Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in without Going Crazy

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Each session will begin with an introduction to the special art exhibit and a discussion in the gallery facilitated by the Sainsbury Centre. This will be followed by refreshment in the studio for the Climate Café facilitated by Norfolk and Waveney Mind. Our intention in the creative phase is to catch a vision so compelling that it touches us emotionally. Our awareness that the outcome is uncertain is what prompts us to prepare; it calls us to attention. Several generations of children have had daydreaming bred out of them. Our literacy is confined to numbers and words. There is no image literacy.” When we have this “team spirit” heightened sense of spiritual connection with life. Chapter 8: A Larger View of Time

Chris will draw on health psychology, systems thinking and an empowerment approach known as the ‘work that reconnects’. He will share how Active Hopecan help you discover a more ‘sustainable happiness’ to feel happier today and support your hopes for the future. Close your eyes and imagine you are experiencing that moment again. Notice colours, tastes, sounds, smells and the sensations in your body. We can look at our pain for the world in a similar way: it is the world system, or Gaia, feeling through us. The concept of ‘pay it forward’ is a central theme in Active Hope. It plays a role not only in fundraising to develop free online courses and resources in Active Hope Training but also in supporting a shift in perspective that contributes to positive change in the world.

Chapter 3: Coming from Gratitude

Isn’t “unexpected” a wonderful word? It brings to mind the concept of “emergent properties,” from systems science. Something new and unexpected arises as the components of a system interact. Co-authors Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone offer a straightforward brew of concepts, exercises and imagery to stir the pot of our psyches, so we can face the mess we are indeed in, and rediscover our resilience and creativity. Active Hope is a recommended guide for book groups, circles of practice, as well as individual study. Active Hope is a Christian charity based in Warrington, we are committed to providing quality outdoor and adventurous activities from well qualified and enthusiastic instructors to children and young people from across the area.

Take a blank piece of paper and some coloured pens. Scribble doodle, or draw any images to represent concerns you have and the feelings that accompany them. The times when we have eventually found a way through offer another important reference point of possibility. The events are part of the first season of Sainsbury Centre’s ‘Big Question’: Planet for our Future: How do we adapt to a Transforming World?

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Joanna macy Ph.D, author & teacher, is a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with learnings from six decades of activism.

Going forth involves clarifying our vision of how we can act for the healing of our world, identifying practical steps that move our vision forward. Chapter 3: Coming from Gratitude Grief and Joy on a Planet in Crisis: Joanna Macy on the Best Time To Be Alive – TWOII podcast - 2021

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Here connected consciousness stems from a widening of our self-interest, where we are guided by the intention to act for the well-being of all life. I think a lot of the ideas presented in this book tie in beautifully with the things I learned in Braiding Sweetgrass as well. (another book I highly recommend). The authors frequently speak of a spiritual connection with Gaia (or Earth and all life on it). This had me pondering the spiritual experiences I've had and so many that others have shared with me. It seems that if you were to ask almost anyone to describe a spritiual experience, it would center on communion with nature, or connection to humans on either a very grand or very intimate scale. How then, can we expand our sense of self to include such? The authors use a 4 part framework for developing such a sense. They emphasize the need to look at where an issue overlaps with the self, the immediate community, society-at-large, and all of life on Earth. They speak of gratitude as more than just "politeness" but rather as a necessity in recognizing our place in the web of life. They also emphasize that connectedness with a healthy community brings out our latent, distinct gifts. There’s something else we’d like to bring in alongside this difficult starting point. It is a recognition that when we’re at our most exasperated, we can sometimes surprise ourselves. We might discover strengths we never knew we had or experience degrees of aliveness we’d not even suspected were available to us. This is a time to reach out and find new allies, as well as to discard forms of thinking and behavior that have led us astray. In a process known as adversity activated development, our very act of facing the mess we’re in can help us discover a more enlivening sense of what our lives are about, what we’re here to do, and what we’re truly capable of.

Are you feeling angry, anxious, confused, guilty, powerless, alone or hopeless about the climate and environmental crisis, or the general state of the world? Or are you feeling numb, or indifferent, and can’t work out why, given how serious it is? This conversation with Dr Mark Williamson was recorded at a live Action for Happiness event on the 23rd Feb 2023.

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After all, what is the point of making an effort to improve things if we believe catastrophe is inevitable? Each person daydreams for a few minutes about what he or she would like to see in a life-sustaining society. The challenge is to listen for the vision that calls us most strongly and to recognise that to follow this well, we will need to refine our focus so as not to dissipate our energy. The power of inner strengths drawn from us when we engage with challenges and rise to the occasion.