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Lydia AtkinsWild Ground Alabama

Photo of Lydia Atkins

Lydia's passion, during this unprecedented time on earth, is to guide others in discovering ease, wonder and connection with their unique bodies and to remind them of their birthright to joy and comfort, especially through personal and collective crisis.

Her vision is to contribute to the WTR community an experience of blending the Work That Reconnects with somatic, restorative practices to support the completion of stress cycles and emotional exhaustion processed during group work. Lydia

Lydia is a certified 200hr yoga instructor through Here Now Yoga & Yoga Alliance with additional training in somatic-restorative yoga.

Communities and organizations that Lydia has collaborated with and is deeply moved by are:
-Music As Medicine Project
-Global Ecovillage Network
-Alabama Cohosh Collaboration
-Special Session at Camp McDowell
-FoodCorps
-Camphill Movement, specifically the Camphill Communities of Ireland.

Why I am called to facilitate the Work

I am called to facilitate WTR because it changed my life and calls me to share it with others. As both participant and new facilitator, I have experienced WTR as the most enlivening method to ground a group in universal gratitude for being alive; to touch and honor the pain of the human experience; to open numbed valves of emotion that then calls us into action of behalf of love for Earth; to see from fresh, more than human perspectives! I am called to facilitate because I believe it will keep myself and others closely engaged with emerging solutions for a life honoring civilization that our future dissidents deserve.

How I see the Work serving the Great Turning

I appreciate deeply the open source access to WTR materials that Joanna Macy has generously given the world. I appreciate the adaptability of the Work to support emerging and historically grassroots, ongoing efforts happening to serve the Great Turning. I see the Work softening the fall of the unraveling systems of the Industrial Growth Society with integrity to the marginalized people and ecosystems that have paid the highest costs. I believe in Joanna Macy's call to act on behalf of life no matter the dominate or personal belief in the outcome of human survival.

Audiences I work with

Caregivers, activists, intentional residential communities, yoga communities, youth and young adult women

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Background & Training

Background & training in the Work That Reconnects

  • Southeast Regional Gathering + Deep Resilience Retreat (2019, 4 days)
    Location: Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute
    Facilitated by: Val Silidker, Meg Toben, Beth Remmes, Lydia Violet Harutoonian
    https://eco-institute.org/work-that-reconnects-gathering, https://eco-institute.org/bioregional-work-that-reconnects-facilitators-gathering
  • Active Hope Workshop (2019, 1 days)
    Location: Red Studio, Kilcash, Carrick on Suir, co Tipperary, Ireland
    Facilitated by: Lydia Violet Harutoonian
  • Deep Ecology Retreat (2018, 4 days)
    Location: Earthaven Ecovillage, Black Mountain, NC, USA
    Facilitated by: Mana McLeod, Courtney Brooke
    https://www.earthaven.org/

Other relevant training

  • Ecovillage Design for Education (2016, 35 days)
    Location: Findhorn Ecovillage, Findhorn College, Forres, Scotland
    Facilitated by: Jane Rasbash, Kosha Joubert, Arianna Burgess, Michael Shaw, Lisa Shaw, Lisa Mead, Alex Walker & more
    https://www.findhorncollege.org/course/ecovillage-design-education/
  • University of Alabama: New College: Undergraduate Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (2019, 730 days)
    Location: Tuscalooosa, AL, USA
    Facilitated by: James Hall
    My discipline was "Sustainability in a Global Context" More about program: https://nc.as.ua.edu/
  • Here Now Yoga 200 Hour Teacher Training (2018, 273 days)
    Location: Embody Practice Center, Birmingham, AL, USA
    Facilitated by: Rebecca Impello, Kimberly Drye
    https://www.herenowyoga.com/2020-200-hour-teacher-training
  • Somatic Restorative Teacher Training (2020, 3 days)
    Location: Online
    Facilitated by: Melissa Smith-Wilkinson
    https://www.pranavayoga.studio/restorative-teacher-trainings

Other relevant skills & experiences

I am a currently practicing Somatic-Restorative Yoga teacher and serve communities and organizations dealing with trauma, grief and burnout/exhaustion.

I have a background as a food systems & environmental educator with two programs - FoodCorps NC and McDowell Farm School. I served K-12 schools in NC & AL as a facilitator and educator on matters of nutrition education, food culture, food justice, creating and maintaining school & community gardens and increasing access to fresh foods in school cafeterias.

I also bring skills of community singing, group games, and a tool bag of nature based activities for youth and adults to connect to themselves, each other and the earth.

Experience facilitating WTR events & workshops

Work That Reconnects workshops I have facilitated

  • Work That Reconnects Immersion Workshop (2019, 3 days)
    Location: Wild Hydrangea Community, Blountsville, AL, USA
    Facilitated by: Lydia Violet Harutoonian, Lindsey Mullen
    https://www.wildgroundalabama.org/work-that-reconnects-immersion-workshop.html
  • Let The Way Be Open (2018, 3 days)
    Location: Wild Hydrangea Community, Blountsville, AL, USA
    Facilitated by: Lindsey Mullen
    In 2018, the theme was focus on WTR. https://www.wildgroundalabama.org/let-the-way-be-open.html

Experience facilitating other events & workshops

In my work facilitating women's retreats with Wild Ground Alabama, I integrated WTR into a 2 day event called Let The Way Be Open in which 8 women were introduced to WTR and a brief journey through the Spiral with open sentences.

I also integrated Deep Ecology ethos into the Restorative Yoga classes I regularly teach.

The Work That Reconnects Network is a fiscally sponsored project of Inquiring Systems Inc., a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) nonprofit corporation. EIN 94-2524840. All donations are tax-deductible.