A space to rest. Permission to grow.

Wilder Mountain Dojo is a participatory public art project and a “life cultivation game” that invites people to see time as a flowing landscape, and to cultivate and play within. It is created and led by Youyang Yu, an artist, educator and community organiser who lives a transnational life between China, the UK and the US.

To my fellow diasporic friends, doing our best to support ourselves while navigating change, restlessness and uncertainty.

I want to create a protected time and space with you: somewhere to slow down, sense the body, express feelings that have not yet found their form, connect with inner strength, and practise receiving and giving support. Like a newly sprouted seed, or a child learning to walk, we can be allowed to explore, be uncertain and grow, rather than be measured as finished products.

When instability, the pressure to improve and a heavy workload arrive together, finding time to rest becomes difficult in itself. Even when exhaustion forces us to stop, we may still feel that we should work harder, become more efficient and optimise ourselves into someone good enough. Rest can become the next task to complete.

We will begin by coming back to the body: first moving and playing together to arrive in the present, then settling into meditation and feeling how the body is right now, noticing the patterns of action we keep repeating, and drawing what the body feels. We will also try imagining the self as a collective continually changing through time, allowing who you are now to form an alliance with yourself at different stages of life: understanding the self who worked so hard in the past, caring for present needs, and leaving some room for the future self.

A rhythm of rest and work can become a promise kept between allies. Practice begins with a small, real action: acknowledging the body’s limits, protecting a little time to rest, or expressing a need. Through listening and responding together, we practise bringing those needs into relationships, exploring how to receive support, offer support and build reciprocity.

Back to the body. I open with a short talk on coming back to the body and noticing the patterns of action we keep repeating. Then we walk, stop and play a body game together, then settle into meditation and feel how the body is right now.

Draw what you feel. Paper and paint are on the floor. No sketching, nothing has to look good, and nothing has to be shown.

Co-create cards. Everyone makes two cards: a pattern of action you keep repeating and don't like, and one you like, a repeated action that supports you and the people around you across time.

Share. In circles of three or four, we share our cards and what we noticed. Speak if you want to, listen if you'd rather. I close by thanking everyone who joined this co-creation.

At each workshop, I will invite you to make two practice cards of your own: one for a pattern of action you keep repeating and don’t like, and one for a repeated action you like, one that supports you and the people around you across time. We close by sharing our cards and what we noticed. You will take a creation home and can leave a card in Wilder Mountain Dojo’s growing shared deck—a contribution for the next person practising self-support through partings, reunions and upheaval.

We hope to begin with a real room and an encounter we care for together: somewhere rest can happen, and inner and collective strength can gradually grow.

One ink self-reflection painting workshop has taken place during Watson’s in-person immersive. Talks and exchanges at the CYC community in Dali are another part of the wider practice. Basecamp is the next invitation to gather.

In a 2023 invitation to share nomadic narratives, “wild mountains” named the layered landscapes encountered through a life of movement. A dojo was imagined as a place of practice: a rehearsal room for expression, a group for autobiographical creation, and a shared narrative space. Belonging could grow through participation.

First, let a room become real. Then the mountain has room to grow.