Chris Southall's UK Home Page
Shamanic drumming shamanic dance, Five Rhythms, sweat lodge, trance dance, drumming CDs, Shamanic Journeying CDs, drumming, djembe drums,

Ecodiy - living your life in a greener more sustainable way
Learn to drum and Shamanic Journeying workshop CDs 
Interactive drumming tutorial  
Articles by Chris Southall
Build your own geodesic dome tent 
Links

  My main interest is in life energy, how it flows and what blocks the flow and how our connection can be broken with the energy of the rest of our world .  The vocabulary I have learnt for this process is in the Five Rhythms movement practice of Gabrielle Roth which describe life energy  through 'Flowing', 'Staccato,' 'Chaos,' 'Lyrical' and 'Stillness.' 
The tools I used as a workshop leader were:

• Drumming - a great way to move our own energy and activate the energy of others.
  
• Dance - letting our body speak its truth and by moving its energy, heal ourselves.
  
• Creative play - giving ourselves permission to be free.
  
• Ritual theatre and sweat lodge - making space for our spirit.

Our energy for life is our creative energy.  I have a fascination with creativity, creative blocks and the relationship between our inner child, inner parent and mature adult self.  I feel that understanding the nature of this relationship is the key to accessing our creative flow. 
I believe in the way of the body, in opening a path for communication between the different parts of ourselves:
The spirits of our animal parts;
Our elemental nature - water, fire, earth, air and spirit - the Five Rhythms of life;
And the younger layers of ourselves.
By their nature these parts of us may need non-verbal or non-intellectual ways of communication.  Making space for this communication is one of the vital challenges facing our civilization.
My desire is to do this and make it fun; to go for joy, even if it means moving through difficulty on the way.  My goal is to be whole.

 These days (I am tempted to think of these as the last days of our present culture ) I am focussed on sharing with others the tools which may help them and their children survive.  I am by nature single minded and my work now is is sharing my practical experience of living  sustainably.  At the same time I looking for inspiration; I believe what we Westerners need more than ever now is the spiritual path that some indigenous humans such as Amerindians, Aborigines, Mongolians and other tribes had of living in harmony with the rest of nature, respecting it and seeing humans as one part of life's rich pattern no more or less important than any other part.

Do visit www.ecodiy.org and contribute your own ideas by email.  I will make a space for other peoples contributions on the site,.