Active Hope for
Changing Times ONLINE
How to face the challenges of our time and create the world we want to live in.
Facilitators: Margo van Greta and Britta Schmitz
Saturday 27 June 2020 3-5pm in the UK (BST)
We currently are surrounded by challenges, both globally and personally.
Is it possible to consider bringing hope into our lives, into the world? Active Hope holds the attitude of hope. It is not just an outcome, it is a process.
During this online session we go through the spiral developed by Joanna Macy. We move through the steps beginning with Gratitude, giving thanks to our lives. We explore our pain for the world. We will look at our world with new eyes, and we identify what we could do in our own lives, no matter how small.
Passive and active hope
There are 2 types of hope: passive and active. With passive hope, we sit back and hope something will happen, we require something external to provide what we want, but we are not necessarily doing something about it.
With active hope, we are involved, present, actively creating the situation we would like to see happening.
An example: when confronted with the current climate crisis, we can think it is impossible for us to make a difference, and wait until someone or something makes a move. That is passive hope.
Or we can align with our own vision for a better and more sustainable world, gather our resilience, our creativity, and take our own steps, small or large.
Active Hope is a practice, it is not something we have, but something we do. It is a practice, like tai chi, or gardening. It is about stepping into our aliveness, our full presence
- We have a realistic look at the current situation.
- We align ourselves to our vision.
- We take steps to move towards our vision.
Three Stories of our Time
- Business as usual: prioritise the economy, current structures. Little change.
- The Great Unravelling: the collapse of our current word created by Business as Usual: climate crisis. A breakdown on all levels: ecological, social, psychological, spiritual, depletion of resources, extinction of species.
- The Great Turning is embodied by those who know Business as usual is leading us to catastrophe and disasters, and who do not want to sit back and let the great unravelling happening without any involvement. It is created by those of us who want to engage with a new story for humanity. It is the transition moving from our current mainstream industrial society focussed on economic growth to a life sustaining society committed to healing our world.
Spiral
A set of practices called the Work that Reconnects have been created in the form of a Spiral. They are an empowering process that includes 4 stages, each one of them increasing our resilience.
They are:
- Gratitude: boosting our own immune system,our resilience. Looking for what we love, what we are grateful for. Counting our blessings.
- Feeling our Pain for the World. Exploring what we are concerned about, What frightens us, makes us angry, sad, desperate, numb,
- Seeing with New Eyes: what can help us see ourselves and the world in a different way.
- Stepping Forward: Is there one step we can take towards creating a world we would like to live in?
“Active Hope is not wishful thinking... Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life on whose behalf we can act. We belong to this world. The web of life is calling us forth at this time and we are here to play our part. Active Hope is a readiness to discover the strengths in ourselves and in others; a readiness to discover the reasons for hope and the occasions for love.” ~ Joanna Macy
This session is based on the book Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone.
Practical:
The session is experiential and interactive, using Zoom.
You will need a computer or laptop for the best experience, a good internet connection, and a quiet/private space.
If you plan to join with a friend/partner/housemate, it is recommended you each have your own device, as we go into breakout rooms for 121 conversations.
Date: 27 June 2020 3-5pm in the UK (BST)
Check your local time here
Suggested donation: £30-£10 using sliding scale.
Registration is required: please email [email protected]
Margo van Greta is a pioneer of holistic spirituality and a facilitator of transformation, creating a safe and supportive space for deepening the inner journey.
She has worked with Joanna Macy several times, and holds annual weeklong Active Hope workshops.
As a staff member of the Findhorn Foundation since 1991 she created the Inspired Action conference, held monthlong Spiritual Deepening programs and spiritual retreats, and is a qualified guide of the Game of Transformation. She is a Buddhist practitioner, and deeply loves nature.
She has worked with Joanna Macy several times, and holds annual weeklong Active Hope workshops.
As a staff member of the Findhorn Foundation since 1991 she created the Inspired Action conference, held monthlong Spiritual Deepening programs and spiritual retreats, and is a qualified guide of the Game of Transformation. She is a Buddhist practitioner, and deeply loves nature.
Britta Schmitz (PhD) has been part of the Findhorn Foundation for the past eleven years, five of which she spent living and working on the tiny Isle of Erraid on the Scottish west coast. Living so close to the elements has had a big impact on her life and strengthened her connection to the earth and the divine. She is passionate about creating a supportive environment for participants’ individual transformational journeys, enabling them to find out who they truly are and want to be in this world.