Blogs
Could a pilgrimage renew you?
As life keeps getting more complex and confusing, I've found that pilgrimages are a good antidote, a way to feel...
Discerning at the end of life
Discerning at the end of life Guest blog from Palden Jenkins Alan Heeks writes: Palden is an old friend, who plays a...
Making sense of the covid times
I'm writing this in April 2022: we're into the third year of the covid time, and over 70% of us in the UK have had...
Climate distress: trauma and Nature immersion
I'm a big fan of Bob Doppelt's book, Transformational Resilience, which sees individual and collective trauma as one...
Beauty, outrage, shared humanity: all in Trafalgar Square
I've just had a rare visit to London, and one of my treats was a classical music concert in St Martin in the Fields,...
Transformation goaded by crises: Palden Jenkins
A bigger view of our possible future… Alan Heeks writes: Palden is an old friend, who plays a Merlin-like role in my...
Book blog: Navigating the Coming Chaos, by Carolyn Baker
A handbook for inner transition Carolyn Baker is an American psychotherapist who has been deeply involved in...
Navigation aids for a world beyond normal
In the past two years, the world has been rocked by three huge events: covid, the rapid acceleration of the climate...
2022 Climate Outlook: pray for miracles
The holiday time around New Year 2022 has been a chance for some of us to reflect on the outlook for the climate...
Community climate responses: co-creative insights
I’m writing this thinks piece in January 2022, to see what I’ve learned from two years’ work in my hometown, and to...
The Book of Joy: Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
Lasting Happiness in a Changing World This deep and delightful book, published in 2017, became an immediate...
Co-creativity – dancing with problems
Most people are trying to shape their lives amid more uncertainty than they can handle: co-creative skills make this...
Teach your children well
Teach your children well What do younger generations need to learn? Do you ever wonder how we can help to prepare...
The Work that Reconnects: a way to face the future
If you’re working with hazardous materials, you need good methods and equipment. The future really is hard to face: it...
Nurture and adapt: Natural Happiness for stormy times
Nurture and adapt: Natural Happiness for stormy times This blog is part of my quest for positive approaches to the...
Digging into Regenerative Agriculture
Digging into Regenerative Agriculture A model of de-intensification for humans too! Ever since I co-founded an organic...
An introduction to Soul Resilience
If you hope to thrive and grow through your life, not just cope and survive, how will you do this in the stormier...
Climate alarm? Learning to live with it
The IPCC report this week on the climate crisis has left me alarmed and unsettled, maybe you too. I’m writing this...
How do we find the spiritual roots of resilience?
How do we find the spiritual roots of resilience? There’s so much talk about resilience these days, but little of it...
Why composting is a skill for our times
Here’s a provocative thought: in a natural system, there is no waste. Anything which seems useless or decayed can be...
Book blog: Deep Adaptation – Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos by Jem Bendell and Rupert Read
I regard Deep Adaptation as one of the most important approaches to the climate crisis, and this new book will give...
Deep Adaptation and climate change: An intro to the work of Jem Bendell
Back in 2018, the sense of urgency about the climate crisis rose sharply, helped by several key voices, including...
Football as a map of the inner life
Deep insights from the Euros With all the excitement of the Euros, it seems appropriate to use football as a guide...
Emerging from lockdown: how natural energy sources can help
As we regain our freedom to travel and to meet people, it’s exciting but also nervy. We’re all out of practice, and...
For lasting happiness, nourish your roots
Alan has been leading groups on natural happiness and resilience for years. He writes about ‘The Story Behind Natural...
Beautiful Garden Wisdom – for all!
How many times have you sat in a garden and felt a weight lifting from your shoulders? There could be a number of...
Natural Happiness Seed 1: Nourish your roots
This is the first in a series of blogs presenting the Seven Seeds of Natural Happiness, a unique way to help people...
Natural Happiness Advocates
A unique chance to join our team Role Description 1. SUMMARY Author and group leader Alan Heeks is seeking up...
Earth Visit Report from Prostetnic Vogon Jelfs
Your Greatship, I grovel before you as I make this report. This is the scheduled 50-year update on my visit to Earth...
Don’t let lockdown grind you away!
Don't let covid grind you away! Staying cheerful in covid year two Despite my resilience skills, I’ve had to keep...
Covid vaccinations: a touching flavour of Dunkirk spirit
Covid vaccinations: a touching flavour of Dunkirk spirit Plus tips to avoid side effects Covid vaccinations: a...
Helping gardeners to grow their own happiness: an online adventure
There’s always a risk that life can become samey in a winter lockdown but at Natural Happiness we have some fresh...
Natural Happiness: from regenerative agriculture to regenerative humanculture – you’re invited!
How do we live with rising chaos? For over twenty years I’ve explored how people can learn from cultivated ecosystems:...
2021 and the seeds of hope
In the gardener’s year, November to January is a time for clearing and fertilising ground, and starting to plant seeds...
The Gardener’s Way: seasonal tips for January/February
This is part of a series of blogs to show what we can learn for our wellbeing and resilience from gardening priorities...
After 7 Months of Covid, What Have We Learned?
Can we trace an emerging future? Surely most of us have often been bewildered and disoriented in the past seven...
Resonate or Rescue: Choose Your Response to the Covid Crisis
I’ve had many feelings about this crisis in the past six months, but two have...
Nine positive ways to use your lockdown time
The lockdown has given most of us a gift of more time. You may need no help in filling it with worries or...
Learning to Unlearn
Yes, it's a paradox, but our ways of thinking, our habitual responses, are so deeply set that a deliberate effort of...
Food Security: Opportunity, Research, Action
It’s easy to feel disempowered these days, but this is an issue where we can all do something. Food security means...
Southern Morocco: a great place to learn about the roots of happiness
For many years, I’ve found that trips to so-called less developed countries give me priceless reminders of how to live...
Meaning, Purpose, Connection: what does inspiration mean to you?
I know the word spiritual is hard for some people. Replace it with inspirational if you prefer. I’m persisting with it because I believe that spiritual aspects of life and resilience will become more vital for most of us in the years ahead as turbulence grows.
The Overstory by Richard Powers
If you love trees, you’ll find this book fascinating: it’s a rich exploration of both trees and people, as individuals...
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Amazingly, this book is an international bestseller. For me and others who have worked with UK woodlands for decades,...
The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg
Blog written by Lynn Murphy… I'm curious about habits, about what I do and why I do what I do even when I don’t want...
World’s happiest countries
It’s not about the money! The Happy Planet Index for 2016 again puts countries in Latin America and the Asia Pacific...
Why people need Nature more than ever
Insights from the book Your Brain on Nature. My top tip for Earth Day is to read this brilliant book, and give it to...
Stress, Wellbeing, and how Natural Happiness helps
Pictured: Alan with a group at Hazel Hill Wood. Recorded levels of stress have grown a lot in recent years, and we’re...
Book Review: Active Hope by Macy and Johnstone
I have taken part in workshops led by both Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, and regard them as two of the best teachers on personal resilience in a full sense of the phrase. Working in depth with this book could be a good start to exploring super-resilience.
How can we get beyond compassion fatigue?
The UN’s hope in designating this day, on August 19, is to ask all of us to remember and support the large numbers of...
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