Acts of Love for Tough Times

A 2 hour gathering - always free - where we come together to name what we're finding difficult (because, as James Baldwin says, 'nothing can be changed until it is faced') and explore what might help - maybe joy, anger, forgiveness, activism and more.

When the world is on fire, how might we gather together to talk about how we feel and explore the ways that different forms of love might support us?

No need for me to say how difficult many people are finding things right now – and how difficult things really are. From wars and the breakdown in the climate through to toxic work cultures, the cost of living, violence against girls and women, the rise of the far right … and our feelings of rage, grief or powerlessness.

Acts of Love for Tough Times is a (free) workshop that gathers together people who know that in difficult – in some ways shockingly difficult times, with more to come – we need to draw on our deepest humanity. We need more acts of kindness and compassion, we need activism and change. We need love. We need acts of love for ourselves and for others. In all aspects of our lives as well as in our organisations.

This monthly workshop (a conversation, really, between people who care and want to respond) will explore:

– what’s happening in the world – and in our own worlds – that feels tough to look at and handle?

– in what ways might love – and acts of love – be a valuable contribution to these times?

– what difference do we want to make (or try to make) and how could love play a part in that?

– what forms, acts and expressions of love are we talking about here? Previous sessions have explored hope, forgiveness, anger and activism, joy and building community ... as forms of love needed in these times.

– and what might be some ‘acts of love’ that we might individually and collectively begin.

(If the idea of exploring love in organisations appeals to you, please also take a look at The Love Lab, running in November in London.)

There’ll be time for personal reflection and rich conversation. As well as Barbara Fredrickson, I’ll be building on the work of Joanna Macy, Jem Bendell and Meg Wheatley and others. I’ll share some of my own research and thinking into love and what it means for us today. There’ll be a poem or two. And you’ll leave with a greater sense of what might be possible.

People who came to recent sessions said:

• ‘Thank you so much for opening-up and facilitating such a lovely space for conversation and connection. I loved the questions and quiet moments for writing and reflection together with the conversations’.
• ‘There is so much to process. It was a truly enriching and encouraging experience’.
• ‘I left with lots of insights and feeling much more joyful about the world so thank you to you and all the other participants’.
• ‘Enormous gratitude for you creating and holding such a magical space for us all this morning. I left feeling resourced and nourished and joyful’.

You can find more about the work I’ve been doing exploring love and leadership over on my website.

NOTES

1. I’m keeping these workshops free, even though that tends to mean that people sign up and then there are several no-shows. But it still feels the right thing to do.
2. IMPORTANT: I’ll send you a reminder of the Zoom link a day before the event – please add helena@helenaclayton.co.uk into your address book so the email doesn’t go into Spam.
3. And if this sounds up your street, do take a look at The Love Lab - which puts Fredrickson's work at the heart of the day.

(pic: Choy Moo Kheong)