Alan Heeks, Author at Seeding Our Future - Page 12 of 19

Digging deeper into local food

July 31, 2024December 14, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Online briefing and discussion:Tuesday January 12, 7.00-8.30pm Organised and hosted by Transition Town Bridport and Seeding our Future Our food supply is more fragile than it appears. Some 40% of our food comes from abroad,and depends on good harvests, stable climate and frictionless borders. Covid, ClimateChange and Brexit are make feeding Britain even more precarious. … Read more

Working with Nature in Mind

March 18, 2021December 10, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Reclaiming our mental health and well-being through systemic thinking and ecopsychology practice. Guest blog by Roger Duncan We are currently living in strange and unsettling times, where it seems that contemporary culture is sleepwalking into a spiralling series of human and ecological disasters. Despite an endless succession of intellectual debates and technological fixes, the future … Read more

Exploring Super Resilience

March 18, 2021December 4, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Alan describes how we all need resilience and learning from nature can help us.

The Seven Seeds of Natural Happiness

March 18, 2021November 29, 2020 by Alan Heeks

How can you stay happy when there’s too much change and uncertainty? Are there ways to bounce back and thrive if life is getting you down? Natural Happiness uses skills from gardening and organic farming to help you cultivate your own wellbeing. The Seven Seeds approach grows from Alan Heeks’ experience of creating gardens, a … Read more

Resource Toolkit: Personal Energy Audit

March 18, 2021November 29, 2020 by Alan Heeks

This can be a powerful process to help you understand your sources and uses of physical, emotional, mental and inspirational energy. Gardeners and farmers manage the energy mix for their land, and you can do this for your personal ecosystem. Asking yourself “How’s my energy?” may be too loose to be useful. When professionals … Read more

Resource Toolkit: Creative Conflict Resolution

March 18, 2021November 29, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Many challenges involve conflict. This process is one I’ve used often myself, and have taught in training groups. You can use the gist in minor conflict, and the full process in major ones. Here we move on to human skills which can help you to compost difficult situations. We often regard conflicts as bad, or … Read more

Mapping your wild margins

March 18, 2021November 29, 2020 by Alan Heeks

This matrix can help you recognise and value wild margins in yourself, or you could use it for a group such as a work team. Start by listing a few activities, skills, interests which may seem marginal and unproductive. Then explore how they could help you, and how you can sustain and integrate them. Download … Read more

Getting Centered Amid Confusion: The Treeheart Process

March 18, 2021November 29, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Life and work get more confusing year by year, and that’s unlikely to stop in future. Spending time in Nature is a great way to reduce its stress and find clarity, but what do you do when you have to make a decision, in your workplace or at home, within the next few minutes? The … Read more

Friendship Tips

March 18, 2021November 29, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Cultivating a garden takes some dedication and skill, and friendships need this too. One of the big improvements in my 50s and 60s has been more and better friendships. These friendships oil the gearbox of life: lubricating changes and crises which could be overwhelming. They also top the cake, through the pleasures of companionship and … Read more

Cycles of progress map

March 18, 2021November 29, 2020 by Alan Heeks

Natural Happiness Resource This tool is an invitation to map your progress over time, including the ups and downs, and to celebrate both, and see if there are any cycles involved. During my 20 years in business management and my Harvard MBA studies, progress was always defined as linear and upwards. Nobody had good ways … Read more

Faith, Hope, Resilience | Saturday November 9

A reflective day With Alan Heeks and Simon Lockett How can we find our steady centre in these uncertain times? Where do we place our faith and our hope? What would spiritual resilience look like, for us and our communities? This day of exploration and support will include times of prayer, meditation and sharing, with periods outside for walking contemplation as a micro pilgrimage, and for communing with Nature as a micro vision quest: recognising the power of space and silence. Our venue is Garn Farm, a conservation smallholding and woodland near Longtown, in a beautiful valley overlooking the Black Mountains. We’ll have a warm indoor group room with woodburner and kitchen, and wonderful spaces outside. See more at www.warmthandwonder.co.uk. Alan Heeks has many years’ experience exploring Nature and faith as sources of resilience, and is deeply interested in how communities can deepen to help us adapt to climate change. Simon Lockett is a pioneer in re-introducing pilgrimage to Herefordshire, and has a long-standing love for contemplative prayer and spiritual connection with the natural world. Practicalities Cost: £40, concessions £25. Bring lunch to share. Timing: Arrive 9.30am for 10am start. Finish 4.30pm. Venue: Garn Farm, near Clodock, Longtown, Herefordshire HR2 0PD. There is some overnight accommodation at Garn Farm: contact Alan about this. Bookings/enquiries: Contact Alan Heeks, , 07494 203014. Group size limited to 12 people.
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Nourishing body and soul
Reinventing spiritual community We live in a time of impending crisis, when I hear many people urging the need for sanctuary, hospicing, and a deeper sense of community. Implicit in such words, but rarely discussed, is the huge spiritual vacuum in our relentlessly materialistic society. Role models for what we need aren’t obvious, but I’d like to describe some of the spiritual communities which have inspired me. Walking the Camino San Benedetto in Italy for two weeks, I’ve learned what a crucial role monasteries played in the chaos of medieval Italy. Amid times of frequent civil strife, sickness and uncertainty, the monasteries were places of support, trust, stability. They would mediate in disputes, provide food and health care, and just as importantly, nourished the soul. Whilst there was some corruption in monasteries too, this shouldn’t blind us to the ways they mostly served. A Ricostruttori monastery One of the reasons I have found Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation approach so valuable is that he sees the climate crisis as a spiritual crisis: it calls into question the meaning and purpose of our lives, and asks us to face into our mortality. I’ve been exploring spiritual paths for 30 years, so I’m painfully aware of how original teachings have been distorted and overlaid by patriarchal religion, in Christianity and other faiths. Many people miss out because they confuse spirituality with religion, and reject both. One modern role model which may be relevant is the Findhorn Foundation: this is a spiritual community in Scotland where the main shared practices are silent meditation and connection with Nature. It’s an inclusive, welcoming place for people of all faiths and none. This was the approach we followed when six of us set up a ‘spiritual’ cohousing community in 2004, the Threshold Centre. Here’s another role model, also from Italy, which is a modern reinvention of the monastery as a welcoming spiritual community with a Christian core and an interfaith flavour. The Ricostruttori di Pace (Reconstructors of Peace) were founded in 1978 by a Jesuit priest, Father Cappelletto, who wanted to offer a spiritual path for young people, very different from mainstream Catholicism. He drew on Eastern spirituality through meditation, as well as devotional movement. A Ricostruttori monastery I have visited one of their 30 monasteries several times, and find it very inspiring. The Ricostruttori take on derelict rural buildings with land, restore them beautifully, grow much of their food, and practise crafts like stained glass and fine woodwork. My impression of the Ricostruttori is that they are living as Jesus lived: in poverty, simplicity, and close to the land. A typical monastery will have two or three ‘monks’, who have taken vows of poverty and chastity, and include men and women, plus a lay community of 20-30 people, mostly young, who may live there for weeks, months or years. In our current crisis times, I believe there’s a widespread thirst for spiritual meaning and purpose, but most people don’t know where to turn. Although there is a new monasticism movement, I believe that monasteries feel too remote, otherworldly, and formal for most people. Instead, I am exploring a vision to create a Searching Spirit Centre, which would be an accessible spiritual community to support people in their exploration, staying for a week to six months. See our vision statement here. If this vision appeals to you, and you’d like to help create it, please contact me.
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