by Alan Heeks

I can still recall the mix of expansiveness, alarm, and relief that I felt when I first read the original Deep Adaptation (DA) paper, published by Jem Bendell in September 2019. One major appeal of Jem’s views for me is that he sees the climate emergency as an existential, spiritual crisis, not just a material one.

For several years, it felt like on the one hand I was busy with resilience and climate work, and on the other hand, over there, I had my meditation and spiritual practices. Since getting involved with DA, I’ve had an interesting exploration of how to integrate all this.

I see the spiritual aspect of DA as an invitation to get beyond the small self, the ego, which feels overwhelmed and scared by the climate emergency, and to seek a perspective which helps us find meaning and personal purpose in a situation which is hugely complex and uncertain.

This is what soul dialogue has helped me to find. Exploring the soul’s journey is one of the most helpful ways I’ve found to navigate my rising anxiety and bewilderment in the last few years. I recognise that not everyone reading this will have a similar worldview, or consider themselves ‘spiritual’. Regardless of your belief system, I invite you to try – as an experiment – considering that the soul is a piece of wise essence in each of us, whose journey may last thousands of years, and which chooses each human incarnation it comes into.

This belief offers a radical and positive twist in the way you view your current situation. Instead of feeling you’re a victim of random challenging events, try asking your soul, Why am I here? In other words, dialogue with your soul about why it chose this life you’re in, and what it wants to learn, experience, or do in its time here on Earth with you.

You may ask, why would a soul choose a life with severe covid, or as a refugee? The best answer I can offer is this: I believe there are many more dimensions or aspects to life than the few we perceive, and from a bigger, soul perspective, there can be positive reasons to choose big challenges. Viktor Frankl’s time in concentration camps is one example of how love can grow in seemingly unbearable situations.

What I’ve learned from asking my soul these questions is that my soul is curious, and wants to experience how it is to live in a time of upheaval and dissolution. It doesn’t expect us to save the situation, but it wants to learn how to stay centred and positive in an alarming era, and how to be loving and supportive to people and the planet when it’s tempting to be self-centred and focus on survival. So my soul gives me a foundation for the approaches Jem advocates in his inspiring blog, The Love in Deep Adaptation.

Though we may find ourselves living in a toxic atmosphere these days, in which \ we’re constantly unsettled by bad news, and flooded with messaging from mainstream media that tells us we’re inadequate and alone, and the only solution is to buy more stuff. As an antidote to this, to give us a steady centre, we may benefit from a powerful presence, like soul connection.

I find that Soul Resilience not only adds substance to the Resilience of the four Rs of deep adaptation, but the other three as well. It can help us see what’s essential, and what can be relinquished. It can restore perspective, and a sense of connection with other souls, including anima mundi, the soul of Gaia. And it can help us to reconcile, by taking us beyond ego-level responses.

The book which has helped me most in exploring this field is Journey of Souls by Michael Newton. He believes the soul’s real home and community is its times between human lives, in a ‘soul cluster’ of 10-20 souls. Cluster members often choose to come into human lives where they support each other, e.g. as friends or family members. But it is not necessary to accept this literally in order to benefit from creative dialogue with your soul, however you conceive of it.

In my exploration of Soul Resilience, I’ve found that gatherings in which we humans can feel a soul connection with others are very nourishing, and create more insights than we can find alone. So if you want to explore soul dialogue, look for a collective dimension if you can.

If you’d like to explore this further, see my website www.soulresilience.net, which includes details of a weekend workshop Feb 25-27, and online groups.

Alan Heeks has explored how ecosystems can teach people about resilience by setting up an organic farm and the woodland retreat centre, Hazel Hill Wood.  As a group leader and writer he has worked with climate issues for several years ( see www.seedingourfuture.org.uk ), and has been involved with Deep Adaptation since late 2019, including being on the DA Holding Group.