Responding to the call: Rekindling community and reawakening wisdom for times of upheaval
A one-day workshop in Bristol, UK, exploring how we might collectively respond to the times we find ourselves in. Sliding scale £50-80
CANCELLED - Due to low attendance, we have had to cancel this event. However, if you’re interested in signing up for a future in person event, please fill in the form here: https://forms.gle/Z4EiMS4y9pmDUWkV8
As we look out into the world, it can sometimes feel as if we are living in completely different place from where we started - the climate emergency, political upheaval, economic instability, and potential collapse of all the systems we have taken for granted until now. How can we orient ourselves and make sense of such a world? What do these times ask of us?
Nobody has navigated anything on this scale before, and so nobody can offer a tried-and-tested formula for getting through whatever is coming. What we do know is that countless people - both those alive today and those who came before us - have ways of resourcing themselves during times of upheaval and change. We cannot ask for hope that everything will stay the same, or that somebody will somehow save the day - we know, deep in our gut, that something big is coming. Something that will either destroy us, or completely change the way we live.
What brought us here, to this precipice? Our dominant culture feeds on endless growth at the cost of all else - surely there is another way?
The Work that Reconnects weaves together ancient wisdom with new ways of imagining the kind of world that we could co-create together. Its creator, Joanna Macy, has been refining the work for over fifty years - helping us to uncover a deep connection to our own inner voice, to our communities, and to the Earth which sustains us: a connection that ‘business as usual’ has all but wiped from our memories. The Work takes us through a process known as the spiral - firstly, helping us to ground ourselves through gratitude and appreciation, before opening a courageous space where can honour our pain for the world. We then allow ourselves to perceive things with new (and ancient) eyes, before reorienting ourselves and asking how we will go forward from what we have discovered together.
In practical terms, the Work that Reconnects offers poetry, guided meditation, free writing, visualisaitons, roleplay, embodiment and creativity that allows us to connect to something deeper within ourselves. It is a powerful community practice that reminds us that while we may be facing dark and difficult times, we do not face them alone.
During this workshop, we’ll get the chance to sense into what a different way might feel like - a way more grounded in connection, community, and clarity.
Hosted by:
Gwyneth Jones: Gwyneth is a facilitator and coach navigating the place where Deep Adaptation, climate change, psychology and earth-based spirituality meet. She has recently returned to her homeland of North Wales and is studying the Bardic grade through the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, as well as working to help communities in Wales to tackle the climate emergency through her day job. Gwyneth also likes to write long articles and interview people on podcasts, such as her latest The Story Anew, which looks at how humanity might start to tell a different story (or return to a more ancient one) (www.gwynethjones.coach).
Becky Watkins: Becky offers spaces that bring people into community: being present with the grief and distress about the multiple crises of our times while cultivating connection, resilience and opportunity to re-imagine of a way forward. She has trained with Good Grief Network, facilitated climate cafes for the Climate Psychology Alliance and has a background in clinical psychology, providing psychotherapy and teaching mindfulness. She brings with her many years of a personal meditation and focusing practice in addition to training in relational mindfulness. As well as being a lover of mythology, dance, music, play, song and the more-than-human, in her life she also gives much heart and soul to the single-parenting of two school-aged children. All of this inspires, challenges and nourishes the creativity and possibility that she brings to the work.
More information at www.beckywatkins.co.uk