Month: May 2023

Spiritual Ecology Retreat – Beaumont, Belgium – 28 June to 2 July 2023

Inner Work for Outer Change…

How can we integrate a spiritual response to the ecological, social and political crises we are facing? At this time of great uncertainty in the world, we need to find the strength to put compassion into action.

We welcome you to join us on this 5-day learning journey on the beautiful land of a Buddhist retreat centre, just 30-minute south of Charleroi in Belgium, to explore what compassion means in relationship to yourself, to others and to the natural world.

Together we will move through a spiral of the Work that Reconnects and engage in powerful practices to grow our ecological consciousness and empower our capacity to make a positive difference in today’s world.

We will explore how to manage strong emotions, how to engage with wisdom and how to stay connected to joy in challenging times. We will bring this inner work together with our outer environment, deepening our connection with Mother Earth, with each other, and also sensing into what wants to emerge in the larger system.

Beyond excited to be co-facilitating this retreat with Annick Nevejan.

More detail & registration here

#spiritualecology #workthatreconnects #activehope #mindfulness #compassioninaction #ecologicalconsciousness #interconnectedness

Deep Ecology Retreat Experience

Throwback to summer 2021 when I attended my first spiritual ecology retreat in Belgium with the beautiful guidance of Annick Nevejan and Maaike Boumans.

On this picture a playful pose of our amazing group after an afternoon of learning & helping in the gorgeous permaculture garden of the Beaumont Buddhist retreat center cared for by Gregory.

This retreat felt like a coming home and brought me a sense of wholeness through deep connection with my core being, oneness with nature & soulful encounters with inspiring people caring for Life in their own unique ways. A sense of an Earth care community that I was thirsty for was born through our time together, filling me with a huge sense of aliveness, hope and the courage to step up increasingly to act on behalf of Life.

This process made so much sense to me, more than anything I had come across. I felt a strong call to deepen and share this deep

ecology work.

In autumn 2021 I trained with Roseaux Dansants (the French arm of the Work that Reconnects) and @transalquimia (Spanish WTR) after experiencing a 5 day retreat with them (The Council of All Beings).

Last Spring I further trained to facilitate Active Hope Circles with Chris Johnstone and Madeleine Young.

Since then I’ve been sharing with passion the Work that Reconnects through retreats & workshops for open groups as well as organisations of change makers & activists: Cityplot, the Transition Network of SW France, Ecofeminist organisation Shelter FR, Extinction Rebellion, Reclaim the Seeds Amsterdam and Climate Action NL (in the making).

This Spring, I started the first Active Hope Circle in Amsterdam which is ongoing & to be continued.

I was intending to assist facilitation for the Beaumont Spiritual Ecology retreat but this weekend I stepped into an unexpected fuller co-facilitation role as dear friend and colleague Flo from @mindful.change has her hands full with the launch of the second edition of the @plumvillagefrance online course “Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet” sharing Thay’s teachings.

Will miss her presence and also honoured for this unexpected opportunity. It feels like a circle coming round.

Our retreat will be held in Beaumont again in Belgium from 28 June to 2 July 2023, join us here

Balancing Being & Doing to Restore Harmony

BALANCING BEING & DOING to restore HARMONY

Started a new mindfulness cou May be an image of 3 people

rse earlier this month with this intention of restoring this sacred balance between:

being & doing,

yin & yang

feminine & masculine

giving & receiving

Letting go, letting in (we need to let go to make space for the new to emerge, to be empty and receptive)

When this balance exists in our body our health is optimal (homeostasis state)

This balance exists in our breath. I invited us to feel these energies of yin and yang in our breath, deeply feeling one at a time and then noticing how they balance one another.

This balance exists everywhere in us and everywhere in nature, in the seasons, everything rises and falls, begins and ends, works and rests, all of life expands and contracts.

As human beings, we have forgotten about the BEING part. Mindfulness practice helps us remember & tend to our aliveness.

When we do we restore balance within ourselves. And when we restore the balance within it can exist without.

We have brought ourselves completely out of balance with our industrial growth society, only expanding, addicted to growth, profit, efficiency, powered by fossil fuels, evolving in a linear way, forgetting our biosphere is cyclical and cannot sustain these ways.

We have gotten so caught up, so consumed in unbalanced doing that we have forgotten we are held, we are immersed in Mother Earth and us being out of sync with Her has brought our very planet out of balance

Restoring the balance without begins within. Doing less, being more. Slowing Down. Being present with our doing so that we are doing things with awareness and love and letting go of all that isn’t necessary and doesn’t make sense.

It is simple: what doesn’t regenerate us, doesn’t regenerate Life. Our personal and planetary wellbeing are completely intertwined.

Our minds can get us stuck but our bodies are hardwired to know. Calm the mind and access an infinite source of wisdom

Time to LISTEN, BALANCE, HARMONISE

I feel so passionate about this, I struggle with short posts, thank you if you’ve slowed down enough to make it here. Sending you so much love

Active Hope Circle – Honouring our Pain

Grateful for a beautiful, connecting and heart-opening Active Hope Gathering.

Feeling cracked open and so nourished by the deep ecology practices we engaged in with a beautiful group of change-makers, regenerating the land, transforming education, leading the energy transition, healers, artists and activists.

I’ve been looking fo

r fertile ground to share this work and finally these intentions are manifesting, the work is magically finding the right people, moving to where it’s most needed.

Honored to initiate and guide this process and co-create together. Grateful to my many teachers, soul connections, support along the way allowing me to align to this new path I have been called to.

Yesterday after opening with a gratitude prayer “The Words that come before All Else” from the Haudosenee people (their gift to the world supporting us to remember what is sacred), we moved into the second stage of the Spiral

Honouring our Pain with an inquiry, a circle dance, a profound grief ritual with such touching sharing of our pain for the world. We ended the evening singing, my heart is full with all the beautiful songs shared honouring the Earth and our wild nature, so healing to sing together with intention, simple and powerful

One particularly touching moment was hearing a man in the circle voice how it was time perhaps for men to pause and listen to the women, he recognized the deep connection of women with the land. It was such a gift beyond words to receive his words.

And totally aligned with my path of harmonizing with the Earth and diving deeper into the feminine.

Enjoying the journey and all the places it is taking me.

You can join our last gatherings before the summer or autumn circles, please email me marjorie@experiencemindfulness.nl for more details.

#workthatreconnects #deepecology #femininerising #earthvibes #activehopeamsterdam

Self-love : The Mindful Circle

SELF-LOVE

In the mindful circle, I regularly share powerful self-compassion practices because I feel these are so essential to feeling vital, joyful and empowered. Join our next circles online or outdoors in warmer months, sign up here

When we can really hold ourselves with unconditional love, we realize our wholeness.

All our wounds, past and present are healed through this loving presence. They don’t disappear but when we can hold them in this way, they become a source of wisdom, empowerment and purpose.

When we really have our best interest at heart, we almost magically break away from all the patterns which aren’t serving our highest good.

It all starts with the most intimate relationship we will ever have – with ourselves.

When we heal the relationship with ourselves, we can transform our relationship with others, the environment, our world.

We operate not from a place of lack, fear or scarcity but from a place of overflowing abundant LOVE which is the essence that nourishes our creativity.

The source of being of service and contributing to a more compassionate world is beginning to accept and love yourself just as you are

Join the mindful circle to empower your self-love

#mindfulness #selfcompassion #selflove #love