Restorative Practices of Wellbeing
Hardback
7 x 9 inches
410 pages
ISBN: 9781736280317
$49 plus shipping
A compendium of 300 practices of wellbeing to restore connection with Self, Others, and Nature.
We heal to the extent that we can feel ourselves. We can feel ourselves to the extent that we feel safe. When we feel safe enough, we can open our hearts to connection. This is the pathway back to human thriving.
The Connection System is a physiological system (the ventral vagal para-sympathetic aspect of the Autonomic Nervous System) that turns on when people feel safe enough to open to connection. Ancestrally, the job of culture was to create a safe enough context for this to happen predictably. In our modern world, surrounded by threat cues, dissociation, multi-generational trauma, and ecological alienation, human nervous systems are not receiving the kind of nourishment they require to access optimal states of wellbeing.
For the past 25 years Gabriel Kram has been studying this problem, since he dropped out of Yale University and began his journey to find a different pathway to wellness for himself. Unable to find an adequate body of guides or mentors in a single university setting, he gradually convened 100 advisors in 25 disciplines of wellbeing across 24 cultures to (re)create a radically comprehensive model of healing based on a very simple and ancient premise: connection is the fountain of wellbeing. This body of work asks two primary questions: How do you turn on, stabilize, and instantiate connection? And how do you remove what gets in the way?
In ancestral and indigenous cultures the world over, there exist bodies of restorative practice designed to help people return to a baseline of safety and connection when stress, threat, trauma, illness, or disaster moved people away from it. This book unites cutting-edge neurophysiology, primarily the application of Polyvagal Theory, with an array of ancestral awareness technologies. It integrates applied mindfulness, neurophysiology, somatic and emotional awareness, anti-racism, deep nature connection, cultural linguistics, and Indigenous Lifeways into a coherent framework in service of deepening connection with Self, One Another, and the Living World. It introduces hundreds of targeted neural exercises designed to restore connection: with the present moment, with ourselves, our bodies, our senses, our emotions, with one another, and with Nature. It is a guide to reclaiming the roots of our shared humanity: a doorway to the ancestral future.
BOOK REVIEWS of Restorative Practices of Wellbeing:
PRAISE for Restorative Practices of Wellbeing
Restorative Practices of Wellbeing is a remarkable book. The author, Natureza Gabriel Kram, provides a compelling narrative of his personal journey of restoration in which he shares his path from vulnerability and illness to resilience and benevolence. His personal transformation has led him into a deeper understanding of the elements necessary for human thriving that honors the human capacity to compassionately connect with others. Along this journey he identified practices of restoration that humanity has employed for millennia. He shares his knowledge and access to these practices, which are now gaining additional traction as they are being explained by contemporary neuroscience. The book functions not only as a personal example of restoration, but as an innovative learning platform beautifully illustrated in which the text is integrated with an app that directs the reader to online details of restorative practices representing diverse disciplines and cultures. The book invites the reader to join a journey well worth the experience! -Dr. Stephen Porges, PhD, Developer of the Polyvagal Theory
Restorative Practices is an excellent guide to wellbeing and wholeness that is greatly needed today. The author has exercised discipline, love, and awareness that we Indigenous peoples call qualities of the "Real Human Being". I encourage people of all walks of life to read this book. –Ilarion Merculieff, President, Global Center for Indigenous Leadership & Lifeways
Restorative Practices is a profound and unique synthesis of diverse contemplative teachings translated into applicable and scientifically backed well-being practices delivered in engaging ways. I highly recommend this book and the work underlying it to everyone interested in holistic healing and personal and collective transformation. –Daniel Rechtschaffen, Author of The Way of Mindful Education, The Mindful Education Workbook, and Alphabreaths
A treasured cookbook for the spirit. –Fleet Maull, PhD, Author of Radical Dharma
A masterpiece. –Dr. Jeff Rockwell DC, MA, DOMP, Developer of Polyvagal Touch
This book is a true gift of inspiration and dedication. I find that Gabriel Kram finds definitive voices in his writing that draw me in to actually hear the Indigenous Elders speak their voices, to receive the knowledge of Western scientists and to take in the direct experience of Nature. There is a whetting of the appetite to turn the next page to absorb more of the love that Gabriel’s joyful spirit is exuding. The book is full of the generosity and curiosity to self and other that are at the core of restoration. And the many superb color photos that are placed at key moments in the book bring in a multi-media experience that is unique in my memory. –Dr. David Mars, PhD, Developer of Transformational Couples Therapy
I am a restorative hatha yoga teacher in Calgary. My bookshelf is packed with delicious books on topic surrounding the nervous system, trauma and healing. This book of yours is BY FAR my favorite book EVER !!!! My neck gets tired reading it, at times, because I am nodding away with every single sentence. You have enhanced our lives through this work and I cannot thank you enough. –Michelle Crawford