Rising Tide: the inner journey through stormy times | January 22, 19:00-20:30 UK time

How meaning gives us inner strength

Our guest presenter will be Alan Heeks, on the theme How meaning gives us inner strength. For many years, Alan has explored how we can cultivate inner or soul resilience to live with and grow through the climate crisis: see more at www.soulresilience.net. He set up Hazel Hill Wood retreat centre, and offers insights on how deep Nature contact nourishes us.

Booking: this event is free, but you need to reserve a place, and group size is limited. To book, click here.

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Current Events

Inner strength for stormy times: how soul resilience helps | November 25

Wednesday, November 25 7.00 – 8.00pm UK time: free webinar with Alan Heeks This interactive workshop will help you explore what soul resilience could mean for you: what your spirit or higher self wants for you, how to find some steadiness and clarity amid the climate crisis and digital overwhelm, and ways to nourish your inner self. Alan has been exploring this issue for 30 years, and the webinar draws on his forthcoming book: Soul Resilience: inner strength for climate anxiety and digital overwhelm. Free, but advance booking essential. Group size limited to 24 people. To apply for your free place, follow this link.

Light in the Darkness | November 13–15

A men’s peer group in the Welsh hills 13–15 November 2026 | Trwyn Tal, Llanthony Valley, Wales This weekend is a chance to find your light and nourish it, in the face of the darkening season and the worries of the world. We will draw support from the fellowship of the group and the magical landscapes of the Llanthony Valley. This will be a peer group for a maximum of six men, enabled by Alan Heeks and Mark Smalley. The weekend may include group processes, walking, meditation, solo time and enjoying each other’s company over shared meals. We hope to gather younger and older men so that we can share insights and support across generations. Our venue: Trwyn Tal in the Llanthony Valley, Wales Accommodation: £190 for men aged over 35 or on a higher income; £90 for men under 35 or on a low income. Food purchases and cooking will be shared. Travel: Pick-up may be available from Bristol, Abergavenny or Hay-on-Wye. For more information or to book, contact Mark Smalley: or 07764 335 688 DOWNLOAD FULL DETAILS

A Sufi Garden – Monthly Online Group

Wednesday, November 4, 2026 7.30 – 9pm: free online event The Sufi Garden is a life-affirming evening of meditation, body prayer and poems, led by Alan Heeks and Karim Hadden. No previous experience needed. The theme for November 4 is: Greeting life with gratitude: Rumi reminds us that sorrow prepares us for joy and compares being human to being a guest house where, he advises, we should be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. In this evening, through our usual combination of dance, song and embodied spiritual practices we will both acknowledge our sorrows and open ourselves to the transformative power of gratitude to harmonize the music of our lives and increase our capacity to live in community with joy and courage. For more information and registration, see here.

Featured Blog

Visit Thrutopia at Hazel Hill Wood

Unlike the rose or gloom of utopia and dystopia, Thrutopia offers visions of a fairly positive and possible future, which recognises the chaos we’re in currently. Mostly Thrutopia is found in books and movies, but you can also find it in a magical Wiltshire wood. Hazel Hill is the 70-acre conservation wood and off-grid retreat centre which I created, and in 2015 gifted to an educational charity. Hazel Hill Trust runs a range of its own events, and hosts a variety of other groups too. If you stay at the wood, you are pretty cut off from both the conveniences and the distractions of modern life. As back-to-the-land communities all realise, living simply and sustainably is satisfying, but it’s hard work. At Hazel Hill, your carbon footprint is a fraction of the UK norm, but you forego some comfort to get there. This is a Thrutopian scenario, because you’re living in harmony with a thriving ecosystem, mostly using renewable resources. Here’s the picture in more detail: Instead of central heating that you never think about, heating and hot water uses timber from the wood, but you need to bring logs in, light the fires, and top them up. Electricity usage is minimal: low-voltage lights, with pv panels and batteries. The backup generator runs on vegetable oil. The only mains connection is for water, but usage is low, because all the toilets are composting. All meals are shared, so food is used efficiently, and waste is minimised. Groups become communities very quickly, because they have to share the work of looking after themselves. So if you’d like a taste of a positive future, along with its demands, come to Hazel Hill Wood. It’s a beautiful wood, teeming with wildflowers and wildlife: www.hazelhill.org.

Rising Tide: the inner journey through stormy times | January 22, 19:00-20:30 UK time

How meaning gives us inner strength

Related posts:

Fellowship and hope: gathering strength with Nature

Woodland Resilience Immersion Retreat For Doctors

Practical local climate change responses