Abstract from article : More Work for Mother. Environmental chemicals (e.g., lead, pesticides, flame retardants) accumulate in all human bodies and have the potential to affect the health of men and women, adults, and children. This article advances “precautionary consumption”—the effort to mediate personal exposure to environmental chemicals through vigilant consumption—as a new empirical site … More More Work for Mother
Chapter 1: To Live In an Insensitive Culture When you lose touch with inner stillness you lose touch with yourself, when you lose touch with yourself you lose yourself in the world – Eckhart Tolle To be a highly sensitive child in the western world is challenging. Heightened sensory processing capabilities create real distinctions between … More Book, Chapter 1: To Live in An Insensitive Culture, Introduction (draft 2)
Chapter 3: Sensory Abilities Are Not Disabilities “That which you mistake for madness is but an overacuteness of the senses.” ― Edgar Allan The elimination of sensory awareness from our language and culture has resulted in their elimination from our medical narratives as well. This has had terrible consequences on the health of highly sensitive … More Chapter 3: Sensory Abilities Are Not Disabilities (Draft)
The mind: a malleable, dynamic, adaptable system According to Dan Siegel: “The mind is an embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information with self-organizing properties”. (Siegel, 2012)[i]. On the side of embodied processes scientists are beginning to realize that there is a strong relationship between food and emotions, which influence … More The mind: a malleable, dynamic, adaptable system (draft)
One distinction between 20th and 21st century media is the introduction of networks. Networks operate very differently from broadcast media, in part because they are spaces of actions. Visual culture began on a system where the audience was passive, absorbing messages without offering much feedback. Network culture however is founded on a value system of … More Disability and Diversity as New Media (draft)
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche Another area of our culture that we do not often associate with aesthetics is modern medicine. Nevertheless, it is a particularly powerful discursive and propagation tool of aesthetics. Its status as science makes … More Modern Medicine as Sensorial Anesthetics
We boast that we have conquered matter, and forget that it is matter that has enslaved us—okakura Children are taught to value specific approaches to sensory life that are highly regimented by our cultural rules. Indeed, psychologists have established that we have specific social norms and languages related to our use of time, space, touch, … More The Aesthetics of Space (draft)
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Chapter 1: A Disembodied Culture When you lose touch with inner stillness you lose touch with yourself, when you lose touch with yourself you lose yourself in the world – Eckhart Tolle How we, as parents and educators, understand heightened sensory sensitivity and the senses is influenced by our culture and greatly affects our ability … More Chapter 1: A Disembodied Culture (Draft)
Introduction What is Heightened Sensory Processing? Our own story What does it mean to be highly sensitive? Nurturing Sensitivities DIY HSP Well-Being Digital Native Learning Letting go of Cultural Fear Changing our Sensory Context The highly sensitive family: how to thrive in a toxic world
Sabbatical Report, Alexandra Bal It has been a while since I have written anything in this blog. This is in big part due to the fact that I have been on sabbatical, withdrawing from daily activities to focus on my research. Ahead of the sabbatical, I conducted the first round of interviews for the SHHRC … More Sabbatical Report
“Fundamentally, Permaculture is about making connections. At its most basic level, Permaculture is about reviving old connections with Earth, family, community and Nature (these are all one, as becoming connected ultimately tells us). It is about creating new connections that encompass technologies sanely used, that encompass communities which extend to the far reaches of a … More Permaculture Design is About Understanding, Emulating and Reestablishing Natural Connections. (Perma)Culture and Sanity.
Alx Bal 