A path that leads us forward into a more fully embodied, coherent whole.
It all began in 2020. Years after graduating with my Master's in Bioengineering, I had spent years questioning the utility of a model that aims to isolate individual human systems and address individual problems purely through the medical system. I mean, of course I saw great value here! Our ability to call upon science & engineering to understand disease and develop treatments to relieve humans of their ailments - of course this is a useful path (and one that should be well-respected).
But I couldn't get my mind away from how isolated this field felt from everything else I knew in the holistic models of health I had learned. Why is it that we treat disease using frameworks centered on isolation? Is the narrative that this teaches humanity truly one that serves the greater picture?
It all got started in the medical field with my role as a researcher (and, later, as an engineer) working to address problems of human health. However, along the way something happened that shifted my perspective to better incorporate the larger web of life: yes, it is about us humans, but it is also about us humans in connection to the ecosystems which we are very much part of.
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It happened in 2020 when I awoke to realize the deep repercussions of a world that thinks in terms of reductionism and isolated systems. Again, not because these views are wrong, but because our modern world is too deeply ingrained in one side of a polarity. We have moved too far from the inter-connected whole into the separated and reduced component view. The result is widespread disease that arises from disconnection.
After this realization, I changed my career path to examine all the ways that this disconnection causes illness. The results are plenty:
- Anxiety, as we separate mind from body and have little ability to be present to our nervous systems and the system-wide disturbances that are caused within
- Depression, as we separate self from the interconnected whole and lose motivated meaning in life
- Metabolic dysfunction (my original area of expertise as a Biomedical Engineer), as we look past the system-wide implications of modern lifestyles on the abilities of our bodies to maintain energetic homeostasis
- Climate change, as our "humans supreme over nature" narrative has taken us far out of the reality that we are every bit as intertwined with this Earth as all other life forms.
- Etc.
The reality is that we, as human beings, are interconnected with life in a way that expands far beyond our mainstream modern technical models. We have been taught to separate, and in doing so have become isolated from the web which, in truth, connects us all:
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connects the individual cells/systems that make each of us whole
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connects each of us out into the ecosystems we are all part of
It is our mission here, through We Are The Forest and Upward Slopes LLC, to create a new narrative - one that comes through embodied practice and embodied activism - and brings us into a healthier, more balanced, and more beautiful reality:
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healing the ailments that arise out of system-wide dysfunction (within self and outside of self in our ecosystems)
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co-creating a more beautiful world in harmony with an underlying reality that we are both sovereign and inter-connected
Upward Slopes LLC and We Are The Forest establish our polarity and working playground:
Upward Slopes LLC, established in 2020, is founded on the demand to create a new ascension narrative. Living in a world hyper-focused on progress, we question whether our perspectives and frameworks are grounded in what is truly needed in service to this world. Or, are our efforts ungrounded, misguided as they are connected to short-sighted, egoic wants? Are our efforts simply perpetuating harmful narratives of human supremacy over nature?
Upward Slopes LLC is devoted to creating a new progress narrative, one where the end goal is grounded in what serves the here and now as we hold space for a brighter future:
- through the healing that is needed for humanity and nature
- through the creative innovation of that which truly serves to solve important problems and bring more heart-centered joy into this world
We Are The Forest, founded in 2022, arose as the feminine pole to this platform. By understanding how connected we are to the ecosystems we are part of, we begin the healing and light-filled transformation process that our world is in need of.
Established as an interweaving between systems biology and embodied spirituality, the We Are The Forest mission is two-fold:
- Understand ourselves as interconnected through story, teachings, and embodiment practice (yoga, meditation, journeys, etc.)
- Embodied Earth Activism - Be in action to heal and transform the biological systems that have been harmed by the flawed narrative based on separation/isolation/"power over"
In doing so, our hope and intention is to ground in a new form of spirituality (foundational belief system):
- one that recognizes humanity as intertwined with Planet Earth and all its ecosystems
- one that recognizes the sovereign nature of each individual, as we also know ourselves as fluid (interwoven with life)
Hi, I'm Katie Hemphill: Founder of Upward Slopes LLC and We Are The Forest
Bioengineer (B.S.E., M.S.), Embodiment Coach, Earth Activist, Writer, Meditation Teacher
Classically trained as a Biomedical Engineer (B.S.E., M.S.), my path as a researcher began in pursuit of the mysteries of the human brain and body, with the intention to heal the ailments that plague our human selves.
Despite a wealth of knowledge, I didn't find much of what I truly wanted on this path. Instead, I learned about bureaucracy and the painstaking, soul-sucking hoops that one must go through to pursue science in our modern era. Frankly, I was heart-broken over the world we've created. I needed a different way of approaching the pursuit of knowledge in connection to healing and transformation paths.
It's my hometown forest that found me in my own despair. Spending each day on the trails winding through the mountains, it's the trees that would greet me and share their story of extreme harm done by humans in a misaligned narrative.
You see, these ponderosas are not the dense, green lush that may have come to your mind, but instead, exist as a crisscrossed series of weathered, gray and blackened matchsticks along a desertifying mountain floor.
The fires that burned my hometown forest down (not just once, but over and over again) tell a story about how wildly out of balance our world is today. And it is their story, just as much as it is our own story, that I share here in the hope of bringing us each and all back into alignment.
Along this path, may we find the healing and light-filled transformation that our world is in need of.
Learn more: Where can I guide you to best serve your needs?
Are you here for?
Embodied Earth Activism
Help me regrow my backyard forest! Else, let us come together to heal the landscapes that make up our Planet Earth as you share and nurture your own Earth Activism work in our community circles.
Embodiment Work
Let's get focused on you and your connection to self. Through meditation, yoga therapy, nutrition, and other modalities, we work together to help you heal and transform.