The past ten weeks on the Calmer Farmer course have been a shared exploration of some of the ways we can improve our wellbeing. During that time we have explored ideas and practices around the following themes:
The difference between presence and absence and how both feel as lived experiences.
How our nervous system regulates itself, how it can become disregulated and how we can work with that in simple helpful ways.
Different parts of self, the different roles we play in our public and private lives and the different internal voices we notice along the way. Noticing when we feel stuck in certain modes of being and when we feel flexible and adaptable.
The felt experience of living the “story of interbeing” as opposed to the “story of separation”. What is possible when we recognise our deep togetherness with the rest of nature on a daily basis?
The ways we can know through the body and how this offers us a bigger bandwidth of intelligence beyond our strategic thinking. Learning to trust our intuition and our inner knowing within the heart and the gut.
What's possible when we begin to allow ourselves to be ourselves, to feel comfortable in our own skin, and to begin to relax the mask of our persona?
And then last week, we explored the possibility of recognising the simple truth that everything in the ecosystem of our lives is allowed - even the things that we wish were not as they are. When we can begin to accept the simple truth of that, noticing what happens to all the energy we've been using to resist that now becomes available to put to service in our farm work, in our relationships, in our lives.
It’s also been an experiential tour through lots of supportive embodiment practice along the way. Participants have noticed which practices they resonate with, which have been helpful and what they can take with them into the future:
I am hoping to carry with me a few things from this course: the Agape practice, the connecting to the inner mountain, the breathing practice & the greenlighting practice (like wow, I have this calm peaceful presence at my back all of the time? That is amazing!)
Thanks for showing us that there are other ways to approach life, other ways to play with. I’ve appreciated the opportunity to bring things up from my subconscious, things that I’ve been carrying around without realising how much they’ve been pulling on me, & now I’ve got tools to look at them. I’m pretty sure I was ignoring things & hoping they would just go away/resolve. It’s quite freeing to realise that I don’t have to rely on just hoping all the time!
This has felt like a powerful fire to be around, thanks for making space for us 😌
I am looking forward to going back through the practices and seeing how they resonate differently as my perspectives change. I will continue to weave the things you have shared through my days and weeks to see where they take me.
Over the last week or so the Swallows, Martins and Swifts have returned bringing me great joy, the Yellow Rattle in my very mini meadow is reappearing, I have watched butterflies dance together and wondered in the miracle of a tiny seed germinating into a food giving plant. I have been able to bring new insight into these experiences and to be still for moments to feel part of the ever shifting processes. Thank you and travel well.
Just the beginning
The initial ten-week course was always designed as a setting off point for farmers and growers to develop their own wellbeing practice and most importantly, to begin to weave these approaches and perspectives into their own lives on an ongoing basis. Embodiment is really, as the name implies, about feeling differently in our bodies. It’s a journey of reconnection with ourselves and through ourselves with other people, the land and everything else within the web of life. This is a powerful integration practice that takes time, patience, self-compassion and consistency. Ten weeks is enough time to begin to form habits and to notice real-life shifts in our wellbeing, but we need to commit to an ongoing path of wellbeing to see true transformation.
In order to help our participants create their own ongoing wellbeing practices, we offered a few suggestions we have found to be helpful.
Richard Strozzi-Heckler, a renowned embodiment expert, makes an interesting point: we are never not practising something. If we’re not practising presence, connection and regulation, we’re practising absence, disconnection, separation and dysregulation. Because we are the sum of our activities. We might think that at this very moment, reading these words, we are not practising anything, but as we sit here we’re practising a way of breathing, ways of holding ourselves, ways of reacting to things. A lot of the time we are practising our conditioning. We barely notice it, because we’ve been doing it perhaps since we were children, but if we want to change things, if we want to learn something new, learning it as an idea is not enough. Change has to happen in the body as well.
“To change how we are means changing how we act; it means functioning differently. It requires a different way of organizing how we feel, act, sense and perceive. To embody new actions asks that we move beyond insight into the realm of practices that reshape and transform how we actually are, and not just the idea, or desire of who we are.” (Strozzi-Heckler 2014, p.11)
Intention
When designing a practice, it’s good to consider our intention. What’s important to us and how can our practice help us towards that? Something that’s deep enough that it’s strongly motivating, but broad enough that it doesn’t become just a goal in a self-improvement project.
Engaging with the process of connecting and opening is not about self-improvement, about having another string to our bow, but about recognising ourselves as nature, as Life, and allowing nature to work through us in a generative way. So we shouldn’t have goals that are too specific, because we may not know at this point what nature has in store for us. But deep down we know what it is that we care about and intention is related to that.
In setting up a practice, we are, however, seeking for change. People who have dealt with addiction and recovered, say that change doesn’t happen until you’re ready, until you’ve truly had enough of a certain way of being. So as part of thinking of your intention, it may be useful to ask yourself: “What is it that no longer serves me?” So intention is something we want to move towards and this question looks at what we’re ready to shed, to let go of.
Aikido master George Leonard writes about forming sustainable practices in his book “Mastery”: “Can you let go of an outworn behaviour pattern without knowing exactly what will replace it?” (Leonard p. 149)
There is an unknowing related to change, an element of not being in control of the outcome that asks us to trust the process.
Accountability
Being on the hook. It can be helpful to make a declaration of commitment, or to have a buddy system through which we are being held to account. If your partner or friend is also taking part, you can practise together, particularly in the moments when you’re tired or feel too busy or overwhelmed to do it alone.
An ongoing practice group is a brilliant form of accountability and support, that reminds us of what is important to us, what gives us joy and meaning and keeps us practising.
Make space
What do you need to do in order to carve out the time to practise? What are the arrangements that need to be made?
This is also about considering making mental space. Are there ways in which you can simplify your life and slow it down? Consider also all the things you are ingesting, taking in mentally and experientally. Are you overconsuming, are you overfull, bloated with information for example, news, social media? Consider everything you consume in that sense and think about dropping anything that isn’t serving you.
Form a ritual
It can be helpful to practise at the same time, in the same space every day, to dedicate a space that’s for your practice, where you won’t be disturbed and where you perhaps have some things that remind and motivate you to practise.
Ritual also offers an opportunity to tune into that which is unknown, sacred and beyond us, to notice that we are participating in change, rather than being the sole drivers of it. Ritual fosters a healthy sense of humility.
Make it achievable
Small and slow solutions. You can start with a two minute practice and add a minute slowly and at your pace. Small and slow is likely to be more long-lasting.
Follow your joy
Do the practices you most enjoy at this moment and follow your enjoyment and pleasure. Seek for pleasurable experience within the practice and foster that. Enjoyment is a much more powerful habit former than duty (or “should” energy).
Gain satisfaction
Obtain a yield. This is a slow process that never ends but keeps unfolding, so you need to find ways to enjoy the practice rather than just focusing on a distant goal. So, look for the immediate and short-term benefits. Enjoy the small shifts you notice in your mood or body and find ways to reward yourself when you’ve completed a month’s worth of practice, for example.
Expect plateaus
Change and learning tend to take place in short bursts and long plateaus where nothing at all seems to be happening. This unfolding is different for everyone and by no means linear. Goals and progress are concepts very much related to our industrial growth culture, and are not useful measures in observing changes of opening to Life.
Expect resistance
Resistance is built into your system as homeostasis.
Homeostasis is a phenomenon that looks after the balance or equilibrium of all self-regulating systems. It resists ALL change, it doesn’t distinguish between what we see as change for the better or worse. Homeostatic alarm signals may come in the form of physical or psychological symptoms, you might unknowingly sabotage your own best efforts. You might get resistance from family, friends and co-workers, as homeostasis also applies to social systems as well as individuals.
Pay attention to resistance when it arises. Instead of allowing resistance to talk you out of your practice and decide it’s not for you, see the resistance as valuable information. Resistance is a portal to growth and expansion. When we cut the cord with thinking and hold the felt sense of resistance with acceptance and curiosity, and inquire into it, it opens up. Follow a path of flow, but make use of the portals of resistance.
Learn from your past patterns
Learn from your past patterns: Observe your past patterns, what works for you in forming a habit. When have attempts at forming a habit succeeded, when have they failed and why might that be?
Enjoy the adventure
The path will take unexpected twists and turns, Life will serve us what it is that we need to notice, the places where we need to surrender, things we need to let go of.
The adventure continues into Phase 2 of Calmer Farmer
Now the ten week initial course has completed, we are inviting those participants that would like to continue this wellbeing path with us to join a twice-monthly live online group meetings starting in July 2025 and running until January 2026.
These meetings will be a combination of ongoing embodiment practice and wellbeing support as well as an Action Learning process called Cooperative Inquiry.
Joan Walton, an expert in Cooperative Inquiry and one of our research and facilitation team, describes Cooperative Inquiry as:
“a way for people to come together to explore a question or issue that really matters to them, in a thoughtful and supportive way.
You don’t need to be an expert. In fact, that’s the point. Cooperative Inquiry is based on the idea that everyone’s experience is valuable, and that we can learn a lot by sharing, trying things out in real life, reflecting together, and supporting each other’s growth.
Here’s how it works, in simple terms:
A small group of us chooses a topic or question we care about.
We meet once a month to talk, reflect, and plan small actions to try out in our daily lives.
Between meetings, we each explore the issue in our own way—paying attention to what we notice and learn.
Then we come back together to share our experiences, reflect on what we’re discovering, and decide what to try next.
It’s a cycle of action and reflection, grounded in our own lives. Over time, it can lead to deep personal insight, practical change, and stronger connections with others.”
This is a pilot project for what we hope will be a really useful resource for farmers across the UK and beyond for many years to come. So this opportunity to explore important issues that farmers are facing and then to work together in a supportive community to explore helpful approaches to those issues will be invaluable in terms of research that can serve both the participants and hopefully the wider food system.
We’ll continue to share themes, reflections and learnings from the Calmer Farmer project over the coming months.
Leonard, George 1991: Mastery. The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment. New York: Plume (Penguin Books USA)
Strozzi-Heckler, Richard 2014: The Art of Somatic Coaching. Embodying Skillful Action, Wisdom and Compassion. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books