Keeping Hope Alive: Fanning the Embers (......even when it feels futile)

'Being hopeful is really just an understanding that you can do a little something good today, and a little something good tomorrow, and the day after, and that, together, these things will accumulate relentlessly. This is do-it-yourself hope. It is different from a wish. It is active and powerful, and entirely within your control, whatever else is happening.' Laura Barton

Keeping Hope Alive: Fanning the Embers (...even when it feels futile)

A small group journey for 8 people over five weeks, offering strengthening practices, supporting our capacity to cope with our global predicament and find our best responses to it.

In these times, we face extreme global realities that can be difficult and painful to cope with and far from easy to respond to positively.

This five-week journey offers strengthening practises, supporting our capacity to cope with our global predicament and find our best responses to it.

Drawing on the foundations of the Work That Reconnects, Active Hope is a practice, like yoga or mindfulness, that can support us in playing our own unique role in bringing about the brighter future we’re longing for.

It’s not about having hope, or being hopeful, which might be considered naive, given the world we’re living in. We’ll be exploring authentic hope -  what we do and what motivates us - rather than a quality that we either have or don’t have...

 Active Hope is how we support the future we hope for in our world.  It takes the form of a spiral journey in four stages:

1 - Gratitude –  Reciprocity is a powerful motivator: the experiences we haveof receiving from others increase our desire to give back. And if we pay attention to the many ways we receive from our world, particularly the natural world, we may feel inspired to contribute and express our love and gratitude for life.

2 - How we deal with our painful feelings about world events – this culture conditions us to avoid uncomfortable feelings which can lead us to turn away from looking closely at world issues, or maybe to burn out when we try to address them and get nowhere. Hearing each other share our concerns and feelings, we can strengthen our ability to face and respond well to our global predicament. And then we can draw energy from our emotional reactions rather than being overwhelmed by them.

3 - Reframing the way we think about power – if we believe that an issue is beyond our power to do anything about it, this can fuel our feelings of resignation, alienation or powerlessness. So the ‘seeing with new eyes’, third stage of the spiral changes the story of power, seeing it as something that happens through us all, through our choices and our actions, in a collaborative and interconnected way.

4 - Going forth and giving our unique gift of active hope– here we can learn and practice the skill of visioning future possibilities that inspire and motivate us, and then take achievable steps in that possible future direction.

In summary, Active Hope is a three-step practice looking at:

-  where we are,

- where we want to go,

- and how we can strengthen ourselves for the journey there.

The overall aim of this journey is to help each participant develop their own practice of Active Hope. When you bring forth your own unique gift in the world,you may inspire others around you, while strengthening yourself and supporting thriving life on Earth.

“It was nourishing meeting others & connecting with myself so I can see clearly what is mine to do, what is not” - Ruth

“Being in the presence of others’ passion and sense of purpose brought a sense of shared-ness, solidarity which was hope-giving”  - Carrie

The course will include:

• Five, two-hour live sessions on Zoom
• Home practice, such as keeping a journal
• A private forum for sharing insights & learning
• A follow-up, 45-minute, one-to-one session with Karen, to integrate learning

Dates and times: Tuesdays, February, 15 and 22, March 1st, 8th and 15th  4:30 to 6:30 pm GMT, 5:30 to 7:30 pm CET, 8:30 to 10:30 PST

Cost: is on a sliding scale of £100,  £130 or £150, on a pay as you feel basis. There is one scholarship place for someone who is strongy drawn to this work but can't afford it. Please email hello@beinginnature.net if you wish to apply for a scholarship, outlining your reasons.

I expect this programme to book up quickly, so please get in touch if you’re interested.

“Your opponents would love you to believe that it's hopeless, that you have no power, that there's no reason to act, that you can't win. Hope is a gift you don't have to surrender, a power you don't have to throw away.”  - Rebecca Solnit