8 Week Online Course – Starting 26th April – Wednesdays 19.00-20.30 (UK time)
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“The future will belong to the nature-smart, those individuals, families, businesses, and political leaders who develop a deeper understanding of the transformative power of the natural world and who balance the virtual with the real. The more high-tech we become, the more nature we need.”
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Richard Louv- Author- Last Child In The Woods and The Nature Principle
Why
For as long as humans have existed we have had the potential to be as alert and in tune with the web of life as all other creatures on the Earth. At one time we needed to be this alert to stay alive. Nowadays whilst we don’t need this level of awareness for survival we do have an inbuilt need for nature connection and the deep awareness that comes from knowing and feeling being a part of the interconnected web of life.
Connection to ourselves, connection to other humans and connection to the other-than-human world is a necessity for us to thrive with awareness, meaning and purpose in modern times.
We all want to be able to care for the land, our loved ones and ourselves but our busy lives just don’t seem to allow for this and our education system has not prepared us with the skills we need to live with our natural awareness potential. Our senses and our brains are designed for a much higher level of awareness than modern day life requires of us. The skills that allow us to be so connected have not been lost however, we still have deep intuitive potential within each of us that just need to be re-awakened. With a little guidance, time and intention we can step more wholly into our fully alive self.
“We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense.”
Richard Louv.
What
Join us for an 8 week online course to deepen our relationships to our inner and outer nature.
Together we will draw on Adrian’s training with Way of Nature and community building and Leona’s experience of Eco-psychology, tools of Cultural Emergence and the Eight Shields Model of nature connection.
The course is designed to give you a blend of practical insights, tools and deep time-tested practices to help you gain a deeper sense of who you are in the world and how you can live with a fully embodied sense of meaning and purpose.
Over the eight week programme we will introduce practices that can be integrated into your everyday life. Through experiencing the practices at home and sharing our experiences with the group we will deepen our potential to be more fully activated human beings, aligned with life, effective and fulfilled.
The course is structured around 8 weekly modules. Each module will be a deep dive into a core practice that will support you in awakening you to your highest potential as a human.
During each module, we will inquire as a group using Way of Council, as well as in dyads and triads in breakout rooms. Between calls, there will be an invitation to put into action the core practices we are awakening. You will need to be able to set aside some time each week for journaling and home-‘play’ activities in nature.
We will also share a resource list including talks, books, articles and podcasts to supplement and support inquiry.
The Programme Will:
– Connect you with a community of like minded individuals also seeking a life of awareness, meaning and purpose
– Teach you some deep practices to help you become more present and aware in every day life
– Help you in deepening your connection to nature
– Motivate you within a community to take the time you need to integrate the core practices
– Support you in exploring your passions and your edges (the areas where there is room for growth)
– Help you to understanding what you need to do to feel more fully alive in the everyday and how to translate that into your, home and work life.
The Core Practices Include (and are not limited to):
– Mind’s eye imagining (Strengthening imagination & change brain patterns)
– Sit spot practice (Intentional nature-based connection practice)
– Expanding sensory awareness
– Wandering (Allowing yourself to be led by intuition)
– Inner and outer mapping
– Story of the day (Build your awareness and noticing muscles)
– Gratitude
– Journaling
When
Online sessions will be held online on Wednesdays 19:00-20:30pm (UK time) for 8 weeks from the 26th April until 14th June 2023.
Registration
The cost of the 8-week Cultivating Awareness course is £175.
Please follow this link to book:
https://buytickets.at/wayofnature/888333
Guides
Adrian Kowal
Adrian is passionate about the wellbeing of the whole. He is a social entrepreneur and community builder. Adrian himself pines for a healthy mix between adventure (doing) and slowing down (being), both of which he brings into the retreats and expeditions that he runs. Adrian deeply enjoys supporting the balance in people’s personal holistic well-being, working with men’s groups and also guiding adventures and expeditions.
Adrian lives off-grid in southern Tuscany, Italy, where he is growing an intentional community. He is the co-founder of Way of Nature UK and is impassioned by the alchemical reaction of combining deep relaxation processes with Rites of Passage nature connection practices. He has trained and assisted in facilitating programmes with John P. Milton, and has been leading wilderness programmes for 7 years. Adrian is also a co-founder of The Visionaries, an organisation that creates nurturing school communities that support young people into healthy adulthood. Adrian co-founded and runs The Life Centre, a centre for growth and wellbeing in London, for 12 years and has deep knowledge of both urban and nature-based wellness practices.
He works on a host of other businesses and projects that involve being of service, supporting the emergence of a better world for our grandchildren’s grandchildren and having a great deal of fun and connection along the way.
Leona Johnson
Leona is a practicing Eco-therapist, host of Connection Matters Podcast and Director of Live Wild CIC a community based nature connection and village building organisation based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, England.
Leona is trained in, Life Initiation and Rites of Passage, Ecopsychology, Forest School Leadership, Non-Violent Communication (NVC), Social Work, Grief Tending and The Eight Shields model of nature connection- an holistic and earth connected way of living and working to support life.
Connection Matters Podcast explores evolutionary lifestyles, mindset, culture, healing and spirituality as well as many other issues relating to personal growth, community and nature connection.
Over the years Leona has grown to understand that a journey such as personal life coaching, questing or learning to live more consciously can create profound, transformational shifts that enable people to make more intentional life choices and grow into their life’s purpose more fully. These are shifts that in turn give us the insight to understand our personal potential and power in creating the world of our longing.
Leona currently facilitates the PEACE course (Peace, Empowerment And Cultural Emergence) as part of the growing cultural emergence global community. She hosts Questing with Fire which is a Rite or Passage programme aimed at building a village of initiated adults that will lead to working with young people. She runs Singing in Nature Retreats and courses, Long Term Nature Connection Mentoring for Adults, Grief Circles and Small Group and individual Eco-therapy.
Leona has experienced and witnessed the healing, enlivening and joyful benefits of intentionally building a relationship to nature and believes in the profound impact that this work can have on our communities as we move forwards into uncertain times.