Roots of Resilience: The Power of Nature Connection

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21 to 28 Sept 2024

Connecting with the power of nature to defend the earth

Resilience is all about connection: Deeper connection with our self, deeper connections with each other, and deeper connection with nature. Today we face immense challenges – social, ecological and political. We can be daunted by the scale and extent of the problems. We can feel overwhelmed and undermined. Where can we find the resilience and strength needed to meet them?Ā How can we stay rooted in a wider connection with nature so we stay inspired to engage passionately in these times?

This courseĀ brings nature connection, meditation and mindfulness into relationship with activism and social change. We ask: How can we draw on the power of the heart, the fire of the imagination, and the dynamism of the body to empower social change through nature connection?

Nature connection work can help us to bring forth an ecological consciousness – an empowering sense of connection and identity that affirms our solidarity with life.Ā Deeper nature connection can be a source of nourishment, empowerment, and wisdom. It can help us to live fully present in our times. As the Shambala Mind Training Verses say: ā€œRemember that you are the inheritor of the strengths of thousands of generations of life.ā€

This course will help us to remember – to regain the power and nourishment that comes from recollecting who we are and what we are part of. We understand the transformative and integrative power of immersion in non-human nature. We want to support others to re-connect with that source of nourishment, well-being, and inspiration.

This course is for activists, organisers, and people involved in other forms of social change work.It is especially suitable for people committed to action in solidarity with the earth, working for climate justice, environmental protection and a transition to sustainable societies. ItĀ will support participants to spend time out in the wilds connecting with the teachings nature offers. We use tools such as mindfulness practice and meditation in conjunction with elements of bushcraft, nature based education, systems theory and group process, as well as ecological and evolutionary learning, and solo time in wild nature.

Connection with wild nature is an important aid to developing an ecological sensibility and sense of connection with the web of life. This can support action towards a sustainable future for all. These experiences can be nourishing, enriching, and can demand that we radically re-orientate our sense of who and what we are. This course will help us to remember and refuel – to regain the power and nourishment that comes from recollecting who we are and what we are part of.

The course will be hosted at our site in Catalunya, in an extraordinary and wild place. From this supportive base, Nature Based Practice and Learning can help us step out of the human-centred world for a while – to wander deep into tangled woodland, to lie on mossy rocks, to sit in limestone caves, to traverse lofty ridges, and to loll on the edge of trickling streams. There we find something else.

Who is it aimed at?

Anyone with on-going experience of action for social change: those involved in direct action, on-going campaign work, community empowerment and anyone involved in socially engaged action addressing ecological, political and social justice issues.Ā We embrace a broad definition of activism, including: Resistance – action preventing further damage to ecosystems and social justice; Renewal – action focused on developing and creating alternatives for healthier societies and communities; and Building Resilience – action supporting increased resilience in communities to weather the uncertain times ahead.

To support this we will be exploring and sharing a range of relevant methodologies, design principles, and specific tools. These include:

  • Creating frameworks for deep reflection, analysis, and the sharing of experience.
  • Learning to broaden our sphere of awareness and minimise our sphere of disturbance, so that we can learn from our natural surroundings.
  • Training in techniques for observation and understanding of the natural systems we live in.
  • The application of participatory and experiential learning to sustainable activism.
  • Methods of opening up and holding spaces for exploring the emotional dimensions of activist experience – including strong and difficult emotion.
  • Exploring group dynamics and tendencies: creating safer spaces to support deep personal learning and transformation.
  • Experientially re-membering how ecological consciousness arises through relationship, as an emergent property between humans and the wider natural world.
  • Explore how to read the landscape and understand its stories, revealing the deep-time processes which connect us with a vast evolutionary journey and reflecting on the human story and our own individual place in the unique times we are living though.
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Suggested Contribution
€300/€500/€950

(See details of our approach to radical economics here)

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Equip

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Sergio

Germany

Location:

Germany

Sergio (all pronouns) was born in Romania and migrated to Germany in the early 2010s. In the past, he was a social worker with homeless people and a social consultant for Eastern European migrants for various organisations. Trained as a filmmaker, he spent two years making a documentary about the ā€˜civic reawakening’ in Romania and the waves of protest it brought with it. In connection to this, Sergio is currently co-steering the development of an online open-source participative knowledge production platform on activism in Romania. Over the past nine years, Sergiu has offered his skills to various journalists, grassroots collectives and campaigns, mostly working within the labour rights, climate justice, international solidarity and anti-authoritarian movements in Germany and Romania. Nonetheless, his biggest focus since 2020 has been his work as an organiser with the anarcho-syndicalist Free Workers Union, where he focuses mostly on organising Romanian migrant workers on construction sites, in factories and in the agricultural field.

Linzy Na Nakorn

Location:

Jeroen

Location:

Ella

Location:

Alex Swain

Location:

Nina Scott

Location:

Pròxims Cursos

El nostre Nom

Ulex: del LlatĆ­, (argelaga en catalĆ ) nom:

1. Arbust espinós de fulla perenne i floració, amb gran capacitat de regeneració i resistĆØncia. Les seves pues s’obren en entrar en contacte amb el foc i torna a brollar dels tocones carbonitzats. Planta successional que creix bĆ© en condicions difĆ­cils. Millora la fertilitat del sòl mitjanƧant la fixació de nitrogen, preparant el terreny per a una renovada biodiversitat.

2. Una opció tradicional per a encendre focs. Crema amb intensitat i lluentor.

3. Un projecte en xarxa que aporta nutrició i fertilitat als moviments socials europeus a través de la formació