This chapter explores how to protect ourselves from disillusionment if we are struggling to believe that what we hope for is possible. Many of the teachings from Active Hope are about our deepening our relationships with ourselves, others and our world. In the weeks between each group meeting, you’ll receive a prompt for a home-practice activity to embody those teachings in your own life.

After all, what is the point of making an effort to improve things if we believe catastrophe is inevitable?Paul Hawken (Blessed Unrest): over one and maybe even two million organisations working towards ecological sustainability and social justice. When people coordinate their actions through a collective thinking process, we can think of this as “distributed intelligence.” Coming from gratitude helps build a context of trust and psychological buoyancy that supports us to face difficult realities in the second phase. However, it is not only positive visions that guide us. Our nightmares can alert us to dangerous conditions and summon us to respond on behalf of life. History has shown us many examples of people whose allegiance to wider circles of life impelled them to act in ways that brought discomfort to, and even persecution from, their peers.

Since its inception in the late 1970’s, it has helped countless thousands of people around the globe find solidarity and courage to act despite rapidly worsening social and ecological conditions. Power-with arises from what we do rather than we we have. The shift in perception from seeing power as a noun to seeing it as a very has surprising potency. Like seedlings that need thinning out, we need to choose which visions we support, and then clear space around them so that they have room to develop and thrive.The long-term vision of the Organisation will be to open a centre that would be the base for these activities. In the meantime, it is intended to be a free-lance organisation offering opportunities to groups where they are and taking them out into God’s amazing creation. We live in an epidemic of loneliness: in modern urban environments, people can live in the same building yet still have no real connection to one another. The concept of emergence is liberating because it frees us from the need to see the results of our actions.

Linda and Gwyneth were wonderful guides to this empowering and profound work. If anyone is thinking about giving this a try, I would encourage you to just do it - you won't be judged and you will definitely connect with others and be both reassured and inspired.” Joseph Campbell wrote, “Follow your bliss - and doors will open where there were no doors before.” Chapter 10: Daring to Believe It Is Possible http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/festival/play/7350/call-of-life--facing-the-mass-extinction The second chapter brings a new practice that offers a way for two people to go round the spiral of the Work That Reconnects in a half hour conversation. Similarly, there’s no way that we personally can fix the mess our world is in, but the process of healing and recovery at a planetary level can happen through us and through what we do.

Chapter 2: Trusting the Spiral

Close your eyes and imagine you are experiencing that moment again. Notice colours, tastes, sounds, smells and the sensations in your body. Write a reply to three questions you have received from future beings. Assume that important changes (i.e. the great turning) took place in the early twenty-first century that allowed human life to continue. Active Hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. First, we take in a clear view of reality; second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like things to move in or the values we’d like to see expressed; and third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction. The power of collective hope, in action, is evident by the record numbers of people getting the jab in NSW.

Because we can never know for sure how the future will turn out, it makes more sense to focus on what we’d like to have happen, and then to do our bit to make it more likely. While the video-based trainings won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, we’ve had a great initial response to the course – with over a thousand people taking part so far, and hundreds engaged each week. A survey of those starting the course shows that more than half are either new to the spiral or unfamiliar with it, while over a quarter are very familiar, including some who are experienced facilitators. One of these, Vincent Brown, wrote: Affluenza is a term used to describe the emotional distress that arises from a preoccupation with possessions and appearance. Learning to live in a larger timescape opens us to new allies and sources of strength. Our ancestors can be our allies, and we ourselves, as the ancestors of future generations, can play the role of ally to them as well.This conversation with Dr Mark Williamson was recorded at a live Action for Happiness event on the 23rd Feb 2023. Several generations of children have had daydreaming bred out of them. Our literacy is confined to numbers and words. There is no image literacy.” Social psychologists Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson describe the growth of a new subculture committed to ecological values, social justice, and holistic perspectives. Extrapolating their findings, they estimate that tens of millions of these “cultural creatives”re leaving behind the old story of Business as Usual and creating something new. The “Spiral” – four stages of a transformational journey that you can use regularly to support you to move gently from grief (which can be paralysing or make you manically busy) to a deeper, calmer, sense of purpose and agency - to a place of Active Hope.