carbon reduction – Seeding Our Future

Trees and Carbon Reduction

Crisis fatigue wears all of us down, so you may not be too aware that climate change is worsening. Our weather is a clue. For a useful objective update from the US National Climate Assessment, follow this link. Trees and agriculture have a major potential role to play in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, and even offsetting … Read more

Grow your own Happiness

60-90-minute online workshop Cultivate your wellbeing with gardening skills! Available for group bookingsWith Alan Heeks 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. For example: Mulching and pruning to nourish your rootsComposting stress as a source of energyUse gardening skills like observation and creativityFind new ways to adapt to the climate crisisDraw inspiration from Nature to guide you in uncertainty Alan Heeks has over 25 years of experience exploring Natural Happiness with groups. It grows from creating a 130-acre organic farm and education centre at Magdalen Farm in West Dorset, and from gardening with his wife at home. In this online workshop, Alan will describe the Seven Seeds of Natural Happiness, and participants will have a chance to try some of them out. Alan is happy to take bookings for this event from environmental, community and other groups, at a time of their choosing for a moderate fee by negotiation. CONTACT LINK
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NATURAL HAPPINESS: cultivate your resilience with the Gardener’s Way

July 9-11 2021: at Hazel Hill Wood, near Salisbury With Alan Heeks, Jane Sanders and Marcos Frangos How can you stay happy when there’s too much change and uncertainty? This workshop shows you how: to cultivate yourself like a garden, and grow your own wellbeing by learning from natural ecosystems, using Alan’s unique Natural Happiness model. In this workshop we’ll explore these questions, with the natural ecosystem of this magical wood as our guide. Our methods will include: nourishing our roots; composting problems; using co-creative skills to work with nature; growing inspiration; and ecosystem insights about community. Along with workshop sessions, there will be solo times in the wood, plus good food, campfires and songs to nourish us. This will be a residential group at Hazel Hill Wood: if Covid restrictions prevent this, it will be run with a series of online sessions with personal time in between. We will explore how to grow resilience for individuals and communities, especially in response to the climate crisis and the related pandemic. If you are interested in using this model in your professional work with individuals or groups, Alan will be happy to offer you advice and support: the content of this workshop relates to his fourth book, which is planned for publication in late 2021. Alan Heeks has been exploring resilience with people and nature for many years, and has led many groups on this theme, drawing on experience of resilient natural systems from creating an organic farm and setting up Hazel Hill. Jane Sanders has over 25 years’ experience in working with a mindfulness based approach to wellbeing with groups and individuals, and has also incorporated deep ecology, ecopsychology and the wisdom of natural systems into her work in many different settings, including numerous groups at Hazel Hill Wood. Marcos Frangos is widely experienced in group facilitation, coaching, counselling and constellations work. He was General Manager of Hazel Hill Wood for 5 years, and has co- led many groups there with Jane and Alan. Cost including food and accommodation: £220, concessions £180. We will share cooking and other community tasks. To secure a place, we will need a deposit of £40, £30 for concessions: if, nearer the time we have to run this as an event online event, your deposit will cover the cost of this, or you can receive a full refund. 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, basic accommodation in bedrooms and sleeping lofts (or camping), good hot showers and compost loos. See more at www.hazelhill.org.uk For bookings and enquiries: Please contact Carol Nourse via email on: naturalhappinesscontact@gmail.com
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Getting Centered Amid Confusion: The Treeheart Process

Life and work get more confusing year by year, and that’s unlikely to stop in future. Spending time in Nature is a great way to reduce its stress and find clarity, but what do you do when you have to make a decision, in your workplace or at home, within the next few minutes? The Treeheart process can help you do exactly that. I have been creating and running a woodland retreat centre for the past 27 years (www.hazelhill.org.uk), so it won’t surprise you that I personally find trees a great source of strength and clarity. However, it has been very satisfying to see that the same is true for hundreds of people who visited this wood over that period. You don’t need to be anywhere near a physical tree to do the Treeheart process, but it does help to visualise a tree before you start. Perhaps you have a favourite tree that you visit sometimes, or a picture of a tree on your wall… Once you have pictured a tree, use that to imagine yourself merging with the tree, and imagine that you yourself have roots, trunk, and branches, then take yourself through the following four stages. You can use this process to help yourself get calmer and clearer about all kinds of situations which may be perplexing you. For modest challenges, this can hopefully help you get some clarity within a few minutes, for bigger issues, you may need a longer time, and it could be really helpful to take yourself outdoors for a walk while you use this process. Roots: Starting where you’re at, recognising the truth of the situation, the ground you stand on. Imagine that your roots are spreading out into the substance of the challenge you’re facing. Trunk: A tree is both solid and flexible, and it grows slowly. As you imagine the trunk of your own tree, feel your own solidity, and use this to bring in the quality of patience, giving space to the problem. Although you may feel time pressure, take a few deep breaths, and imagine that you can give yourself even a minute or two of spaciousness to allow clarity to emerge from the tension. Heart: Imagine your own heart is deep in the trunk of your tree: breathe into your heart, let yourself smile and relax a little, and call in the quality of trust. Have faith and trust that there is a good outcome to be found here, and maybe you don’t have to make it emerge: if you relax, it might arise naturally. Fruits: A tree reaches up and out to produce its fruits, nuts, berries and blossoms. Imagine your tree producing a fruitful outcome to this challenge, like a shower of blessings, which is helpful to you and everyone involved. I use the Treeheart process to help deal with everyday problems in a few minutes, and I also use it at more length, repeatedly, to help me handle my feelings of alarm and overwhelm about big issues like climate change. The form of the process I have described to you is my own creation. It draws upon a Sufi meditation created by Neil Douglas Klotz, author of my favourite book, Desert Wisdom.
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