08/30/2021

10/10 Practices around Going Forth, the fourth Stage of the Spiral

Welcome to our last episode, where we look at the possibilities of Going Forth with new learnings and renewed feelings. "We have come to see with new eyes our ineluctable place in the web of life, our connections with all beings through space and time and the kind of power that is ours for creating a life-sustaining culture. Now we use this new vision to discern more clearly the distinctive role we each can play in the Great Turning.” (Joanna Macy) Please prepare a quiet space and make sure you are comfortable. You will need a notebook and pen. The Work that Reconnects is usually based on collective, and in physical presence, workshops, and we invite you to connect to the page www.workthatreconnects.org to find out if there is one close to you. Joanna Tomkins has selected some practices and meditations that she can facilitate to you alone (or with your family or friends, would you like to recreate a group setting) but there are many more "hands on" exercises available within a collective workshop. We also invite you to join as a "Friend of the Work that Reconnects" on the website mentioned above, and to start networking, online or in your region. This is Gaia Speaking. Thanks for listening.

13 min

08/25/2021

9/10 Practices around Seeing with New Eyes, the third Stage of the Spiral

“Realize that for every ongoing war and religious outrage and environmental devastation and bogus Iraqi attack plan, there are a thousand counter-balancing acts of staggering generosity and humanity and art and beauty happening all over the world, right now, on a breathtaking scale, from flower box to cathedral." — Mark Morford” In this episode Joanna Tomkins will read some of the texts and exercises from the book Coming Back to Life that are used as practices during Work That Reconnects retreats, for the "Seeing with New Eyes" stage. They are based on the concept of Deep Time, which is one of the pillars of Joanna Macy's worldview. "People of today relate to time in a way that is surely unique in history. The technologies and economic forces unleashed by the Industrial Growth Society radically alter our experience of time, subjecting us to frenetic speeds and severing our felt connection with past and future generations. Deep Time work has arisen for that express purpose: to refresh our spirits and inform our minds by experiencing our present lives within larger contexts of time." (Joanna Macy) Please prepare a quiet space and make sure you are comfortable. You will need a notebook and pen. Join us soon for our last episode, where we discuss Going Forth, the next stage in the Spiral. Please note that The Work that Reconnects is usually based on collective and in physical presence workshops, and we invite you to connect to the page www.workthatreconnects.org to find out if there is one available to you. This is Gaia Speaking. Thanks for listening. www.gaiaspeaking.com

14 min

08/24/2021

8/10 Practices around Honouring our Pain for the World, the second Stage of the Spiral

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so you must know pain. And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy." — Khalil Gibran” In this episode Joanna Tomkins will read some of the texts in the book Coming Back to Life that are used as practices during the Work That Reconnects retreats. These practices might allow you to reconnect to some of the pain that you have suppressed regarding the situation of the world at present and your loss of connection to it. It's important that you have listened to the previous episode on Gratitude before you listen to this episode. Honouring our Pain will allow us to move toward the next Stage, Seeing with New Eyes. Please prepare a quiet space and make sure you are comfortable. You will need a notebook and pen. Please note that The Work that Reconnects is usually based on collective, and in physical presence, workshops, and we invite you to connect to the page www.workthatreconnects.org to find out if there is a workshop close to you. This is Gaia Speaking. Thanks for listening. www.gaiaspeaking.com

17 min

08/23/2021

7/10 Practices around Gratitude, the first Stage of the Spiral

Having read the theory behind the Work that Reconnects from the book Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, facilitator Joanna Tomkins will guide us through some of the practices extracted from the book Coming Back to Life. Please prepare a quiet space and make sure you are comfortable. You will need a notebook and pen. This episode is about Gratitude, the first stage of the spiral of the WTR, which was introduced in the previous episode. The Work that Reconnects is usually based on collective, and in physical presence, workshops, and we invite you to connect to the page www.workthatreconnects.org to find out if there is a workshop close to you. Joanna Tomkins has selected some practices and meditations that she can facilitate to you alone (or with your family or friends, would you like to recreate a group setting) but there are many more "hands on" exercises that are available within a collective workshop. This is Gaia Speaking. Thanks for listening.

22 min

06/21/2021

6/10 Trusting the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects

In this episode, Joanna Tomkins reads from the book "Active Hope" by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone to introduce the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects. The rich and broad knowledge of the work has been condensed into this incredibly simple structure upon which all the practices of the Work That Reconnects depend. It goes through the four following stages: 1) Coming from Gratitude 2) Honouring our Pain for the World 3) Seeing with New (or Ancient) Eyes 4) Going Forth In the following Episodes, 7 to 10, she will introduce a practice for each of these stages. This is Gaia Speaking, Thanks for Listening!

9 min

06/15/2021

5/10 The Basic Miracle: Our True Nature and Power

In this episode Joanna Tomkins, a Work that Reconnects facilitator, reads selected extracts from Chapter 3 of the book "Coming Back to Life" by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown. “THE GREAT TURNING ARISES in response to what we know and feel is happening to our world. It entails both the perception of danger and the means to act. As conscious, embodied beings endowed with multiple senses, we are geared to respond: instantly we leap from the path of an oncoming truck, dash to douse a fire, dive into a pool to save a child. This response-ability has been an essential feature of life throughout human evolution; it allows us to adapt to new challenges and generate new capacities. It enables whole groups and societies to survive, so long as their members have sufficient information and freedom to act. In systems terms, response to danger is a function of feedback — the information circuit that connects perception to action. Appropriate response depends on an unblocked feedback loop." This episode will navigate through the following structure: Chapter 2: The Basic Miracle: Our True Nature and Power part 1: Living Systems Theory part 2: Ancient Spiritual Teachings part 3: The Miracle of Mind part 4: the Nature of our Power

14 min

06/01/2021

4/10 The Greatest Danger: The Deadening of Heart and Mind

In this episode, Joanna Tomkins delivers a weaving extracts from the second chapter of "Coming Back to Life" by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown. As Joanna Macy says: "Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to permanent war, none is so great as this deadening of our response. For psychic numbing impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more crucial uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for fresh visions and strategies." In the chapter she explains the Pain for the World, What deadens our Heart and Mind and what is the Cost of Blocking our Pain for the World. The book "Coming Back to Life" is available on all main online bookshops.

9 min

05/24/2021

3/10 The Three Dimensions of the Great Turning

In this episode Joanna Tomkins, introduces the next cornerstone of the framework of the "Work That Reconnects": The Three Dimensions of the Great Turning. To do so, she borrows an extract from another book: Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. The First Dimension: Holding Actions The Second Dimension: Life-Sustaining Systems and Practices The Third Dimension: Shift in Consciousness These are the 3 ways we are participating in the Great Turning. The book "Coming Back to Life" has its focus on the third dimension: Shift in Consciousness. You can buy the books Coming Back to Life and Active Hope at all major online book stores.

12 min

05/06/2021

2/10 To Choose Life

In this episode, Joanna Tomkins, a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects, provides insights into the First Chapter of the book "Coming Back to Life", by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, called "to Choose Life". Including quotes by the contributors to this inspiring book, this opening episode will invite you to listen deeper to your own questioning and maybe research further on some of these great authors. This episode presents the "3 stories" that are exposed in The Work That Reconnects framework: 1) Business as Usual 2) The Great Unraveling 3) The Great Turning It also introduces the "3 dimensions" of the Great Turning: Actions to slow the damage to Earth and its beings Analysis and transformation of the foundations of our common life A fundamental shift in worldview and values The book "Coming Back to Life" is available in hardback and kindle on many online bookstores. We invite you to purchase this book or others by the same authors or to find more resources to practice "The Work That Reconnects" on http://www.workthatreconnects.org This episode is available also as a post here: https://gaiaspeaking.com/2021/05/07/to-choose-life-choosing-our-story/

8 min

04/14/2021

1/10 An Introduction to The Work that Reconnects

In the first episode of this podcast Joanna Tomkins provides an introduction to "The Work That Reconnects" by Joanna Macy, a framework followed by a growing network of people willing to truly look at and honour their pain for the world, so that they can work towards "active hope", and take part in the "Great Turning", this historical moment we have been called to be part of. It includes a reading of the core assumptions that motivate the Work That Reconnects (please see transcript below) and a brief introduction to its historical background. Listen on. The following episodes, based on the book "Coming Back to Life", by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, will give you further insights into these concepts and will undoubtably provide relief to your feelings of grief and will inspire you to continue the work that you are doing, in reconnecting in your own way to your greater "ecological being", the one we all share, the one that represents our "interbeing". This episode is also available as a post on her blog: http://gaiaspeaking.com/2021/04/13/the-core-assumptions-of-wtr/ This is Gaia Speaking. Thanks for Listening. The Core Assumptions of the Work That Reconnects: Our Earth is Alive. It is our body. Our true nature is far more ancient and encompassing than the separate self designed by habit and Western Society. The Planet as a living system can know and see itself through us, behold its own majesty, tell its own stories and also respond to its own suffering. Our experience of moral pain for our world springs from our interconnectedness with all beings – including beings of all human cultures – from which also arise our powers to act on their behalf. Unblocking occurs when our pain for the world is not only intellectually validated, but also experienced and expressed. When we reconnect with life, by willingly enduring our pain for it, the mind retrieves it natural clarity. The experience of reconnection with the Earth community, human and other-than-human, arouses desire to act on its behalf.

5 min

"Coming Back to Life", Readings and Practices

Episodes

10/10 Practices around Going Forth, the fourth Stage of the Spiral

9/10 Practices around Seeing with New Eyes, the third Stage of the Spiral

8/10 Practices around Honouring our Pain for the World, the second Stage of the Spiral

7/10 Practices around Gratitude, the first Stage of the Spiral

6/10 Trusting the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects

5/10 The Basic Miracle: Our True Nature and Power

4/10 The Greatest Danger: The Deadening of Heart and Mind

3/10 The Three Dimensions of the Great Turning

2/10 To Choose Life

1/10 An Introduction to The Work that Reconnects

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