Around a month ago, I returned from a weekend away with the Re-Action Collective. It’s taken me some time to reflect on the time and to process some things (and I’ve also procrastinated writing this), but I wanted to share some of my reflections here.

Be more childlike

During the Re-Action Actionism weekend, it was mainly a group of adults, myself being one of the youngest amongst them. However, some of them also brought their children along, which was great! I’ve touched on how we can learn so much from children in the past when reflecting on my time in Portugal at the start of the year, and I’m about to do so again.

I often think about how we should be more childlike in many aspects of our lives. You see, children are often highly mobile - not through hours of mobility exercises, but simply because they move around a lot and get their bodies into lots of different positions. I always try to remind myself that this is something that needn’t be lost as we grow older and that all that’s required is to regularly move the body in different ways. Children aren’t complaining about bad backs, stiff necks, and sore knees, because they’re moving in the way they’re designed - not being sedentary all of the time. I noticed just how easy it was for the children who were there to move fluidly, without effort - be it doing cartwheels or kneeling on the floor.

As well as reminding me of my increasing lack of mobility, one of the children essentially spent all weekend barefoot. Now, some might say that this is ‘unsafe’, however, we were staying on a private piece of land with lots of fields and forest paths, so there was nothing that we might find walking along the pavement underfoot. I felt inspired to be barefoot as much as I could over the weekend too, and even went on a barefoot run to the river before going for a cold dip. I still believe that we’re designed to walk and run without shoes (at least on natural terrain, anyway) and it felt so incredibly freeing and nice to be running with my feet touching the dirt. I paid more attention to my foot placement and ran with a higher cadence, reminding me what my natural running form is. However, my feet were nowhere near as conditioned as a couple of the others, one of them being a child, who’s feet were far tougher and used to being barefoot than mine. It inspired me to spend more time barefoot after the weekend and to try to build my feet back up to what they’re made to do.

Moving on, I was also struck and energised by how curious the children there were, and also by their emotional intelligence. You see, I think that we have a tendency not to allow children to freely express their views on topics that we perhaps assume that they know nothing about, but I think that they’re often far more clued up than we think. One child came over to me when I was sat next to my tent and started pointing out the different mushrooms that were growing wild in the grass. It made me appreciate the level of presence that children have, before they’re attention starts to be taken away from them by technology later on in their lives. All of the children took part in the team-based activities that we did, one of them being an activity where we used LEGO to build a representation of the future that we wanted to see. Even at a young age, it was touching to see their LEGO structures and to hear their words about the future that they’d like to see. It struck a cord inside me as everything that they built and said are things that we all want to see, however, we’ve somehow got lost in our way as we’ve grown older and have gone off piste…Like me, the children wanted to see a fair and happy future; one in which we respect each other and nature.

The children’s curiosity, energy, and enthusiasm for the simple things in life reminded me that we should be more childlike in some parts of our lives.

We are nature

One of the things that this weekend reminded me is that we are nature. I remain concerned about our increasing disconnection to nature in this hyper-connected world, principally due to this exact reason - if we try to compete against nature, acting as if it’s us vs nature, then we’ll only keep going down this deep rabbit hole.

I digress. One of the highlights from the weekend for me was the forest bathing experience. I’ve always loved being in the woods. From a young age, I have fond memories of climbing trees and making dens with my brother and my friends and now I realise that we were essentially unintentionally forest bathing. (Yet another reason to be more childlike!) We were lucky to have the company of Jannine Baron - an incredible woman passionate about nature and regeneration. She also happened to be a forest bathing teacher. The session lasted around 90 minutes in total, although time seemed to dissolve away during the experience. It started with a brief discussion of what we’d be doing, and then we started walking in silence towards the woods. We’d stay in silence until the end of the bathing practice. On the way to the woods, we paused before going through a couple of gates, taking a moment to reflect on what we want to leave behind before going into the forest. We were also told to take notice of what was going on around us - the colours and textures of the different trees, the sound of the birds, the mosaic of the tree canopy above us. Once we arrived in the spot where we’d start the bathing, Jannine took us through the practice. The premise was this: we’d spend the time tuning into our senses one at a time, really trying to focus on what we sensed. Interestingly, to the surprise of a few, I’d imagine, she introduced the first five senses, but then added an additional four. These were proprioception (that is, our body awareness), our inner senses (that is, our intuition and emotional resonance), balance, and temperature. We were then informed that there are in fact far many senses still, but 9 were chosen to keep things simple! (Here’s a link to Jannine’s video explaining each one)

Having explained the first 9 senses, Jannine told us to find a comfortable spot in the woods and to spend around half an hour going through these senses one by one, really tuning into each. I could see the immense detail in the tree canopy, the branches swaying in the wind, and the birds elegantly flying from tree to tree. I could feel the leaves on the forest floor, the bark on the trees’ trunks, the light rain dripping onto my face. I heard the birds singing in the wind, the branches creaking, and the motocross cyclists having fun on the nature reserve (yes, I tried to see the positive light in this). I could smell the freshness of the vegetation around me and the subtle hint of tree sap in the air. I even tasted the earthiness of a twig, really trying to tune into what a piece of wood tasted like (yes, I know this sounds strange, but give it a try). Those were the first five senses, which meant that we then moved on to the additional four.

My proprioception was aware of the presence of other people around me, but also of the abundant nature - the trees, the birds, even the nearby body of water. My inner senses, or if you like, my gut, was interesting to tune into. I cycled through feelings about the past, present, and future, and felt light once I had done so, knowing that these originated from a place of deep bodily awareness. I tuned into my balance by noticing how my body felt lying horizontally on the forest floor. In that position, there was no clear balance point, however, I realised that balance needn’t only refer to physical balance. It can also represent a sense of internal balance - a balance of internal energies. I noticed any imbalances here, and tried to simply observe them and let them pass through me. Finally, I tapped into the temperature - the difference in temperature of the air going in and out of my nose, the temperature of the floor beneath me, the temperature of my body, both inside and out.

All in all, this experience was one that I can only describe as highly impactful. Tapping into each of these senses allowed me to gain a deeper sense of presence in the forest - something that I openly often lack a lot of the time. Following the bathing, we then walked back to the campsite with another person and took turns to describe our experience. Interestingly, at least in my view, a lot of how I felt after the experience was hard to put into words, but I felt a deep sense of joy and peace. I noticed particularly how I did not let the sound of the motocross riders on the nature reserve sway my psyche much. Instead, it felt like I simply accepted what was coming in and out of my body - observing, instead of providing incessant internal commentary. I discussed this with some of the others, trying to explain that perhaps it wasn’t the most ideal situation, however, by letting it simply pass through us, we could be at peace in ourselves.

Food from farm to fork

The next thing that stuck with me from the weekend was the food. I’ve discussed in the past how we’re so disconnected from the source of our food - from who’s growing it, to where it is grown, to how it is transported to us. Luckily, the place that we were staying was an organic farm, called The Fold. When we arrived, I noticed that there was a wooden shed, which was almost like a mini shop where people could come and collect vegetables that were grown on the farm. I was struck by the plum tomatoes at first glance as they looked so different to what we see in the tins from the shops. To start off with, they were huge, and the depth of colour in them was beautiful. The shed was a reminder of what organically grown vegetables, free of insecticides, pesticides, and unnatural fertilisers, look like. It was also a reminder of seasonality - everything in the shed was simply what was in season, almost giving us a snapshot of nature and its seasons in one room.

At the beginning of the weekend, we went to pick up our vegetables from the farm in a big box - these would form the bulk of the meals that we ate over the weekend. It was the first time for me to see a patty pan squash - they’re incredibly beautiful things. Over the weekend, Mish led on the cooking front, but we came together to make some amazing meals - fresh salads, hearty stews, some deliciously fresh tomato sauce, and even a coleslaw with all of the carrots that we had from the farm! It reminded me of what’s possible if the correct systems and infrastructure are in place. The veg was as local as you can get, meaning that money was kept in the local area, a win win for everyone. Yes, an element of creativity is needed when bringing together lots of different seasonal ingredients, however, I view it simply as a great opportunity to have fun and to learn to cook different things.

I left the organic farm with a deeper understanding of where my food comes from, and will endeavour to tap deeper into this in the future. Not all carrots are equal. We have to understand this truth when making food choices.

Creating, not consuming

Moving on from food, one of the key messages that Re-Action try to get across is the fact that we need to become citizens, not consumers. This was clear to me during the weekend, with lots of the activities focusing on creating, not consuming. Conveniently, the phone signal was not great where we were staying, so when I arrived, I decided to leave my phone in the tent for the whole weekend - this being a way to step away from consuming through my 5 inch screen, and instead consuming what nature had to offer abundantly around me and, most importantly, creating.

On the Saturday morning, following the forest bathing experience, we took a stroll past the lake and through the woods and found a spot to sit under the tree canopy to do some embroidery. I’d never tried it before, but had always been keen to learn how to do it. We huddled together and sat down on some blankets and Rebecca from Utilifolk kindly provided all of the resources that we needed to learn how to embroider. I started small and, me being me, decided that I’d like to make a small mountain, with an orange outline and some detail close to the top of the peaks. It was lovely to see everyone, myself included, immersed in the creative act, and I felt a really positive energy in the group. Some were making flowers, others some Lamborghini logos for the children. Importantly, everyone was expressing their own sense of creativity, something that isn’t always facilitated in society these days. Later on in the evening, having been inspired by my friend Rish, I decided to make a nice patchwork type thing with the first letter of my Mum’s name to give to her as a present after returning home from the trip. It felt nice to go from not knowing how to embroider, to being able to create a personal gift for my Mum in the same day.

As well as learning some embroidery, we also spent some time painting over the weekend. We painted our visions of the future, with many including visions of a citizen led future, where we come together as part of communities, be they small or large, to create a better world. We also used LEGO to perform a similar exercise, building our vision of the future. A recurring theme was the word collective. Most of us expressed the need for us to come together, collectively, to create a better world. A world where we move away from constant consumerism, towards personal and collective citizenship.

Finally, related to the idea of creating, not consuming, one particular highlight for me from the weekend was the storytelling workshop. We discussed what made a good story and, importantly, how to share a story in an effective way. Something that stuck with me was our discussion on the effectiveness of the right wing to tell good narratives and stories. Yes, what the right wing say may be a load of waffle most of the time, but we agreed that the reason that they have had the success that they have is due to their ability to tell good stories. To be able to tap into somewhere deep inside out minds where we can resonate with something that they’re saying. I’m not saying that we should all become right wing. Instead, what I’m saying is that we should take a page from their book when it comes to storytelling. There are ways to tell stories that captivates people, ultimately making the stories stick. We were presented with a framework, which I unfortunately, can’t remember. But the important takeaway for me was this: to be able to shift the narrative and create a better future, we must appreciate the things that the right wing do well, and learn from this to help create a strong narrative that aligns with our belief system.

Actioning in the future

So what does this all mean for the future? I was reminded that collective action is key if we are to address the issues in the present world - the ecological crisis, poverty, the food system, to name a few. Over the weekend, it felt like we were all bees in a hive bouncing ideas off each other. It was inspiring to be around people who are brave and are pursuing what they love and care about. I came away with a sense of excitement and hope for the future. It reminded me that we should keep slowly chipping away at our ‘passion projects’ - the things that make us tick, that bring us joy. Yes, things take time - often longer than we think - but if we don’t try, then who will? When like-minded people come together, ideas are bounced around and, after mulching for some time, they can then often be brought to life. I realised that it’s often about taking that step into the unknown, and not letting the fear of failure be a barrier to trying something out.

Perhaps most importantly, I was reminded of the interconnectedness of everything. We are nature. We must acknowledge this and start working with, not against nature.

I’d like to thank the Re-Action crew, particularly Gavin, Mish, and Ellie for hosting such a fun weekend and for providing the space for deep reflection and growth.