Resilience and wisdom to stay happy in the years ahead
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
A different approach to future happiness One of my big life-changing experiences was co-leading a dozen retreats in the Tunisian Sahara with Bedouin guides. They had grown up as true nomads, moving around the desert with their camels and goats, but now living mostly in a town because many desert wells had dried up. Our … Read more
An Easter retreat on Caldey island I marked Easter with a five-day retreat at Caldey Abbey, a Cistercian monastery on a small island off the Pembrokeshire coast. It’s hard to evoke the depth of devotional atmosphere on an island with a monastic focus for 1500 years, and in an Abbey with several services daily for … Read more
Improving food security and affordable housing supply There’s a widespread view that strengthening local communities will be crucial in the years ahead, to help us all to adapt to increasing levels of disruption, including food supplies, utilities, weather patterns, and more. One way to speed up this process is to create garden hamlets, which would … Read more
We have a small team of Advocates who can design and facilitate a wide range of events and sessions using Alan Heeks’ Natural Happiness approach, both in person and online. For groups, these are usually participative workshops where people can learn by experience, lasting from 90 minutes to 2 hours, or a full day. For … Read more
April 19-21, 2024 at Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking, Stroud In these uncertain times, this workshop will help you deepen your roots and grow your resilience. With sessions in Hawkwood’s gardens, you’ll experience how organic skills like composting, mulching, and co-creativity can feed your wellbeing amid daily stresses and big issues like climate change. Based … Read more
Like me, you may be finding the Israel-Gaza crisis unbearable. There is so much anguish in the atmosphere, and most of us have a gnawing sense of helplessness. So how can we live with intolerably painful situations like this? There are no easy ways, but I’d like to share my experience. Life these days … Read more
Why down to earth beats fishtank modernity This is a very helpful, illuminating book, though not in the ways I hoped. The idea of ‘solutions’ to the climate crisis is long gone for me, but I am thirsty for guidance on practical adaptation in local communities. Dougald’s book only hints at this, but it has … Read more
Mutual support and higher guidance for uncertain times The worsening climate crisis, as well as Ukraine and other situations, are a valid reason for alarm, bewilderment, and other difficult feelings, and… this is also a chance to find mutual support and take positive action amid the turbulence. The idea of the Fellowship Circle is to offer a safe and creative … Read more