I’m excited to be offering an in-person workshop in partnership with Wings of Change and Liminal Space, in Presteigne, Wales. The workshop runs 10am-5pm on Sunday, 3rd December in the Assembly Rooms on Broad Street. The workshop is £50 for the day, with discounted spaces available.
This workshop is based on The Work That Reconnects, which is is a transformational body of theory and practice, helping people move from a sense of isolation to a sense of participation in the web of life.
“As a society, we are caught between a sense of impending apocalypse and the fear of acknowledging it. In this 'caught' place our responses are blocked and confused…. On one level we maintain a more or less upbeat capacity to carry on as usual…. and all the while, underneath, there is this inchoate knowledge that our world could go at any moment. Awesome and unprecedented in the history of humanity, it lurks there, with an anguish beyond the naming. Unless we find ways of acknowledging and integrating that level of anguished awareness, we repress it; and with that repression, we are drained of the energy we need for action and clear thinking.” Joanna Macy.
The Work provides practices and perspectives drawn from systems science, Deep Ecology, and many spiritual traditions that elicit our existential connectivity with the web of life through space and time. The central purpose of the Work That Reconnects is to bring us back into relationship with ourselves, with each other and with the earth, motivating and empowering us to reclaim our lives, our communities, and our planet in the face of the destruction caused by endless greed and growth.
During this one day workshop I will guide you through the “spiral”, which helps us to face the challenges of the world with new eyes and a sense of rootedness, belonging and energy. The spiral begins with gratitude - what are we grateful for having witnessed and experienced in this world? Then, we honour our pain for the world. All too often we bury and ignore our pain, numbing ourselves because the cost of feeling it is too high. By allowing the pain to speak, we also realise that we are capable of feeling for something far beyond our ‘selves’ as we have come to perceive them. Recognising our interconnectedness to life, we begin to perceive with new and ancient eyes, recognising our place in the web of life alongside, not above, our fellow beings and recognising the importance of connecting with our ancestors and with future generations. Finally, we look at what is calling us to go forth into the world.
On a more practical level, here’s what to expect:
*Emotional sharing in pairs, small groups, and in the main circle, some of which may be ‘in character’ (nobody is obliged to share if they don’t feel comfortable doing so)
*Guided meditation
*Journalling or drawing (again, no obligation to share or to participate)
*Some movement (walking, stretching)
*Some lecture-style input with interactive discussion