Feature Blog: How to nourish your roots - the Gardener's Way
This is the first in a series of blogs presenting the Seven Seeds of Natural Happiness, a unique way to help people grow their own happiness using parallels with gardening and organic farming, created by Alan Heeks. For an overview of all seven seeds, click here.
In these times of rising uncertainty, we need new ways to stay happy and clear. Natural Happiness has evolved from over 20 years’ immersion in organic gardening and farming: it draws on both techniques, such as composting and crop rotation, and the skills a gardener evolves, like observation and patience.
People sometimes compare themselves to a complex mechanism, like a car or computer, but that’s too simplistic. We are living organisms, like a garden. I’ve found that cultivated natural ecosystems, such as a garden or organic farm, are the best guide to growing our own happiness: showing us how to steer an organism to a positive outcome using natural growth methods. I call this approach the Gardener’s Way.
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Lockdown resilience: ten top tips
Despite my resilience skills, I’ve had to keep digging deep to sustain my mood, especially in these recent winter months. Whilst there’s hope for easing restrictions soon, lockdown has a cumulative grinding effect. So here are my tips for the next few months.
Read more
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Join our team as a Natural Happiness Advocate
Alan is seeking up to six people to work with him as Advocates, sharing the Natural Happiness approach by selling and running short workshops, online and in person: you will need some expertise in gardening and wellbeing, but training and support will be provided.
For full details, including how to apply, click here. |
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Nourish your roots video: the tree test
In this 4-minute video, Alan guides you through a simple process to see if your roots and fruits are in balance: click here.
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New short video series: Beautiful garden wisdom for your daily nourishment
We are starting an ongoing Natural Happiness project of 30 short films using the garden to inspire people to support their own sense of wellbeing. Called Beautiful Garden Wisdom For Your Daily Nourishment, we will be promoting them on social media - so if you see them, please feel free to share to spread that sense of communal support. For now, you can see the first one – Light and Shade – on our YouTube playlist.
To follow us on Twitter, click here.
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Events on offer
July 9-11
At Hazel Hill Wood or online
Natural Happiness: cultivate your resilience with the Gardeners Way
How can you stay happy when there’s too much change and uncertainty? This workshop shows you how: to cultivate yourself like a garden, and grow your own wellbeing by learning from natural ecosystems, using Alan’s unique Natural Happiness model.
Our methods will include: nourishing our roots; composting problems; using co-creative skills to work with nature; growing inspiration; and ecosystem insights about community. Along with workshop sessions, there will be solo times in the wood, plus good food, campfires and songs to nourish us. This will be a residential group at Hazel Hill Wood: if Covid restrictions prevent this, it will be run with a series of online sessions with personal time in between.
For more info and bookings, click here.
Grow your own Happiness
Cultivate your wellbeing with gardening skills!
Online workshop available for group bookings
In these stormy times, we need new skills to stay happy. A cultivated ecosystem, like a garden, is a role model for human nature: this workshop shows how gardening methods can help you grow your own happiness. Participants will have a chance to try out the Seven Seeds of Happiness, a model devised by Alan Heeks. Group bookings from gardening, environmental and other groups welcome.
Click here to learn more.
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Image: Covid Vaccination Centre
Your Greatship,
