active hope – Seeding Our Future

Book Review: Active Hope by Macy and Johnstone

An excellent guide to personal resilience I have taken part in workshops led by both Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, and regard them as two of the best teachers on personal resilience in a full sense of the phrase. Working in depth with this book could be a good start to exploring super-resilience. This book … Read more

Nature Immersion Course for GPs – 21-22 October 2021

Overview The Tamar Faculty and the Hazel Hill Trust are delighted to be running this two day nature resilience immersion course with overnight stay. It will offer a different way to gain new insights and skills and to raise your resilience and nourish your wellbeing. The course is being held at a farm located in the heart of Dartmoor, surrounded by both farmland and wilderness. Workshops will be held outside. Overnight accommodation and meals will be provided. RCGP members – £100.00Non-members – £250.00 Course description The impact of prolonged overload and the stress of facing ever-rising demands with shrinking resources calls for new creative responses. Join Us! Be part of the first ever RCGP Nature Immersion for GPs – a different way to gain new insights and skills, to raise your resilience and nourish your wellbeing. In collaboration with a team of leaders and specialists in the field of nature connection for wellbeing, we are delighted to bring you this pioneering RCGP nature resilience immersion course with overnight stay. Launched at the RCGP National Conference in 2019, and postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic, this two-day immersive course, delivered on Dartmoor, will offer individuals the opportunity to reconnect with the natural world in a safe, supported and facilitated environment. This Nature Immersion course is leading the way for wellbeing for the NHS workforce. The two-day course will offer GPs the opportunity to develop skills that cultivate a sense of wellbeing, drawing upon the neurobiology of resilience & applying theory through experiential learning. Never before has there been such urgent need for the restorative effects that nature has to offer, to be placed at the heart of recovery for frontline staff. This course will provide individuals with the space to reflect, learn and connect. To restore yourself as you take valuable time to be with nature. The workshops and activities are delivered mostly outdoors, and each offers the individual the opportunity to develop new ways of thinking and being for a sustainable future. The venue provides a beautiful space for quiet retreat, away from the noise of an increasingly tech dependent world and into the wilderness of Dartmoor National Park. Tailored to GPs, the programme will include: Practising simple techniques based on applied neurobiology, mindfulness and traditional sources which can be used in everyday work.Learning about resilience from the woodland ecosystem, and practical tools for our own wellbeing and our teams.Conservation work and physical activities together to de-stress, relax into the land and shift perspective.An evening campfire circle for sharing, mutual support and insights on work stresses.Processes and time to consider better approaches for tackling work challenges and systemic pressures. This programme has been jointly developed by the University of Westminster Centre for Resilience and Hazel Hill Trust following four very successful pilot programmes with junior hospital doctors, psychiatrists and GPs. The Westminster Centre for Resilience has over 20 years’ experience of helping medical professionals. Hazel Hill Trust is an educational charity and leader in nature-based resilience. Speakers Alan Heeks, Professor David Peters and Dr Lucy Loveday. Programme Thursday 21st OctoberArrival from 12.00, Lunch at 13.00Workshops begin at 13.45Supper at 19.30 Friday 22nd OctoberBreakfast from 08.00Workshops begin at 09.00Course ends at 17:00 Covid-19 Safety Although national restrictions have been lifted, we will be implementing additional precautions at this event to minimise the spread of Covid-19, these will be reviewed and updated in the run up to the event. We will contact delegates nearer the time with details of what we will request of them during the event, e.g. for all delegates to wear face masks indoors. You can also request the risk assessment, outlining specific steps that we will be managing at this event. Attendees will be asked not to attend if they feel unwell and/or have presented with a positive Covid-19 test within the previous 10 days, and attendees will be able to cancel (and receive a refund where applicable) up until the day of the event. Venue Brimpts Farm, Dartmeet, Devon, PL20 6SG Bookings To register for this event, please follow this link.
... Read more
Soul Resilience Circle – monthly online group – October 20 and November 17

On October 20 and November 17, 7.30-9pm UK time, you can join an online group to seek and share soul resilience insights. We will explore different ideas of what soul is, and ways to contact it, to find soul guidance about staying positive and finding our life purpose in these troubled times. Our aim is to create an ongoing group for people who are already interested in exploring soul perspectives and want to deepen with a small group. If the two pilot sessions are well received, we will continue with a monthly online group. Led by Alan Heeks and Nayyer Hussain, who have been soul friends for over 20 years, and have guided a range of groups. Free of charge. Limited to 12 participants. To book a place or get more info, contact Alan. You can also read more about Soul Resilience on my website: soulresilience.net.
... Read more
Soul Resilience Retreat: How your core self can help you grow through storms – Feb 25-27, 2022

At Hazel Hill Wood near SalisburyWith Alan Heeks and Jane Sanders As life gets more turbulent, we need to go higher and dig deeper to find a quantum step up in our resilience. This retreat is a chance to explore how the deep wisdom of your soul can help you to stay centred and positive, and clarify your purpose: why your soul has chosen to be here in a time of huge change. The intention for this retreat is to create a safe space for shared exploration, with guided processes, sharing time, and solo space to reflect, rest, and draw insights from Nature. The ingredients will include: Finding your own sense of your soul, and creating a dialogue.Ways to deepen soul connection, including calling on a guide, Nature immersion, sacred chants, soul groups and anima mundi (Gaia).Helping soul and body to cohabit, and create shared resilience.Why am I here? Find your soul’s view on how to live with and grow through climate crisis.Nourishing the soul, individually and collectively, as a key to everyday resilience. Alan Heeks has been exploring resilience, climate responses, and the soul’s journey for many years. He is a widely experienced group and retreat leader. See www.naturalhappiness.net. Jane Sanders has over 25 years’ experience in working with a mindfulness-based approach to wellbeing with groups and individuals, and draws on ecospirituality, deep ecology and Nature immersion. Hazel Hill: is a magical 70-acre conservation woodland and retreat centre, 7 miles from Salisbury. It has simple, yet beautifully crafted off-grid wooden buildings with lovely indoor and outdoor group spaces, heated bedrooms and sleeping lofts (or camping), good hot showers and compost loos. See more about the wood at www.hazelhill.org.uk. Practicalities: Start time: 4pm on Friday February 25, finishing after lunch at 2pm on Sunday February 27.Price: To be confirmed.Booking: If you would like to reserve a provisional place, please contact Alan on data@workingvision.com or 07976 602787.
... Read more
Grow your own Happiness

In these stormy times, we need new skills to stay happy. A cultivated ecosystem, like a garden, is a role model for human nature: this workshop shows how gardening methods can help you grow your own happiness and deepen the roots of your resilience.
... Read more

Book blog: Deep Adaptation – Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos by Jem Bendell and Rupert Read
I regard Deep Adaptation as one of the most important approaches to the climate crisis, and this new book will give you a thorough grounding in what DA is, and isn’t, and in the various ways it might evolve over the next few years. It’s not easy to define what Deep Adaptation is: I wouldn’t call it a movement, since it is not trying to recruit members or campaign for a specific set of aims. I see DA more as an approach for exploring the climate crisis and related issues, and also as a network offering support and resources: the best gateway is www.deepadaptation.info. The fact that this book is a collection of chapters by different contributors supports this view. The book is edited by Jem Bendell, who originated the DA approach back in summer 2018, and Rupert Read, a writer and activist who has been a leading figure in the Green Party and Extinction Rebellion. Unlike many such collections, this one is well-organised, avoids duplicated content, and gives a good overview of the insights, uncertainties, and potential of Deep Adaptation currently. The content of this book is far too rich to try to summarise in one blog, so I will give a gist of each chapter to offer a flavour. This explores what climate science can and cannot tell us about our predicament, written by Jem and Rupert. They observe that, “During times of change, rapid collapse rather than gradual change is quite common for both ecosystems and societies.” This is the original paper published by Jem in July 2018, which has now been downloaded a million times. Very clear, and well worth reading. One of the most contentious issues in DA is Jem’s view that societal collapse in many countries is inevitable, a claim which he has not really substantiated, and which I, Rupert Read and many others believe is overstated. This chapter is a well-considered exploration of reasons why collapse is quite possible, by four authors including Servigne and Stevens, who have written two very useful books on this topic. For my blog on the first of these, click here. Exploring the risks of collapse and how to prevent it should clearly be a priority, and they explain how the French government is now doing this. They also quote a 2020 opinion survey which found that 56% of people in the UK, 65% in France, think that “western civilisation as we know it will soon collapse”. This really useful chapter is by Adrian Tait of the Climate Psychology Alliance. It is a useful and encouraging explanation of the various approaches which the CPA are exploring. I share their view that collective processing and healing of trauma and many other emotions around the climate crisis will be increasingly important, and their Through the Door initiative aims to get therapists and counsellors working with people in nature, which could be another crucial factor. This valuable chapter by Jem explores the subconscious beliefs and ideologies which influence many of us, including activists. I have been working with Jem and the DA network since late 2018, and one of the many things I admire about it is a willingness to look at the shadow side, which this chapter does well. Jem looks at a range of beliefs which most white middle-class people hold, such as entitlement, desire for control and autonomy, belief in economic and technical progress. He also offers alternative values, such as compassion, openness and curiosity, mutuality. He highlights the need to become “more aware and less reactive to our emotion of fear”, but also acknowledges how hard it is to see and change one’s own ideology, and he observes that doing so is likely to remain marginal. This chapter, entitled Unconscious Addictions, builds on the previous one: it is written by members of a collective called Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures, who aim to bring in the voice of indigenous and marginalised people. It is a useful exploration of the systemic denials in mainstream society, for example denying that we are “entangled within a living wider metabolism that is bio-intelligent”. They point out that most of us need to wean ourselves off addictions and attachments to ideology and our current sense of self, but the chapter is skimpy on ways to do this. This chapter on facilitating Deep Adaptation processes is by Jem with Katie Carr, who has been a key figure in this aspect of DA. If, like me, you are involved in facilitating groups around climate issues, you will find a lot of valuable, practical pointers here. One of the challenges they point out is that “rather than offering a map, DA is more an invitation into maplessness…”, and enabling this requires a facilitator to create a safe and loving containing space. The chapter also lists some specific processes used in the DA Forum, such as Deep listening, Deep relating, and Death cafes. This chapter on The Great Turning is by Sean Kelly and Joanna Macy. Joanna is one of the elders in climate responses, having been involved since the 1960s. Her Work that Reconnects is widely used in DA and elsewhere as one of the best ways to enable people to engage with painful feelings around climate, such as fear, overwhelm and grief. It is useful in this chapter to hear how she sees WTR relating to Deep Adaptation and the severe worsening of the climate crisis. For example, they comment that “as collapse intensifies, we can expect … the spread of what Buddhists call the ‘three poisons’: greed, hatred and delusion.” Whilst in the past, the Great Turning might have been seen as moving towards a complete resolution of issues, they accept that this is no longer realistic, and describe it as “not an alternative to collapse, but a passage through.” Their view of this crisis as potentially a “collective initiation” is also a helpful one. This chapter by Jonathan Gosling explores leadership and management in the context of DA. He highlights the way […]
... Read more