FIERCE VULNERABILITY
Our world is in crisis.
Our social systems are being torn apart, our economic systems has created historic levels of wealth disparity and our ecological system is on the brink of collapse. The need for a powerful movement that nurtures a radical, fundamental transformation has never been greater.
Yet our need is not only a transformation of systems and laws and policies. What we yearn for is a fundamental transformation of our hearts, our values and our relationships – to ourselves, to each other and to the earth.
Fierce Vulnerability is an attempt to build such a movement. A movement that:
Sees injustice not as a political issue, but a manifestation of our collective trauma - and therefore understands that we cannot simply “shut it down” any more than we can shut down trauma.
Recognizes the need for an escalated response to the escalated levels of violence and fracture, but understands that the binary “us vs. them,” “right vs. wrong” worldview is at the heart of what is destroying our planet.
Accepts our own imperfections, and is committed to healing our own wounds so that we have an embodied understanding of what it means to heal – while recognizing that there is no such thing as individual healing in an interdependent world.
Participants from the first Fierce Vulnerability workshop, 2018
Fierce Vulnerability does not have the answers – because the questions we need to be asking ourselves in these times are too big to be knowable. But we can still build community. Create beauty. Affirm life. Listen. And respond to the crises of our times skillfully.
Come explore with us as we ask ourselves:
How do we build a movement that has the militancy to occupy a government building and the sensitivity to see it as an act of healing?
How do we build a movement that can shut down a highway while opening up our hearts?
How do we stop injustice in its tracks while acknowledging the interconnectedness of all beings?
How do we protect ourselves while tending a relationship with our heart-brokenness?
How do we heal and transform ourselves, our relationships and our world?
In this training, we will explore:
Basic understanding of trauma and how it affects our brains and bodies.
How trauma and healing manifests in a world made up of fractals.
Various emotional regulation tools, and how to build them into our movement spaces.
How to generate an environment that gives us the best chance at collective healing.
How to bring all of these skills into the public through direct actions, public witness and creative interventions.
The Fierce Vulnerability training is typically offered as a 2.5 day experience, though the length can be customized.
History
Developed in 2018 by Kazu Haga, Chris Moore-Backman, Anuttara Lakshmin Nath and Sierra Pickett, Fierce Vulnerability was initially envisioned as a new kind of direct action training; one that, rather than leading with an energy of “shutting things down",” can lead with a spirit of “opening things up.” One that understands that above all else, we are here to bring healing to the world.
Over the years, it has developed into something much more than a direct action workshop. It is our longing to see a fundamental transformation in how we relate to ourselves, to each other and to Earth.
By weaving together spiritual practice, trauma healing and the lineage of nonviolent action, we attempt to hold the paradoxes of our times. The need for power and love; audacity and humility; fierceness and vulnerability.
The Book
For a more in-depth exploration of Fierce Vulnerability, check out my book:
Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging through Collapse
The book explores how the intersection of spiritual practice, trauma healing and nonviolent action in the midst of collapse may bring us closer to collective healing.
This book is good medicine for those of us on the frontlines of liberation work who long to root our work in an ethic of care and healing. - Lama Rod Owens -
A profound invitation to personal and collective awakening. This book is brilliant, compassionate, and powerfully hopeful. —Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance -
This book is good medicine for those of us on the frontlines of liberation work who long to root our work in an ethic of care and healing. - Lama Rod Owens - A profound invitation to personal and collective awakening. This book is brilliant, compassionate, and powerfully hopeful. —Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance -
The Network
Check out the Network’s Zine
The Fierce Vulnerability Network, formerly called the “Yet To Be Named Network,” is a decentralized experiment to create communities of practice that can learn to respond skillfully and intentionally to the poly-crisis.
I (Kazu) am not the founder or the leader. I am simply one of many individuals who have contributed to this experiment.
To find out more about the Network, check out our Zine (outdated, but still speaks to the spirit of the Network), or visit the website at www.thefvn.org and check out our DNA Handbook (also outdated, but a good resource).