Connection Matters Podcast

Books Mentioned in this episode

The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker

Signs by Laura Lynne Jackson

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Links mentioned in this episode

• https://marthahunthandler.com/
• Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast
• Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/
• My personal instagram is  https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/
• The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Biography

I see magic at work everywhere around me. I don’t believe in coincidences, only co-incidents: things that you hear, see or feel that help remind your soul of its path. I appreciate the phrase, “Grow or Wilt.” I think that’s what we’re all here for – to continually expand our hearts and minds as we navigate our way through the plethora of experiences we are presented with for this purpose.

Raised in Northern Illinois, I began to see wolves in my dreams from a very early age. Always a nature girl, I spent my free time either swimming in a lake near my house or roaming around in the Enchanted Forrest near my home. It was here I first heard nature speaking to me; asking for my help while promising guidance in this endeavor. After earning a degree in environmental conservation at UC Boulder, I worked as an environmental consultant in D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles.    

With my adult children now grown and flown, I’m able to focus on pursing those passions that most pull my heartstrings: wolves and writing. I spend weekdays in Tribeca, New York and weekends near the wolves in South Salem, New York.  My first novel, “Winter of the Wolf,” will be published by Greenleaf in July, 2020. 

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
• Read the Blog for all the actionable tips, journal prompts and a deeper read of my thoughts and perspectives on connected self-leadership.
• Follow Me: Stay inspired and connected on social media:  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , Pintrest
• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.

Things we talk about in this episode

• The Sandy Hook Tragedy and Scarletts experience of losing her son.
• Forgiveness is a choice then a process
• The Choose Love Movement
• Why do we need a Social and Emotional Learning programme in Schools
• PTSD and Post Traumatic Growth
• The courageous Rwandan Genocide orphans who reached out to the brother of Jesse Lewis to give him the strength to move forwards
• Healing from Trauma
• Corona Virus Pandemic and the social and emotional consequences for society
• The FREE choose love programme.

Links mentioned in this episode

www.patreon.com/connectionmatterspodcast

https://chooselovemovement.org/

Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast

Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/

My personal instagram is  https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/

The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Biography

Scarlett Lewis founded the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement after her son was murdered in the Sandy Hook tragedy in December 2012. After his death, Scarlett became part of the solution to the issues in today’s society. Through Choose Love, Scarlett became an advocate for social and emotional learning (SEL) and character development that teaches children how to manage their emotions, feel connected, and have healthy relationships. Choose Love offers a no cost, comprehensive SEL program

that empowers educators and teaches children how to handle adversity, have courageous conversations, and respond with love. The program has been downloaded in all 50 states and 100 countries, serving nearly 2 million children.

To help children and adults deal with the stress and challenges of the Coronavirus, Choose Love created a variety of new, free resources; and specifically, to support students and educators as they navigate the new normal of hybrid learning, Choose Love created Choosing Love in Our Brave New World, a back-to-school reintegration unit for Pre school through to the HighSchool and beyond.

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
• Read the Blog for all the actionable tips, journal prompts and a deeper read of my thoughts and perspectives on connected self-leadership.
• Follow Me: Stay inspired and connected on social media:  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , Pintrest
• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.

Things we talk about in this episode

• Talbarou a French retreat centre in France
• Nature Culture- An Introduction to the Art of Mentoring and the Eight Shields
• Earth Culture- An introduction to Permaculture
• Similarities between Eight Shields and Permaculture
• Differences between Eight Shields and Permaculture
• The nature connected earth based cultures that inspired the origins of both Eight Shields and Permaculture  - Both Models were designed from watching the patterns of nature, what works, and how do humans interact well  and then designing by those patterns
• Tree Protesting, activism, studying, exploring.
• Starting an Eco-Village
• Steward Community Woodland Eco-Village
• Art of Mentoring 
• Peters first experience of Eight Shields and memories of having his heart blown open by singing and story telling and being held in grief and acceptance.
• How do these models translate in everyday modern life? How are Permaculture and the Eight Shields Model being used in real life.
• What elements are being brought into the mainstream and transforming our way of being? Grief, Gratitude,
• Positive stories of  the world and being in it. An antidote to the negative media coverage that we see day in day out
• Marine Permaculture, Local community owned solar networks
• Parenting inspired by Eight Shields
• Young generations being inspired by Eight Shields and bringing it into their lives.
• Elders being inspired by Permaculture and excited about learning and making the connection

Links mentioned in this episode

Support us on Patreon

http://8shields.org/

https://www.livingincircles.com/

http://artofmentoring.life/

The film 2040

Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast

Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/

My personal instagram is  https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/

The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Biography

I support people, groups and organisations, bringing them more into their power and creativity by using Permaculture and 8 Shields Institute design principles.

I teach and convene 8 Shields Introduction weekends around the UK and Europe, I am one of the lead organisers of the UK ‘Art of Mentoring’ Camp, and along with my partner Rebecca Card i run the ‘Bringing it Home’ 8 Shields yearlong training

I also teach Permaculture Design Courses, People Permaculture courses and bespoke Permaculture trainings.

I support people individually as well, with ongoing mentoring relationships in person or on regular calls.

I love singing and music, and i have self recorded 2 albums of acoustic songs. I enjoy running in the woods and moors, wild swimming and visiting new places.

I am deeply grateful for my hobbit-cottage home on a Dartmoor farm and my partner Rebecca who i share it with, and for all the wildlife that lives around us, weaving through our lives in delightful and surprising ways.

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
• Read the Blog for all the actionable tips, journal prompts and a deeper read of my thoughts and perspectives on connected self-leadership.
• Follow Me: Stay inspired and connected on social media:  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , Pintrest
• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.

Things we talk about in this episode

• It is possible to have a business that has a mission that is much more than making money
• Asking great questions to get better results
• In some instances, as humans, as communities, we are further away from each other than we’ve ever been
• What are the patterns of how a healthy natural system flows and what can we learn from this?
• Joanna Macy describes this moment in human history as 'Exquisite'. We are in the Great Turning.
• Presence and connection as way to living well
• Mindfulness - The moment you begin to practice breathing mindfully in and out, you have the energy of a mother, to cradle and embrace the baby -  Thich Nat Han
• Acting from the heart- kindness -is key
• Martin Luther King - Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic
• Trying to create a culture  that is not combative but still strong
• Transactional analysis - meeting at 3 different levels - adult, child, parent
• Nature connection, protection, heart love at the adult level
• Connecting as adults - self each other and nature
• Kate Raworths- Donut Economics - revolutionary way of looking at economics
• Three forms of knowledge need to occur - thinking - being/sensing - connecting ideas, knowledge with confidence
• How do we teach resilience, connection and a capacity to see the bigger system?
• Christiana Figueres- Paris agreement
• We’re doing too much in silo’s isolation
• We need to do more to support people to work in systems with nature
• How does a healthy natural system work and what can we learn from it?
• 3 forms of knowledge

Links mentioned in this episode

Support us on Patreon

Andres' links

https://bio-leadership.org/

https://andresroberts.com/

http://wayofnature.co.uk/

Andres' TED talk

Kate Raworth - Donut Economics

Christiana Figueres - Paris Climate Change Agreement

Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast

Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/

My personal instagram is https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/

The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Biography

I support new forms of human progress by working with the principles of living systems and the wisdom of nature.

The aim of The Bio-Leadership Project, founded in 2016, is to support more generative, adaptive and responsible human systems by working in partnership with the systems we are part of.

Alongside the Bio-Leadership Project, I am co-founder of Way of Nature UK, which is about hosting deeply transformative experiences in nature. At the heart of the Way of Nature process is the practice of going on a ‘quest’ alone into the wild – a process that I take much care and respect in guiding for others.

I have worked and learnt with elders and teachers from around the world, as well as first class partners in organisational learning and development. Today I work with people and institutions such as Patagonia, the World Benchmarking Alliance and the Amani Institute, and many wonderful individuals working to support new forms of progress towards a safe, long-lasting and inspiring future for all people and all planet.

I believe that our lives and human structures have become desperately disconnected from our natural systems, and that we are at an important point in history, where we might choose to realign.

I believe that to grow whole worlds, we must start as whole selves.

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
• Read the Blog for all the actionable tips, journal prompts and a deeper read of my thoughts and perspectives on connected self-leadership.
• Follow Me: Stay inspired and connected on social media:  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , Pintrest
• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.

Things we talk about in this episode

• The rise of the field of nature connection and Forest School
• The internet as a forum to reach more people even in nature connection work
• Family camps as a way of creating connection and community
• The importance of holistic play and learning for all ages
• The benefits of risk taking and play for children as they grow
• The Eight shields model of nature connection and its application in holding events and gatherings
• The power and importance in holding connective gatherings
• Thomas Schorr-kon - bushcraft and earth wisdom holder
• Jon Young - Nature connection leader
• Children need nature
• Storytelling and its power to inspire and create
• Creating our own new stories
• Telling the positive stories in the world right now
• All types of learning can happen in the outdoors
• Barriers for teachers in taking children outside
• Finding belonging in connection to a place and outdoor setting
• Chris’s new book I love my world

This episodes giveaway- A free copy of Chris's new book-I love my world. To enter this draw please leave a comment on the Patreon sight about something you enjoyed about this episode.

Go to www.patreon.com/connectionmatterspodcast

Links mentioned in this episode

www.wholeland.org.uk

www.natureconnection.co.uk

www.naturalmusicians.co.uk

www.patreon.com/connectionmatterspodcast

Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast

Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/

My personal instagram is  https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/

The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Biography

Chris is a leading inspiration in the field of nature connection and environmental education for families and schools in the UK and increasingly worldwide online. He is musical and playful too. He has many things in his teaching bundle including a degree in environmental science and a natural talent for working with groups of people, telling stories, sharing bushcraft skills, foraging, creating environmental art and playing the didgeridoo too. He wrote his first book, “I Love my World”, in 2009, reprinted in full colour in 2020 and has now created "absolutely incredible" CPD and nature connection courses online at www.natureconnection.co.uk. He also a husband and dad, lives in Devon and loves swimming, surfing and climbing trees barefoot. Chris is founder of www.wholeland.org.uk

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
• Read the Blog for all the actionable tips, journal prompts and a deeper read of my thoughts and perspectives on connected self-leadership.
• Follow Me: Stay inspired and connected on social media:  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , Pintrest
• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.

Links mentioned in this episode

www.patreon.com/connectionmatterspodcast

https://www.souland.org/

Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast

Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/

My personal instagram is  https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/

The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Biography

WHO AM I? Partly mycelium, partly raven, partly bee and partly river...
​
I am called Azul Valerie Thome (Her- She) ~ a weaver of chrysalis and an active visionary for: SOULand: Making the World of our Longing. 
SOULand offers ensouling courses, mentoring, rituals, ceremonies and apprenticeship to engage and support the Passaging, the maturing and the homecoming back to Earth for our species.

I am a designer of soulful rituals, an eARTh artist, a sacred activist and a mentor devoted to restoring humanity back to a deep and honourable relationship with the visible, the invisible and with our living Earth. 

I share wisdom teachings centered around maturing as humans, grief ritual, women’s rites of passage, Earth-informed art, and life cairn dedications for honouring extinct species. 

I am a TreeSister who lives in a little wooden cabin on the edge of the wood in Devon, England, part of my response to my full engagement with Earth Wisdom Tenders, Extinction Rebellion, Deep Adaptation and the Work that Reconnects. In deep love and wild grief with Life 

Influenced by my primary guides and mentors (Joanna Macy, Francis Weller and Sobonfu Some) as well as my own deep listening to darkness, mycelium,  the Earth and the Waters.

In the past I have cultivated Earth-connected leadership and youth programs, reverently showcased folk art at my Dartmouth shop, and coordinated a diverse community coalition to reforest the oak groves surrounding the River Dart in 2002.

I hold a master’s degree in Ecological Design from Schumacher College: “the eARTh of Collective Grief as if Life and Death really Matters”.

I am the mother of a strong, devoted and dedicated young man, Roman, who lives in America. My father lives in Lebanon, my sister and brother in Paris. 

My full basket of wisdom teachings: eARTh, Grief Composting Circles, WomBelt, Black Tent Council , One on One mentoring , Returning to Earth What was Stolen , Life Cairn, Earth Wisdom Tenders while following the message  from the Water. 
~~~~~~~~~
I was born in the 1960’s in Beirut to a French Mother and a Lebanese Father. 

Always with a finger or ten into the beautiful and sacred animist ways which are based on the knowledge that all natural things on our Earth have an interconnected ecological Soul.

From participation in the start of the Transition Movement to the London urban food growing scene, seed banks and reforestation projects, whatever vision I activate and initiate is sourced in our animate world, deep ecology, soul imagination and deep transformation.

Past ventures include:
FOOD from the SKY
London Freedom Seed Bank
Embercombe

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
• Read the Blog for all the actionable tips, journal prompts and a deeper read of my thoughts and perspectives on connected self-leadership.
• Follow Me: Stay inspired and connected on social media:  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , Pintrest
• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.

Things we talk about in this episode

• Connection work in all the many fields is ultimately the same thing
• Science, spiritual and soul
• Tuning into our bodies to allow our capacity for pleasure
• Connection to our self is is a devotional act to yourself
• Connection to our body comes first and is the foundation
• The benefits of understanding the pleasure scale
• Healing from cancer through natural methods, connection, joy.
• The issues with living with a constantly stimulated sympathetic nervous system
• Benefits and pitfalls of our regular routine and structure and why
• Self- resourcing instead of reaching for unhealthy habits
• The human need for physical touch
• Having an approach of curiosity with our bodies
• The benefits of creating time to nourish ourselves and cultivate a strong relationship to our bodies
• Why turning towards our struggles and blockages in arted way can be  groundbreaking and revolutionary.
• Trauma associated with lack of touch
• Our fear of rejection and being different
• The power of personal sovereignty
• How can we give ourselves permission to be happy, have needs, be heard and make choices that make us different
• Not saying no does not mean I am saying yes
• Body work as a way to access suppressed fear, anger to release trauma
• Letting go of past trauma as a way to accessed increased capacity for pleasure
• Suppressed trauma leading to ill physical or mental health
• Facing up to our reality with awareness, bravery and compassion we can open up to a fuller life
• The amazing world outside of our programmed response to attack and defend

Links mentioned in this episode

Podcast Patreon - www.patreon.com/connectionmatterspodcast

Jems website link: www.jemayres.co.uk

Jems facebook link:  https://www.facebook.com/jemayrescoaching/

Jems You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBuEEIsC1MxhtmTWkP9IKzw?view_as=subscriber

Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast

Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/

My personal instagram is  https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/

The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Biography

Jem Ayres: Orgasmic Embodiment Coach.

Jem is a certified Sex Geek -  A Sexological Bodyworker, Tantra practitioner and teacher.  She is the Founder of Orgasmic Embodiment, and regularly leads workshops, retreats and hosts talks on conscious sexuality.

She has over 10 years’ experience in the field of self-development through the body.

Jem now preaches what she likes to call ‘Sexual Self-Development’ and those who have met her know she walks the walk.

Overcoming stage 4 cancer became her focus for a while, and through this process she embraced and worked with the healing power of orgasm.

Multi-talented and creative she is passionate about helping people to connect with themselves through the body, fine-tuning into the subtleties of our life force, using sexual energy to fuel all areas of life.

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
• Read the Blog for all the actionable tips, journal prompts and a deeper read of my thoughts and perspectives on connected self-leadership.
• Follow Me: Stay inspired and connected on social media:  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , Pintrest
• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.

Things we talk about in this episode

• Only through filling up with joy can we be generous
• medicine wheel teachings - seeded Native American teachings
• Spirituality comes through the natural world
• Earth based spiritual trainings for women
• Martine Prechtel- Guatamala, Vermont
• Initiation - meeting with the natural world- understanding of the source of all life
• Ecopsychology
• Relationships between beings and the land and people
• Indigenous, Earthbased, deep connection with the power of life, spirituality
• Grief, broken heartedness, betrayal
• Sadness and longing and sorrow
• The grief muscle
• Why do we need an earth based connection
• How we’ve forgotten our connection to the land
• Connection is vital for us to survive
• How quickly we can regain our connection to the land
• Rites of passage - enacting with honour a movement from one stage to another
• Menopause as a rite of passage
• Steps and purpose of a rite of passage - to feed life, feed the village/community, initiate the young
• Young people today- Anxious and entitled
• Service to life
• The power of stories
• Sowing the seeds for a future beyond ourselves
• Those  who can do ceremony should be doing ceremony right now
• What is an elder and true mentor
• The power of beauty is to be tempered by the wisdom of the Elder
• Everything we do in life is to prepare us to be great elders

Links mentioned in this episode

Support the podcast at www.patreon.com/connectionmatterspodcast

Annies website http://www.hartwell.eu.com/

https://www.martinprechtel.com/

https://www.ecopsychology.org.uk

https://www.circleofliferediscovery.com/

Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast

Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/

My personal instagram is  https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/

Facebook page- leona.connection.matters

The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Biography

ANNIE SPENCER, a ceremonialist and workshop leader with an Oxford MA and a diploma in Humanistic Psychology, has been running groups and trainings for over 25 years.  Having been apprenticed in a Native American tradition and studied Guatemalan Mayan teachings, Annie weaves these with the traditions of her land Britain.  As a teacher, Annie opens pathways for others – illuminating their life’s journeys.  Her primary interest is the renewal of ancient ceremonial forms for creating a path of beauty upon Grandmother Earth. www.hartwell.eu.com

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
• Read the Blog for all the actionable tips, journal prompts and a deeper read of my thoughts and perspectives on connected self-leadership.
• Follow Me: Stay inspired and connected on social media:  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , Pintrest
• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.

Things we talk about in this episode

• Gratitude for technology that allows us to connect and create
• Womens and mens circle - connecting and unifying
• The power of transforming space through dance
• Music is a leveller
• Music as a way of bringing community, social justice, togetherness
• How can we bring accessibility to music and creativity?
• Music as medicine
• Voice work - vibrational expression or our essence
• Natural Voice Network
• The value in diversity and openness
• Learning to respond - understanding where we are and what is needed
• Finding the genius in everyone
• Healthy community is inclusive and also celebrates peoples individuality
• Power of ceremony to connect
• Between polarisation - what is between the rejection of spiritual practice and cynical use of ritual and ceremony disguised as religion
• The value of communal spaces
• Polarisation of views relies too much on there being definitive right and wrong.
• Everyone wants a tribe - communities of acceptance, shared core values and belief systems but can this limit our curiosity and growth
• Attachment to our ideas can be limiting
• The power of accepting that we don’t know the answers
• Elemental connections- Water as a healer, water flows, responds, changes form, how can we learn from water?
• Surrender and letting go of attachments
• The opportunity to imagine that we really have the opportunity to create something different
• Inequality of lockdown experience
• Random acts of kindness
• The shadow - and the light - All the aspects of humanity being exposed in lockdow
• Privilege related to conscious community
• Healing power of creativity, grounding and getting our hands in the ground
• Gratitude for the simple things in life - simplicity over too much doing
• Connecting to the sacredness of life in the smallest of everyday things

Links mentioned in this episode

Join our community and support us on Patreon here; www.patreon.com/connectionmatterspodcast

Damien's links

https://www.facebook.com/caulbearers/

https://www.facebook.com/soulsoundsmcr/

https://www.facebook.com/musicasmedicinemanchester/

https://www.facebook.com/theorderoflove23/

https://www.facebook.com/damien.mahoney.3

https://www.instagram.com/caulbearers/

Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast

Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/

My personal instagram is  https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/

The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Biography

Damien is a vocalist, percussionist and producer based in Manchester with a passion for community and collaborative projects.

He is the writer and co-lead singer with Caulbearers, an 8 piece Manchester ensemble creating archaic funk fables and soul migrations.  Described as ‘roots music from the rainy city’, and ‘psychedelic soul with poetic, social observation’  an album of their material is due to be released later in 2020.

He is the curator of 'Music As Medicine', a live music event started in 2016 aiming to bring communities together through the healing power of sound and music, performance and dancing, drawing on world influences and encouraging collaboration and improvisation between artists.

Passionate about the healing power of sound, Damien regularly provides live music for therapeutic events including meditation, dance, breathwork and yoga sessions, retreats and ceremonies. This work includes the live improvisation trio, The Order Of Love.

Damien is a trained Natural Voice Practitioner and has facilitated communal singing groups in a variety of scenarios from his regular ‘Soul Sounds’ sessions and nature retreats to specialised work with lung health patients, social workers and prisoners. He is part of a collaborative project to bring music and voice work for staff & patients into a Manchester hospice in 2020.

Damien has performed, produced and recorded music in many styles. His creative output and collaborations span from funk, soul, and reggae, through acid house, balearic dub to Indian and Afro beat influences. Commercial releases range from remixing a major R+B artist for EMI through to underground DIY collective projects, with international compilations and radio documentary soundtracks along the way.

He has over 20 years experience in the film + TV industry and lecturers as a freelancer on a BA Hons course for Manchester Film School.

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
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• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.

Things we talk about in this episode

• The Art of Mentoring
• Cultural Healing
• The power and magic in catching storie
• The Eight Shields Model for nature connection
• The Village- the many elements of the Art of Mentoring that make a well held and healthy, safe and happy gathering
• Grief Ceremony - a place to be witnessed, supported and to release whatever needs to move -
• Dominant Culture not connected, with natural cycles, nature, fullness of emotions
• Modern phobia’s- nature, death, difficult and strong emotions
• When we are in a safe place in a strong container, a well held space, grief naturally arises. The experience can really deepen.
• When we give time to REALLY thinking about ancestral pain, displacement, colonisation, witch hunts, the grief arises with force.
• Trauma held from ancestral lineages
• Macro- Cultural grief, history, climate
  Micro- trauma, personal grief
• Grief work, stepping stone to addressing trauma
• Things we expected but did not receive- elders, welcoming,
• The awakening- realisations from COVID-19
• Lessons from the return to simplicity- community, family, natur
• What would a culture that tends to its grief well look like? How do we tend to grief well?
• Be the change that you wish to see in the world
• Modelling and tending our own grief leads to a more authentic way of living, leads to love.
• Is Grief tending morbid and depressing?
• The good feeling that comes from tending grief- warmth, love, belonging, togetherness, beauty
• Stuckness and depressions is a sickness that comes when we cannot express our grief in a healthy way.
• Lost Connections - book
• Grief is intimate, connection, authentic, openness
• How do we tend to our own grief
  Build relationships- to an anchor, a person, being that can listen to our story
  Connection to the elements and other beings
  Water-transmuter of grief
  Trees, special places, the earth
• The earth can take the grief, rage, despair and compost it.
• Offering grief in service to life- with the intention for healing
• Grief is not self indulgent, selfish, grief is needed.
• Creating points and places of connection to life-
• Stephen Jenkinson- No need to fetishise death.
• Nature based human development
• Facets of wholeness- sub personalities
• Transitional Threshold work

Links mentioned in this episode

Become a Patron!

Support us here www.patreon.com/connectionmatterspodcast

https://naturewisdom.life/

https://www.martinprechtel.com/

Sulustu - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHlBJGM-XyQ

http://8shields.org/

https://www.jonyoung.online/

https://thelostconnections.com/

https://orphanwisdom.com/

https://naturewisdom.life/

Our website is www.livewild.org.uk/connectionmatterspodcast

Connect with us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/livewilduk/

My personal instagram is https://www.instagram.com/leona.connection.matters/

The music for this podcast is -Hermosa Dia by Ray Johnson https://soundcloud.com/visionray

Support us here www.patreon.com/connectionmatterspodcast

Biography

I work as a Guide, Facilitator and Ceremonialist of Nature~based Wisdom, Cultural Healing and Soul Initiation.  I’m a Wilderness Rites of Passage Guide and Cultural Mentor supporting people to re~member Wholeness as part of the collective initiation I believe is needed at this time and as part of the journey towards knowing our belonging to the earth and the earth community.

I am also a qualified and experienced Yoga teacher, Meditation Instructor and Somatic Movement facilitator. My encounters with the other-than-human world and tracking the journey of soul inspire me to write creatively.  I have trained in the ways of Apache Scout and Shaman, Grandfather Stalking Wolf, and I’m involved with the 8 Shields UK as a Village Builder, organising and facilitating 8 Shields programs.

I believe in the power of ceremony, community and sitting in circle for deep healing and authentic connection. My passion is in  re~membering Wholeness and finding creative ways to explore that. My joy is in tending the hearth, the garden, being with the birds. the land and spending time nurturing deeply fulfilling friendships.

Thank You for Listening!

I am so grateful to you for tuning into this episode of Connection Matters Podcast. This is my passion and where I share my hope for a better world. If you enjoyed what you heard, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners and spread the message of connection, healing and growth!

Stay Connected:

• Join the Community: Be part of our growing community by signing up for my newsletter here. You'll receive updates on new episodes, resources, and exclusive offers!
• Read the Blog for all the actionable tips, journal prompts and a deeper read of my thoughts and perspectives on connected self-leadership.
• Follow Me: Stay inspired and connected on social media:  Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , Pintrest
• Connect with Me: Have thoughts or questions about the episode? I'd love to hear from you! Reach out at [email protected]. I always respond.
• Find out more about working with me here. 

Upcoming Events:

• Don't miss out on upcoming workshops, courses, or events! Stay informed by visiting the website here for more details for details.