Venue "Vila Sklenářka"

Vila Sklenářka was built in 1904. The resort was created as a place for love, art and meeting. During World War II, the villa was discovered by the Nazis and used for their own purposes until the end of the war. After the regime change in 1948, the villa fell to the state and an outdoor school was established for children from the cities.

Only in the last 10 years has the place been associated with the themes of personal development of ecology and sustainable lifestyle. Since 2015 there is living a community, which is gradually revitalizing the entire space so that it serves as a place of self-knowledge, rest and inspiration for a conscious way of life.

More info: www.sklenarka.cz

The local host organisation Forest.Ink has its headquartes at Vila Sklenářka and hold regular meetings there. They are directly learning from the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and transferring their knowledge to the Eueopean context.

We believe that a world where humans live in harmony with nature is possible, albeit with significant adjustments in how we lead our lives at the individual and collective level. However, we also understand that each of us only has the agency to change themself. That said, through our personal stories and behavior, we can be the spark for others to instigate their own transformation. With a combined shift in individual perspective, we can improve the trajectory of the governments, communities, and corporations that impact how we treat nature. We care deeply for our natural world and encourage more people to consciously care for nature as well.

Erik Liepmann, Co-Founder Forest.Ink

Filip Kňažek (Czechia): What is calling me the most is the wish and urge to incorporate nature based methods into my daily work as a facilitator and trainer and bring nature closer to the city people especially again. Before covid I was organising coaching and mindful walks in nature and I'd like to build up on this competence. Also I'm building up my confidence in this kind of activities and this TC would be very helpful.

Ana Moca-Grama (Romania): Discovering deep ecology, volunteering in a permaculture garden and attending courses and youth exchanges in other eco-villages opened up a new world and motivated me to keep working towards the dream of a selfsustainable, meaningful, grounded life and to share with others what I am learning. I take time every week to be in the forest or in the mountains and I am passionate about herbalism, wild foraging, permaculture, indigenous wisdom and the ways spirituality and nature come together in rituals, traditions and crafts.

We live a lot through devices, and the human part is many times lost. Nature helps us reconnect with what we are, animals. And to show ourselves in a truer, less artificial way. When I'm in nature I feel calm, I don't feel the rush or the urgency that surrounds us everyday. Or at least it makes it much easier to feel calm. And I think it also provides a better environment to be open with the others, to create a community feeling, since we can experience that we are all the same and come from the same place.

I do my own studies online by following videos and reading inspiring teachers, however I feel that this course content as well as the benefit of connecting in community would inspire me to create more opportunities to help others connect with nature and open up to the value of community, knowing themselves deeper and perhaps also open the dimension for a spiritual connection with that which we cannot see yet deeply feel the importance of connecting to its mystery

I practice meditation since I am 15. It is a practice I found out about after feeling tired of trying to change the outer world. And community building started mattering to me after my first experience volunteering at a film festival in a rural area in Normandy, France in 2020. I realized how much a cultural event can bring people from diverse backgrounds together and the fact that experiencing something as a community is a strong starting point for a sense of belonging and feeling safe in one's own shoes and environment.

As an "IT guy" who grew up in nature, I believe knowing nature and being connected with it is central part of the solution to problems our planet is facing. Seeking to shift my career, I got to know the founders of Green Steps in Shanghai, and started to develop a nature+sustainability learning platform with them. Besides that, for 8 years, I’ve been part of the core team organizing the Shalanaya psychedelic arts and music festival, helping to build the psychedelic community in China.

Currently I am feeling strong wish for remembering myself with others and developing my personal exploration process. And I miss it - a lot. Being connected with myself, with others. Spring is for me an amazing time of the year of reconnecting with my inner self and at the same time period of gathering the community, reconnecting taking the winter grounded energies into movement.

I truly think we are nature as well but that we are non really conscious of it, so I try to learn it myself to share the knowledge with those around me, sharing the wisdom. Every day more I feel a strong connection with nature and believe that when we act in harmony with it (and ourselves as nature as well), we have the capacity of overcaming the challenges of living in a modern society disconnected from the natural live.

I know that nature has powers that I don’t fully take advantage of. It’s an amazing improvement of how I take my energy from nature, of how grateful I am day by day, of how I appreciate just a simple walk in the nature, from last year. But I think there’s a lot more to learn. I felt a huge difference from the last project that had nature as a theme and I am confident that the more I participate in this kind of project, the more I improve myself as a human.

Many people live without the basic necessities of life. Living in such a way without shelter, clean water, food or education—is something no person should experience. This was my life experience when I was in Ethiopia. Being one of the poorest countries in the world, there is great need for building communities friendly and sustainably where people can receive the basic necessities for living a normal life.

Nature is my basic source, where I draw energy, I have space to be with myself. Exploring myself and connecting with the community is essential together with nature as my resource is common with other resources a basic prerequisite for my work and especially my being.

As part of my work with schools (prevention programs), we try to connect and involve both individuals and the community so that everyone is well.

I joined a Buddhism summer camp in the university. We stayed in Donglin Temple in Jiangxi China, studied, worked and lived with local monks for one month.

I also went to a shamanic drum circle and reiki healing gathering in Shanghai for a few times. Besindes, I practice yoga and meditation.

I strongly believe in the power of building trustful communities and connecting with oneself and one another. To me, there is really no place where connection, care, and learning (with one another and also with ourselves) can happen in such an unhindered and supported way than in natural settings. The hustle and bustle of city life disconnect us from the natural world, but also from ourselves, and from making deeper connection with others. ecially my being. As part of my work with schools (prevention programs), we try to connect and involve both individuals and the community so that everyone is well.

I am a trainer and I have been trying to go deep into this path, but I am still feel I should get more tools to facilitate health and nature, meet more people doing it. My bigger motivation is linked with the hope that by feeling well through nature based methods people connect deeply with it and grow awareness of us as part of it and fall into taking care of it.

I have lived for 6 months in Bali while training to become a Thai Yoga massage therapist and Yoga Facilitator with teachers that have a holistic approach and a deep love for ancient wisdom. Over the years, my motto has become "No plan is the best plan.". Keeping our expectations low creates more space for surprise, wander and exploration. However, I believe that nature-based methods remind us to connect to our inner child and play. Therefore, I hope give myself permission to get lost in presence, to trust the beautiful discovery through play.

In my community, there is a great place where many cultures and mindsets come together to make a campfire and share ideas. With my partner I like to spend time in the green, for example on a blindfolded trip through the forest where one person leads the other through the forest and introduces them to smells and sounds. When I am working on some problem with myself, I go out into nature, sit in a quiet place and write down my thoughts and reflections or write letters to people and then burn them and throw them into a river to be absorbed by the world.

Nature is the place where I feel the most at home, calm and peaceful. Each year I fly to Armenia for the summer to spend some time in a tent in the mountains with my Armenian friends. Sadly, that ´ s about the time I make for re-connecting with the nature. Connecting with myself (or sometimes at least trying) is part of my everyday life. And I am not a part of a community in a real sense right now.

I see it as an opportunity to start a journey to develop my empirical knowledge about the relationship of nature and health. It is for me so far a rather intellectual knowledge. I am curious to experience it and for my mind to live through as many physical, physiological, sensorial state enhanced by nature and nature-based methods. I would love to come out with a new body-mind set ups that can help me to create a more purposeful experience of life.

In Romania I am not surrounded with so many people that have the same openness to naturebased methods and I am looking for a community with like-hearted and-minded people, in which we can grow together, learn from one another and develop future projects and initiatives. I am deeply passionate about ecopsychology and nature-based practices and I am eager to experience more in regard of these subjects. Sometimes, I feel like I am reading and gathering a lot of knowledge, but I don't have many spaces where I can embody this. There, I think that I can find this practice of embodiment here. I am working with youths and I would to expand my knowledge and box of tools.