effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough.”

Joanna Macy

Is it possible to make a difference in a way that gives inspiration and fulfilment and doesn’t cost us too much? Can we fill rather than drain our batteries, through balanced heart-charged action that matches our capacity?

Engaging in compassion in action will take you on a journey to find out how you can meaningfully make a difference within the life you have, being the person that you are.

It’s all about balance. Balancing our own needs with what we see is needed around us.

Resourcing ourselves is the magic ingredient which enables us to actualise the ‘effective action that comes from love’ that Joanna Macy speaks of in the quote above and this is a key component of our Compassion in Action course. One of the greatest resources available to us is nature, which can give us space, peace and joy. Many people find that spending time in nature provides a reset, improves mood and brings feelings of calm. The potential of this is being talked about a lot at the moment – nature sustains us – not just nutritionally, but also emotionally and spiritually. Being present in nature and feeling our belonging within nature, can teach us important lessons about how to be in the world. In lives where we feel rattled and pressured a lot, time in nature can bring us back to ourselves.

At the same time, we may be painfully aware that us human beings are causing drastic imbalance in the natural world. Our appreciation for nature and our awareness of it being in trouble, against the backdrop of a busy life, makes for an unsettling cocktail of feelings. We may feel powerless, angry, numb or sense a loss of meaning. We may feel disconnected from where or what we are meant to be. Perhaps mindful awareness of the unrealistic expectations we may place upon ourselves might help to burst this painful bubble.

And, as we contemplate how our inner practice of compassion can translate into outer practice, our connection with the Earth matters. If we can feel our gratitude and care for the Earth, we will find a wellspring of energy to pour into compassionate action in the world. As we journey on with this, we can emerge into fresh insight into our place in the world. From here, the action which is natural to us may become clear.

We don’t have to save the world to make a difference! In fact, the only hope we have of saving the world is if we each work within our sphere of influence and with respect for our own wellbeing as we go along. After all we and the world are part of one whole – our flourishing depends on the Earth and the Earth’s flourishing now depends on us.

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Fay Adams and Kristine Mackenzie-Janson will be delivering a new 5-week course on engaged mindfulness: Compassion in Action.

This evening course begins on the 11th May

The course will be held online via Zoom on a Thursday evening from 18:30-20:45 (UK Time).
The dates of the five sessions are: 11th May, 18th May, 25th May, 1st June and 8th June.

YOU CAN READ ABOUT THE COURSE HERE

by Linda Reuther

Isn’t this poem a consolation! I think Linda Reuther puts beautiful words to the idea that the Earth can be our refuge. In Buddhist teachings the idea of refuge is key. When you commit to a Buddhist path you ‘take refuge’. I think that on some level we all long to be unconditionally supported and we all want to feel that all of who we are can be welcomed within a more vast, loving presence. In this poem, the Earth is that welcoming presence. The feeling from the poem is that all of what we experience emotionally – tears, rage, tiredness, hopes, dreams, is mirrored in the Earth’s elements of rivers, oceans, thunder, volcanoes, meadows. We are given the invitation to know that we are made of the same elements and we are not alone. Zen Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh has written a wonderful little book called Love Letter to the Earth, which explores Mother Earth as the ultimate refuge. He says ‘The Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us.’

As mindfulness practitioners we remember this every time we practice by letting ourselves find our home in the body on the ground. Many of us also love to practice mindfulness in nature, which is another way to feel this profound belonging.

Through experiencing the Earth as refuge, we may begin to feel the depth of our care for the environment and we may also become more acutely aware of the urgent need for change in how we, as human beings, relate to the Earth. Thich Nhat Hanh goes on to say that everything depends on whether we realise that the Earth is us.

How can we use our mindfulness practice to empower us to take actions for the sake of the Earth? We will address this question in our Engaged Mindfulness course beginning in May. We will explore our connection with nature as a basis for engaging with whatever small or large things concern us. Whether it’s the climate crisis or social injustice, whether it’s on a local level or global level, whether it’s through hands on action, donations or through practicing kindness. Do join us in this essential inquiry.

Ps. If you want to know more about the course, please see here.

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

Read this blog to find out why compassion in action can be key to lifting this feeling.

Within our Engaged Mindfulness course, we will look with fresh and mindful eyes at how we engage with the state of the world. Many of us feel reluctant to engage because we don’t feel we have it in us – we’re too tired, stressed and busy already or we imagine we must do grand things to make engaging worthwhile.

But what might be revealed if we release these beliefs? What if we grant ourselves rest, nourishment and joy as essential to our engagement with the world? What if compassion in action could be a seamless extension of our inner compassion practice?

Perhaps what is really needed is to step down, and then step forth?

Curious? Then read on.

In the last few years, the story of the times we live in has changed. We are now in a world where uncertainty about the future, alongside fast and complex lives, is the new normal. Contrast this with the optimism and slower pace that pre-technology generations felt and the difference is stark. Naturally, finding ways to step down can feel more urgent than stepping up. Perhaps this points to why mindfulness has become a part of our new normal.

Many of us have got used to managing our individual distress – mindfulness is a great way to do this of course! But this can turn our gaze away from some of the true causes of how we feel. There’s a sense that it’s all somehow our problem that we feel lower levels of wellbeing, and therefore it’s our responsibility to ‘sort ourselves out’. But what if much of what haunts and stresses us is generated by the wider ‘systems’ we live in, and is not due to our own failings? If fish live in polluted waters, they will not thrive after all. This is a sign of our being radically interconnected – we each feel what is in the collective on an individual level.

Seeing with new eyes can be a bit like the ‘Non-identification’ stage of the RAIN practice from our Level 1 training, where we zoom out and see the bigger picture with a wide-angle lens, no longer held hostage in ‘the problem’. If we do this on a societal level, we may see two things 1. That how we feel is not our fault and 2. That we can’t fix it alone. How often do you sit in your practice feeling like it’s your fault and your responsibility to fix it – whatever ‘it’ is on a given day? Take the pervasive presence of anxiety these days. This is part of a huge trend with complex interconnected causes and yet as individual satellites we so often feel it’s our problem and give ourselves a hard time.

Might it be true that we need to balance our focus on individual wellbeing with a candid look at what is happening systemically and how this is interconnected with individual wellbeing. What would happen if we experimented with releasing the intensity of the individual project in favour of practicing and thinking in terms of ‘we’ (at least sometimes and in some places – let’s keep it real after all!)? (Research backs up how groups can help with climate anxiety, see Heather’s blog here for details 

And so, we come to the possibly surprising realisation that we may, at least in part, find the wellbeing we need by turning aside from our individual struggle and towards an outward looking path – a path of community spirit and compassion to self and others, rather than self-preservation. Compassion in action is great for our well-being! There’s even a phrase for this that has emerged in academia – ‘compassion satisfaction’ (see below for an example of research that looks at this). And, let’s balance this with that crucial piece of the jigsaw: self-compassion. Might a path of rest and gratitude rather than the ‘Grind Culture’ and the myth of never enough, also transform how we feel about engaging with our world?

This all points to the different way of being, seeing and doing that we want to share with you in our Engaged Mindfulness course beginning in September.

By moving through a mindful inner journey in the company of others, we will enable this shift of orientation around stepping forth. We will do this by coming together and reconnecting with what gives us joy and hope, by standing beside each other in these uncertain times and acknowledging our individual concerns as particular and universal, and by letting all this bring us ‘new eyes’.

In the Engaged Mindfulness course we will draw on the Work That Reconnects and the inspirational guidance of academic, spiritual practitioner and activist Joanna Macy. In parallel we will replenish ourselves with mindfulness practices which emphasise grounding and connecting with the earth as a resource for resilience and compassion.

Join us on a 5 week course called Engaged Mindfulness beginning in September 

The course will be held online via Zoom on a Thursday evening from 19:00-21:00 (UK Time).

The dates of the five sessions are: 8 September, 15 September, 22 September, 29 September and 6 October 2022.

* Compassion satisfaction – the satisfaction that comes with being compassionate, as well as mindfulness and self-compassion, correlate with wellbeing amongst community nurses in the UK.

READ ABOUT COMPASSION SATISFACTION HERE

Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

Wamsler (2018) reviews and assesses current research on how mindfulness may be linked to climate adaptation and points to a lack of relevant research. Climate adaptation is described as adapting to increasing risk and climate change. Wamsler also conducted a survey to complement the literature review about how individual mindfulness is linked to climate adaptation. This survey found that levels of higher individual mindfulness correspond to increased motivation to take (or support) climate adaptation actions. The paper concludes that mindfulness has the potential to facilitate climate adaptation at all scales, individual to collective.

Stollberg & Jonas (2021) is a review of research focussing on the emotional processes of individuals and groups which explain motivated responses to the global threat of climate crisis. They propose that climate anxiety can be reduced by mindfulness, connectedness to nature and a sense of common humanity. They suggest that collective emotions of anger, guilt and ‘being moved’ can increase positive individual and collective engagement and that working in groups can help to reduce anxiety and when combined with pro-environmental norms can promote pro-environmental action.

Baudon & Jachens (2021) reviews research literature on approaches to eco-anxiety. They identified several themes across interventions including: fostering inner resilience, encouraging clients to take action, helping clients find social connection and emotional support by joining groups, and connecting clients with nature. Fostering inner resilience included self-care and cognitive, emotion-focussed and meaning-focussed interventions, including shifting from catastrophising to a more balanced perspective and fostering optimism and hope. They found that the interventions targeted different layers of an individual’s wellbeing, from inner experiences to connecting with others and connecting with the natural world. They recommend interventions that are holistic, multi-pronged and grief informed, which include eco-anxiety focussed group work.

To counter the lack of research specific to climate anxiety, there is a growing and convincing body of research, including several meta-analyses and systematic reviews that mindfulness meditation can reduce anxiety in general.

The engaged mindfulness approach we follow, based on Joanna Macy’s (2012) spiral of the Work That Reconnects, fits well with the research findings so far. This approach is based on practising mindfulness meditation and reflection together and then sharing our experiences with each other. The process begins with resourcing and nourishing ourselves with joy and gratitude, before turning mindfully towards what is difficult in the world with mindful awareness. From here we look together for a new perspective from which we can mindfully and practically go forth. To find out more or to join a course, please click here.

Written by Heather Regan-Addis

Heather Regan-Addis is a Founder Member and Director of the Mindfulness Association.

Heather delivers training for the Mindfulness Association on our two Post Graduate Master’s degree courses as well as on our regular courses in Mindfulness, Compassion, Insight and on our Teacher training programmes.

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Our Engaged Mindfulness Course begins on September 8th

We have an Introduction to Compassion Retreat weekend coming up on 23-25 September, in the wonderful peaceful Samye Ling Tibetan Centre for World Peace in the south of Scotland. Find out more about that HERE

• To help support your practice on this life journey we have a daily guided meditation practice Monday to Friday 10.30am and 7pm
• The Mindfulness Association has in place a widening access policy so we can help you attend courses if you are struggling financially, we don’t want this to prevent you from your practice.
• Try our FREE 4 WEEK email Course HERE
• Mindfulness Association Membership is also a great way to support your practice on this journey. For only £10 for a 6 month trial you can have access to fortnightly teachings, access to free recorded practices and a free members weekend packed full of teachings and opportunity to network with other mindfulness practitioners.
• Post Graduate Studies. 2 Msc. courses. 
• UPCOMING COURSES

In-Depth Mindfulness • Compassion • Insight • Wisdom • Teacher Training • 2 Post Graduate Master’s Degrees.

References

Baudon & Jachens, 2021. A Scoping Review of Interventions for the Treatment of Eco-Anxiety.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9636

Macy & Johnstone, 2012 (Revised Ed. 2022). Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power.

https://www.goodreads.com/tr/book/show/13235686-active-hope

Wamsler, 2018. Mind the Gap: The role of mindfulness in adapting to increasing risk and climate change.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-017-0524-3

Stollberg & Jonas, 2021. Existential threat as a challenge for individual and collective engagement: Climate Change and the motivation to act.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X21001962

Image by NOAA on Unsplash

by Larry Ward

Another Earth poem following last week’s Earth Day, and like the poem I posted a week ago, it’s author is called Larry. This Larry is the inspirational Dr Larry Ward of the Lotus Institute. He is one of Zen Master/activist Thich Nhat Hanh’s senior dharma teachers and I am inspired by his deep commitment to social change, authentic practice and mindfulness in relationships, including in the book he co-authored called Love’s Garden.

The poem speaks of his deep relationship with the earth and the teaching that Thich Nhat Hanh also often emphasises: that joy and pain are not so separate and opposite as they may seem on the surface. Pure aliveness in all its various forms!

PS If you’d like to explore treading lighter on the earth in terms of your carbon footprint by looking into the details of this in a compassionate, supportive context, you can join our next 6 week course on Mindful Consuming which starts on the 4th of May…

Photo by ben o’bro on Unsplash