Who:WeCanMake, a neighbourhood test-space in Bristol for imagining and making new ways to create homes that build social infrastructure and community wealth.
The brief: A day-long “creative reflection” workshop, with community members, organisers, and activists. Theme: “Me, myself and nature”. Intention: a space to just be, and to reconnect to nature and to self. Also, a bonding experience for members of a project group which is in development. Location: the roundhouse at the heart of the Springfield Allotments in Knowle, Bristol.
What I did:
- entering: a playful pledge for self-care and curiosity
- slowing down: looking and noticing, outside, in nature (a scavenger hunt, “slow looking” using view finders, Taking A Good Look exercise)
- going inwards: a nature-based movement meditation / reading (Vegetal Transmutation, by Eduardo Navarro and Michael Marder, from the book This Book Is A Plant: how to grow, learn and radically engage with the natural world)
“Take a moment to draw a cosmic breath with your whole body, slower than any breath you have ever taken in your life.”
- reflecting: Seasons of Change, discussing as a group the rhythms of nature, life, and projects, by using the space inside the roundhouse
- ending: a note to self, and closing circle
What they said:
“That was great, I really enjoyed it.”~ participant
“I could have happily stayed there for 3 hours!” ~ participant, on the Taking A Good Look exercise (30 min)
Some participants physically looked different at the end of the workshop – more grounded, more relaxed, having released some of the tension they were holding in their faces and bodies.
Photo credit: Urban Escape Bristol