Warm Window
This summer has been full of family, work and new things, including camping for a week with a one year old. We hadn't camped for a while so I had forgotten how much joy there is to be had being outdoors (and under canvas) for a whole week. We came back tired but refreshed, making me ask the question "how can I be tired and refreshed at the same time?" A change is as good as a rest, I hear my mother saying, in my mind. I would have preferred to just rest to be honest, but my strongest feeling is that it was simply being outdoors for the full week that brought me back to myself. Afterwards, being indoors quickly felt somewhat oppressive. It became so easy to fall back into habits of checking stuff online and becoming subsumed by indoor life and its fridge, cooker and copious comforts.
All the key ingredients of disconnection.
It's my choice, of course, so I'm almost OK with it all! In fact, I feel it's a good thing to name the disconnecting things in my life. I look at my smartphone and go "this thing has the potential to destroy my mental well being." Of course, that's not all I feel about the phone but I regularly acknowledge the danger of the smartphone as a disconnecting element in my life. So I would suggest you ask yourself what the things in your life are that disconnect you from both feeling ok and being connected to the wider world (not web). And it's about practicing compassion towards your relationship with these things, appreciating their usefulness and perhaps seeing how you can pare down dependency. See how you get on! If it helps, go camping for a week, first!
Silent Running
This coming Saturday I'll be running a nature connection workshop at what will be a beautiful sensory event at the magical Analogue Farm in Whitworth, based in and around their newly made biodome. It will be an afternoon and evening of meditation music, visual and environmental connection with artists and musicians and visual storytellers. It costs a fiver and you can get tickets from here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/silent-running-faire-tickets-399387608087. Please come, it will be a great way to celebrate this autumn's coming!
Meeting Your Nature
My latest offering is a 6 week nature and mindfulness combo, a powerful mix! From working with people this year I see the benefit that the mindfulness teaching I've been doing filters into the nature connection work. People have been having deep, connecting experiences in a short time. The idea is that we try stuff out and explore different aspects in the evening workshops and then you take them into your own wild in your own way. Nature connection is such a personal experience and I truly believe that we all need to create our own language and conversation with the natural world. That's the beauty of connection, it can be completely made up, borrowed or stolen, there is no 'way' - only your way. I will help provide a place for exploration and bring in some ideas, concepts and practical help - the rest will be up to you.
To find out more or to book please get in touch. I'm happy to have a chat about iton the phone or whatever. I want more people to find a supportive natural world relationship so I invite you, wholeheartedly to join this group. I have made it as affordable as I can. More info here https://endless-river.org/meeting-your-nature/
A Book
My summer holiday reading was "Changing Our Minds - Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy" by Don Lattin.
As someone who is very much into healing and insight, psychedelics have brought about some of the most important realisations and feelings of connectedness in my life - you can even read about it in my book
Changing Our Minds presents a many valid arguments for the use of psychedelics in the therapeutic setting, especially in the treatment of trauma. There has been a lot of research happening for the past couple of decades into these effects and the book is full of case studies and also explains the history of the criminalisation of these drugs. It's a fascinating story and demonstrates to me how we can misunderstand the source of positive healing experiences and how through the manipulation of the media, we were left with the stories that these 'drugs' are 'bad'. If anything, the opposite is true. This book is a journalistic exploration of the stories of LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine as healing media, the people who brought them into the healing space and their genuine wish for them to be used to heal and bring insight and connection into people's lives. Beautiful stuff. Check it out.
Wishing you the ability to ride the waves of life and find ways to support yourself.
Alan