, our rational minds have lost this, reducing the world to bare functionalities and biochemical iterations. Yet, still, rivers have a certain type of energy and dung heaps do too. Mountains are mountains, but each carries a specific dreaming quality to it. A power. A way. The world is still mythic.
The Power of Honouring
We know well the blessing power of gratitude, both on the giver and receiver. Study after study has proven appreciation, and gratitude, are keys to happiness, mental, and physical, health.
We could say the same of honouring and being honoured. In some sense, everything wants to be recognized.
Even on a practical level, if we truly honour something, we would naturally take care of and support its greater good. Consciously honour the earth — both for its own beauty and magnanimity, and for the vital role it has in our lives (we wouldn’t be here without it) — and we naturally want to see it thrive. And we thrive in the process. An honouring practice is mutually beneficial.
But there is something more mysterious than that at play. Being in a state of gratitude even strengthens our immunity. It is as if the act of honouring, and appreciating, affirms connection to something great and worthy, and forms a foundation of resiliency, saying to us, ‘I see this thing. I’m connected to it, and it is good.’ Our very cells come alive in this awareness and perform their most natural functions well. We are stronger in harmonic connection. Just like each individual element of our body is.
Whereas, on the opposite spectrum, it’s not uncommon for people who, for example, can’t honour themselves — even deeply dislike themselves with devastatingly low self worth — or feel they don’t belong, often develop autoimmune conditions where the body is literally fighting and rejecting itself.
So the practice of honouring and appreciation is deeply important.
It affirms the beauty and blessing of life in interconnection.
This is how the ancient eastern medicines formulated their supplements, and how we aim to as well — integrative, holistic, interconnected — honouring the great role and benefit of everything, in harmony with the rest. Nothing is random or isolated.
So here’s where you try it for yourself:
Throughout your day and week, honour all the different expressions of life you can be aware of.
What if the river really is a goddess that wants to be honoured? (Fake it till you make it if you have to.) Then watch for a sign, and notice anything that jumps out in your awareness. Could be an animal showing up, a particular sparkle of light on the water that jumps out, or a sound.
Ideally, for this practice of honouring, at least once a week get out in nature; but it can be done in your house, with your own little house plant, in your own little backyard, or terrace, or among city walls as well. (If you can’t get out and be alone in nature you may want to do some of this silently in your head because, you know, someone overhearing you honouring the water dispenser, or the genius of a clock that helps you navigate your days, may raise some questions.)
First start with the more obvious spots for you to honour, love and appreciate.
But also try and stretch a little. Honour and offer to things you wouldn’t normally think of — trees, cars, people, water dispensers. Eventually you could even try to honour some essential and beautiful quality hidden within things you don’t normally like. It too, in a way, is an expression of life and a potent loci of energy.
You likely won’t look at it the same again. And your little cells may scream for joy along with you.
Honouring Changes
Honouring the forms of life changes things inside of us.
It reveals our consciousness and awareness to be more holistic and integrative in nature, just like medicinal mushrooms, or well formulated supplements, do in our bodies.
In this practice, we’re called to be more aware and not deny or mindlessly pass by the scenes of life. We instead integrate what we receive in our awareness in a kind of reverence. We remember that nothing arises as an accident. Everything arises out of some cause. And the more we treat it with honour, as a living thing, the less dis-ease there will be in the whole field of things.
In that act, all appearances of life — the moss and tiny bridge we cross over water, the Lion’s Mane hanging from the tree, the cloud covering the sun for just a moment, the food in our bowl, the clock and stop lights, the piece of toilet paper sticking to your shoe, the spirit of Recovery Extra Strength or Curcumin — even the spirit of the dung heap — become our honoured family, brothers, sisters, fellow wayfarers and walkers of life. The world is vitally alive, and interconnected. And that is healing in itself. (You just may not want the dung heap god to stick around for too long though). Everything in its right place. A practice of discernment is still needed in interacting with all the great forces of life, just like your own immune system discerns what’s good for you, and what isn’t; respectively.
