uncertain future – Seeding Our Future

Book blog:Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers

If this is our future, we should be worried… You may not be surprised to know that there’s been an upsurge of dystopian fiction recently. It’s not usually a genre I go for, but I saw good reviews of Perfidious Albion, and it is indeed perceptive and witty – but also pretty depressing. This book depicts Britain in a … 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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Future outlook: overview of resources

This is Alan’s shortlist of useful resources on Future Resilience. Impacts of Climate Change It seems that there is little research on impacts, using the latest data on the acceleration of climate change itself. Many experts expect food supplies ot be the major impact of accelerating climate change: this is explained in a 2019 paper written by Jem Bendell: click here for paper. This also includes many useful references. I asked a colleague to write a short paper on Food Impacts due to Climate Change, which includes indicators of likeliest geographic impact. To see it, click here. Responses A – Food Provision There are two issues here: Fair distribution: currently the world produces enough food to feed everyone, if it was more fairly shared, and waste and over-consumption were reduced.Increasing production: future impacts of climate change imply that increased supply will be urgently needed. Jem Bendell’s paper (see above) hints at ways to do this. Responses B – Community Resilience There’s plenty of evidence from recent and longer history that food shortages quickly lead to riots, civil unrest, extremism and more. Raising resilience and cohesion at community level is important to reduce this risk. Here are some initiatives addressing this: Transition Network: has local groups in many countries, and has a large range of online resources. See https://transitionnetwork.org/Future Conversations: A new UK project, led by Alan Heeks. Now running pilot programmes in 4 disadvantaged communities: each is 6-8 facilitated conversations to build skills and collaboration and face fears about future issues, including climate change. See www.futurescanning.orgUK: https://seedsforchange.org.uk/resourcesInternational: https://www.trainingforchange.org/tools/ , https://350.org/resources/Community Organisers: https://www.corganisers.org.uk/ Responses C – Nature dialogue The view that many people have lost contact with Nature, and don’t feel humanity’s destructive impact on it, is widely held. Here are a couple of specific approaches to recovering and learning through Nature dialogue: Thomas Berry: The Dream of the Earth. Berry believes that mankind needs to feel part of Nature, and that transformation must start at the level of vision, myth, and dream. See Alan’s blog, and www.thomasberry.org.The Seven Seeds of Natural Happiness. Since 1990, Alan Heeks has created a 130-acre organic farm and a 70-acre conservation woodland where people can learn in and from Nature (see www.hazelhill.org.uk). Alan’s Seven Seeds model shows how people can grow their own wellbeing and resilience through analogies with cultivated ecosystems. See www.naturalhappiness.net Responses D – Spiritual Resilience Alan Heeks comments: Resilience to future challenges has been the focus of my work since 2012. A summary of this work is my Eight Dimensions of Super-Resilience (see www.naturalhappiness.net/resources). The scale of future pressures means that we all urgently need a quantum rise in our resilience, and I believe the spiritual dimension offers most potential for this. I’ve explored this in my recent paper, Believing in Better. If you’d like to see this, email me at the address below. Contact Info: Alan Heeks: e: data@workingvision.com UK tel: 07976 602787fobr-resource-sheet-april-19DOWNLOAD
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