open to you
Hi
I've realised lately that what I want more than anything is for people to try stuff. Right now the world is throwing challenges at all of us and it can feel intense - that is why I wanted to open up what I do a little bit more. What I'm feeling is that people are tightening the belts in response to world events and things like fuel prices.
My response to that is I want people to be able to access important mindfulness tools and the ability to connect with themselves on a deeper level, so I am making both my upcoming courses open and available to anyone that wants to do them.
What does this mean?
I want people to learn useful life skills and not feel that financial barriers are preventing them from doing so. I want to keep doing what I'm doing, even when times are difficult and it feels like the world is getting smaller again. More than anything I want to check in with my anxiety and see that it isn't holding me back from doing the work that's most important to me - supporting people. I have had many good breaks in my life and am lucky to have supportive people around me. I also have supportive practices and use my 'tools' to help keep me satisfied. Life is not without its ups and downs, that is always the way! But it's how we react to those ups and downs I am most interested in. What I am always opening up to, when I act in the world, my aim is to act through love. When I get anxious, fear and stagnation are running the show.
The current situation, with the constant news of fuel prices and cost of living brings with it a great potential for anxiety and shutting down - it's something that is on people's minds a lot, it is in the news a lot and therefore its voice becomes loud in our consciousness, just like Covid did. And of course it is real, it's not an imaginary thing!
How can mindfulness and nature connection help with these difficult times we are living in?
One of the biggest parts of mindfulness training is looking at how we react to what is happening in our lives and what our habits of worry and anxiety may be. It shines a light on things we may not be aware are optional, e.g. the level to which we may have anxious and worrying thoughts. These thoughts can rule our lives without us even knowing it, news storylines (especially negative ones, because we have an automatic, biological and chemical tendency to favour negative stories) can become our worry and anxiety thoughts and can also trigger other unsupportive stories to emerge. What mindfulness is, in so many ways, is bringing our awareness to the stories that are taking up most of our minds and helping us to make a choice about them, because what we choose to focus on creates the reality we live in.
Hence my offer of support
Nature work - this is just a beautiful way to ground yourself in what's happening now, as a complimentary focus to mindful awareness. What does that mean? Once again, it's all about our state, where our focus is going. When we spend time in the natural world, with intention and curiosity, the world opens up for us and we begin to see that we are strongly connected. This in turn helps us find meaning in being a human animal whose natural habitat is always there! Here's an example: When we were in the first wave of Covid I was working a lot. I was running a veg delivery business which quadrupled, practically overnight. It was chaos adjusting and I did feel like the world was ending, like the tsunami of Covid was coming to wash us all away! I felt like I was in the thick of it, bringing food to vulnerable, shielding people and that sort of thing, feeling the great panic people were going through about not being able to get food, etc. One night I sneaked out from my house, with my rucksack and went for a sleep out in the hills. I got in my bivvy bag, lay down facing the sky and then I felt it - a wave of calm washed over me and stayed there. The natural world was unaffected by Covid, as we were. The calmness and steadiness of nature, adapting, being just how it is, in movement and stillness, helped ground me immensely, showed me a deeper support I needed and I witnessed my own anxiety and fear as a passing thing, not a concrete truth, as I had been feeling.
And so, my offer to you, or anyone in your life, who you think would benefit:
I am offering free or pay-what-you-feel places on my courses. I am also open to exchange if you have a skill or service you think you could offer in exchange for a course. This is open to everyone.
This is my 'answer' to the cost of living crisis. I want to help people feel more grounded and capable in an unpredictable world. I want to help people see that when we take care of our minds we can have a more fulfilling life, regardless of what's happening - it just takes a little bit of bravery and commitment to learn a few things. I am here, right now offering these things, what I consider life skills, asking only for your participation in return.
Get in touch and let's get you booked in! :-)
Equally, if you can think of a person who might find this useful then please forward it to them. It is not just restricted to members of this mailing list (although I do consider you all to be special :))so please share this with someone who you think would benefit.
The only requirement is to be able to put the time in to do either:
Mindfulness Training, starting 2nd November 6-8pm, ending 21st December. https://endless-river.org/mindfulness-training/
Meeting Your Nature, Starting 10th November 7.30 -9pm, ending 15th December https://endless-river.org/meeting-your-nature/
I guarantee both these courses will be transformative experiences for those willing to go a little deeper.
This is my offering, with an open heart and the will for people to find supportive tools and practices and bring awareness to the burden that anxiety can bring into our lives.