Date: June 19, 2022
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • China
  • Weaver
  • Coming Back to Life
  • Active Hope
  • Facilitator

By Kelsey Eaton
June 19, 2022: This month we feature Helen Sui, a volunteer Network Weaver who leads Work That Reconnects workshops in China and is part of a team translating Active Hope and Coming Back to Life into Mandarin. Kelsey Eaton, who volunteers with the Network Communications Committee, spoke with Helen recently.

From a young age, Helen Sui knew her life path would follow societal expectations – she would complete her education, secure a corporate job, and have a family. She worked with a corporation for nearly twenty years, and her life was filled with friends and many achievements. But she found that she didn’t like who she was, and she began her “exploration of self” in 2012. Over the next seven years, Helen became a part of the coaching community in China. But she needed to go deeper, beyond the mind; she still knew that something in her life desperately needed to change.

In 2019, Helen quit her corporate job. Around the same time, a fellow coach introduced her to the Work That Reconnects, which in China is called Active Hope. Initially, she was uncertain about how the Work would integrate into her life. The processes required a level of vulnerability that was new to her and not always received well by others.

Helen’s first experience of the Work left her speechless.

“For the first time, I was representing nature to talk to human beings, which is such a deep and real thing and inspires a feeling of interconnectedness.”

At the onset of COVID-19, an acquaintance of hers, a coach leader Miss Ye, who had translated an article by Chris Johnstone (coauthor of Active Hope), invited Helen and 19 other coaches to help her bring people together to experience the Work That Reconnects. This meeting evolved into bi-weekly sessions, with people calling in from places such as Australia, Canada, and China. Helen reached out to Chris for support in sharing this work with people in China. With his inspiration and confidence in her, Helen facilitated the Work That Reconnects in-person and online, and joined the 2020 Spiral Journey Facilitator Development Program with Mutima Imani, Constance Washburn, and Molly Young Brown.

Helen represents one of the many threads bringing the Work That Reconnects to China. She shares this work with people who need to process their pain, with those grieving environmental destruction, and with nonprofits who work with medically disadvantaged communities. Her corporate background equips her with the skills to bring the Work to communities entrenched in the Industrial Growth Society. Therefore, she shares the Work That Reconnects with everyone.

Helen is part of a team, led by facilitator Tina Li and Miss Ye, translating Active Hope and Coming Back to Life into Mandarin. They carefully choose the Mandarin words that capture the essence of the Work. These translations will enable more people to experience these life-changing and life-affirming practices. The book should be released by the end of 2022.

Helen joined the Weaver’s team with dreams of sharing Active Hope with large networks of people, helping them see through the mind’s illusion of division and learn that we are all united. In her focus groups, she bridges science and spirituality, helping people think differently about themselves, their community, and the earth. She feels grounded and held by the web of life, knowing that people worldwide are engaged in the Work, and that one day soon there will be a tipping point when communities come together for the greater good of the planet.

What message does Helen have for those just being born?

“Believe, have faith. Believe in Mother Earth, that you are part of her, born of her. Believe in the Great Turning, and be willing to sacrifice and throw yourself completely into the process of the Great Turning. The effort… the action… of every being matters and plays a role in making the Great Turning happen. Lastly, do it, believe in yourself, and do it; no matter how small the action is, it will impact the whole. Even though we won’t be physically a part of that, we will somehow still always be with you.”