Alan Heeks, Author at Seeding Our Future

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

September 25, 2026 by Alan Heeks

Light in the Darkness | November 13–15

September 25, 2026 by Alan Heeks

Social Skills 101

September 25, 2026September 25, 2026 by Alan Heeks

There are learnable skills which can make our relationships with other people and groups run easier. This is a short introduction to a big topic: you’ll find extra resources below if you’d like to explore further. Communications A lot of conflict and stress arises because people can’t express how they feel, or don’t believe they’ve … Read more

An introduction to Soul Resilience

August 31, 2026 by Alan Heeks

If you hope to thrive and grow through your life, not just cope and survive, how will you do this in the stormier times we can see ahead of us? It needs a quantum step up in resilience, and that’s what Soul Resilience could offer you. Exploring the soul’s journey is one of the best … Read more

Climate anxiety: learning to inhabit it

August 20, 2026 by Alan Heeks

You may call it climate anxiety, distress, overwhelm, or whatever. It keeps getting worse, and faster than expected: it gets me alarmed and unsettled, maybe you too. I’m writing this blog for myself as much as anyone, as part of my long-running search for ways to live with this. There are plenty of good processes … Read more

Are schools teaching what our youth needs to learn?

August 12, 2026 by Alan Heeks

On official life expectancy, today’s teenagers could expect to live into the 2080’s. Do we really think schools are preparing them for the troubles ahead? Changes to the National Curriculum move at glacial speed. A major review is being implemented, reaching classrooms in… 2028. Whilst there are some positive changes, many experts are critical, seeing … Read more

Book blog: The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

July 8, 2026 by Alan Heeks

Book blog: The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett You’re unlikely to find this delightful, uplifting book in lists of Thrutopian fiction, but it deserves a place. Unlike most Thrutopian novels, which paint a detailed picture of an imagined future, The Secret Garden teaches us a vital skill, showing how carrying a positive vision can … Read more

A skimpy guide to Thrutopian fiction

July 8, 2026July 7, 2026 by Alan Heeks

I’ve only just discovered Thrutopia, so this blog highlights the books I’ve read which broadly fit this category. In fact, the term Thrutopian was coined recently, by Rupert Read of the Climate Majority Project, to denote books which explore how humanity might get through the climate crisis. Here are my tips:

Visit Thrutopia at Hazel Hill Wood

May 29, 2026 by Alan Heeks

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 … Read more

The Ministry for the Future: Kim Stanley Robinson

May 20, 2026 by Alan Heeks

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

The Ministry for the Future: Kim Stanley Robinson

A gripping gateway to future possibilities This is a big book in every sense: 576 pages long, spanning decades in time and most parts of the world in place. MFF is often cited as a leading example of Thrutopian fiction: meaning that it offers us a picture of the future which is realistic but at least partly positive. The sheer scale of the book makes it hard to sum up, but also means that it becomes an immersive experience to read it, so you start to inhabit a convincing version of the future. The book is also classed as ‘hard science fiction’, i.e. based on plausible facts. There are many voices in this book, but the main thread is around Mary Murphy, head of the Ministry for the Future, a body set up under the Paris Agreement, which aims to champion the rights and needs of future generations. Seen from the viewpoint of these heavily discounted future beings, the active, manipulative selfishness of big business, the bureaucratic inertia of the international banks (“rulers of the world”, as Mary calls them), and the widespread denial, all feel truly painful, especially as the scale and intensity of climate disaster grows. A catalytic disaster is an extreme heatwave in India, which kills 20 million people within a month, but propels India into becoming a role model of sustainability: closing its coal mines, becoming carbon neutral, moving completely to organic, regenerative agriculture. This sounds a plausible scenario, as do many of its other ideas. During the 2030s, and 2040s, we see climate terrorism becoming widespread, using cheap drones to destroy fossil-fuel systems (e.g. air travel, dirty container ships) and assassinate individuals making big money from polluting activities. Cows across the world are infected with BSE, so meat consumption collapses. The book offers some attractive visions of how technology could step in when fossil-fuelled transport collapses, such as hydrofoil schooners with sails and electric motors coupled with photovoltaic sail fabric, and airships. Overall, what MFF depicts is a future of growing chaos and conflict, in which, slowly and painfully, many right things begin to happen. As confidence in money almost collapses, the international banks at last adopt Mary’s plan for a new carbon currency to reward cutting emissions and not extracting fossil fuels. This is quantitative easing on a huge, global scale, but slowly it works, and atmospheric CO2 finally starts to fall. If, like me, you’d like some glimmers of hope despite the many shades of gloom ahead, I recommend this book. Yes, it’s optimistic, but it is plausible too: progress could happen, and if it does, it will probably have to grow out of things getting worse before they improve, as they do in this book.