Restorative Practices of Wellbeing (Connection Phenomenology)

Drawing on cutting-edge neurophysiology and ancient awareness practices, a pioneering connection phenomenologist maps a medicine of the ancestral future.
The landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences study, the largest epidemiological study of trauma ever done, suggests that more than two thirds of American adults are carrying trauma from early childhood adversity. Yet the study did not even conceptualize social trauma: the impacts of racism, sexism, and other forms of structural oppression, or ecological trauma: the trauma of being disconnected from the Living World. By this metric, almost all modern people are traumatized.
Trauma activates the toxic stress response, which translates to a wide variety of stress-related adverse health outcomes later in life. It shapes how we feel in our bodies, our emotional landscape, and structures the thoughts we are able to think. It shapes how we see ourselves, how we interpret the world, and the behaviors available to us.
For the two million years that humans have lived on earth, we have sought to nourish thriving in our children by creating a kind of developmental nest for them. For humans, this nest is of culture and its function is to connect us with three things: ourselves, one another, and the Living World. When this is done properly, the human nervous system becomes baselined in safety and connection, turning on the Connection System, the physiological fountain of wellbeing and resilience.
Over the past 10,000 years, humans have deviated from this ancestral nest at an accelerating rate, which has intensified over the past 500 years. Most modern humans therefore do not feel safe, and are therefore not able to reside in the biology of wellbeing. Humans who are disconnected do not care for themselves, one another, or the Living World.
In this pioneering volume, connection phenomenologist Gabriel Kram addresses two fundamental practical questions: how do we address the trauma and disconnection endemic to the modern world, and how do we turn on the Connection System? Marrying cutting-edge neurophysiology with awareness technologies from a wide variety of traditions and lineages, this book maps a novel approach to the creation of wellbeing informed by the most cutting-edge science, and the most ancient of awareness practices.
It teaches over 300 restorative practices of wellbeing to connect with Self, Others, and the Living World. Learn practices for
 
 
 

• Assessing your defensive responses
• Down-shifting threat responses
• Turning on your Connection System
• Weaving Mindfulness into daily life
• Fine-tuning your senses
• Becoming more embodied
• Developing non-cognitive Ways of Knowing
• Building Healthier relationships
• Relating Across difference
• Connecting deeply with Nature 
• Opening to creativity
• Using language restoratively

"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 of Wellbeing 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." -Kuuyux Ilarion Merculieff, President, Global Center for Indigenous Leadership & Lifeways

Natureza Gabriel Kram is a connection phenomenologist. He has spent the past 25 years studying the art & science of connection and wellbeing through six primary disciplinary lenses: neurophysiology, mindful awareness, social justice, cultural linguistics, deep nature connection, and non-cognitive ways of knowing. He is Convener of the Restorative Practices Alliance, a philanthropic ancestral neuro-technology cooperative and culture repair engine, the Founder and CEO of Applied Mindfulness, Inc. where he directs research, curriculum development, and pedagogy, and is co-founder of the Academy of Applied Social Medicine, where Dr. Stephen Porges, PhD is honorary chair of Neurophysiology. He studied at Yale and Stanford Universities, but has been shaped more by sitting in teepees and circles than in classrooms. He has been blessed with remarkable mentors in many cultures and lineages and disciplines. He lives with his family on Miwok territory in Northern California.