May 2025
The Holistic Activism booklet is now a reader for the Global Futures and Just Transformations course at Curtin University in Perth. It’s heartening to see Holistic Activism shaping the broader discourse on activism that fosters long-term healing and systemic change. Recently, students in the course participated in the Holistic Activism meditation, an uplifting conclusion to a lecture that, while understandably filled with sobering predictions about our collective future, left room for hope and reflection.
In other news, Post Growth Australia Podcast (PGAP) recently hosted a deeply moving and inspiring interview with scientist, environmentalist, and poet George Tsakraklides. His work shares profound parallels with Holistic Activism, and George is quoted multiple times in the Holistic Activism booklet. Listen to or download the podcast here: https://pgap.fireside.fm/beyondthepetri?fbclid=IwY2xjawKWmttleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF2UTZuQXV1Qm0wY1hrQ05GAR5FJitI7aC87NeMTryuR9c-JLN2J4rAWbGO3_moZO9IQlLRe-mK9ImEk4ucTg_aem_cWSbBjDrvIAWDPR5GgVqBw
08 November 2024
Some thoughts following the US election:
The world is navigating increasingly difficult times as we continue to breach multiple limits to growth. This coupled with soundbite thinking and the cognitive dissonance that is perpetuated through social media, is leading us further into darker territory. For many the apocalypse has already hit, whether it is Gaza or the flooding in Spain and beyond. These are symptoms of a deeper existential crisis which will eventually leave none of us unscathed.
Therefore, this message isn’t a call for optimism or hope, as we cannot assume there’s a future to be hopeful about. Instead, it’s a call to hold space and to serve both human and non-human futures, with an awareness of our profound interconnectedness. All in a way that helps direct us away from this trauma informed society to one that at its deepest core, understands the interconnectedness of everything.
This will not guarantee success; only that the better we can hold space now, the more gently the future might unfold—regardless of its uncertainties.
Much of our activism, we’re realizing, is rooted in the same trauma-based narratives that drive the systems that we resist. Even sharing well informed opinion is futile if we’re not fostering empathy and connection. This requires that we compassionately and assertively direct conversation from logical fallacies towards the nuanced joined-up thinking to which we can all take shared ownership. And if this feels too much right now, feel free to step away and simply be the observer; plant trees, knit, write a song etc… it is all service to the whole. Right now, there are birds singing in the trees outside my window, the trees are growing well and this little corner of reality is doing ok. My interaction with the world starts here.
Holistic Activism is one component of a much wider integrated movement towards a change in the way we do activism, so we are pleased to announce that we have updated the Holistic Activism Booklet in a way that is more accessible to a wider number of people. You can download the new 2024 edition on the link at the top right of our homepage.
13 February 2024
We have just had an article published on the Eco Voice website titled, Climate Activism and the Crisis of Language. You can read it here:
We have also written a version that is suitable for a teenage audience titled, Climate Activism and the Language Challenge which can be read on this site. Simply click on the link on the main menu.
26 July 2023
While we have been quiet on this site in recent months, we have not been idle. But I am posting today in light of the apparent escalation of the climate crisis that has occurred in the Northern hemisphere over recent weeks.
This extreme weather is underpinned by a trio of climate records being broken, from the hottest ever temperatures ever recorded to high ocean surface temperatures to the lowest ever levels of Antarctic sea ice recorded in winter. What this means is that the world as we know it is rapidly coming to an end. We can try to develop a controlled transition towards the inevitably scaled down society that we are approaching and we must. But sadly, at a time when we need to be coming together, we seem to be more divided than ever as YIMBYs fight NIMBY’s, farmers battle rewilders and protesters are vilified on mainstream TV.
Therefore, while Holistic Activism is about doing everything we can to create a controlled transition to whatever comes next, it is also about planting seeds for whatever might emerge from an uncontrolled collapse. If humanity survives it must never go down this path again. We need a new approach that reconnects us to our place in the web of life as opposed to placing ourselves above it. It means understanding that we are not our minds and that instead our minds are only part of who we are. Our true nature is that of the Tao and of nature evolving to show compassion. Whether you see us as atoms understanding that we are atoms or that we are part of consciousness becoming self aware, it matters not.
But it does mean that we must move from our pursuit of certainty through religion or dogma of any kind to embracing uncertainty; knowing that ultimate truth can only ever be pointed to and never fully understood. This allows us to return to the space that is using our minds as tools for rational joined-up thinking to help heal our collective traumas, while returning us to a state of equilibrium both with each other and the earth.
Please contact us if you would like to help us on this journey.
10 October 2022
Holistic Activism has drafted a potential statement on population for The Anti-Growth Coalition. The intention is to frame the topic in a way that people who both feel that population is an issue and those who don’t can work together and cooperate in a coalition that embraces their shared values on degrowth:
“The Anti-growth coalition acknowledges that fertility rates decline and populations stabilise and even shrink when important parameters are met, such as universal access to family planning and education. We realise that the factors that lead to population decline/stabilisation are all important factors in their own right irrespective of the population issue.
We also recognise that it is ok to embrace the stabilising and declining populations that occur when people have the opportunity to make informed choices. We therefore reject the fear of population decline that is perpetuated by growthist interests and understand that this fear is pursued because of their desire for growth in GDP.
It is true that many societies have ageing populations but this is something that every population must face before it starts to stabilise and shrink in size. A society that is not concerned with ‘growth at all costs’ can ensure that more people are employed in the caring economy in a way that can better accommodate an ageing cohort. Also, that the role of older people as caregivers and volunteers is properly recognised in a society that is not driven by GDP.
While we do not want population to be a distraction from the urgent need to lower per capita carbon footprints, especially in the ‘global North’ we do recognise the benefit of being better able to transition our agriculture and town planning away from having to feed ever more mouths and having to house ever more people to better regenerating what we already have. This could be through rewilding, regenerative farming, retrofitting our suburbs or the slower pace of development that occurs with urban regeneration.
In conclusion all of the social parameters that lead to reduced fertility rates should be integral to a post growth society because they are all important issues in their own right. We reject any fear mongering around stabilising and declining populations that accompanies this and instead regard it as an opportunity to better work with and regenerate land that has already been impacted by human activity.
11 September 2022
A podcast dedicated to discussing Holistic Activism!
Thank you so much to Earthbound and to Dan McTiernan for the interview. It was a real joy 🙂 https://anchor.fm/being-earthbound/episodes/Conversation-Mark-Allen–Redesigning-activism-to-avoid-burnout–find-common-ground-and-bring-about-lasting–positive-transformation-e1k1eiq/a-a867btp?fbclid=IwAR0cRvB6UVDqyOH5vJDkfqEaQNlxqFySQTdIAxoK2_LfOIH2G0GaR2VfmM8
20 June 2022
The latest episode of PGAP is a very important one as it explores the work of Dan and Johanna McTiernan of Earthbound and the vital work that they are doing.
As stated on their website:
“By becoming earthbound we start to experience a genuine felt sense of both internal wholeness as well as a oneness with everyone and everything else. And from that new experience of self, we can begin to heal and regenerate our lives, landscapes and culture in alignment with and in service to the place we call home.”
It is wonderful also to hear Holistic Activism come up during the discussion and how it fits into the work that Earthbound is doing.
Please give this a listen as it is one of those important interviews that you will feel the need to revisit numerous times.
01 June 2022
Our friends at Earthbound have recently launched their first podcast; an interview with Bruce Parry, a man who has lived among First Nations people and made numerous BBC documentaries on the subject. His experiences have inspired him to move towards a more holistic type of activism.
“His latest major film is Tawai: A Voice From The Forest which he made independently. It’s a fascinating film that listens deeply to some of the last remaining indigenous egalitarian communities on Earth so that our industrial culture might learn other ways of being that still persist to this day. Ways in which it’s possible to live fully in harmony with each other and with the whole of life. Ways which used to be much more common and could one day become so again.
Bruce has spent many years travelling around the planet but a few years ago decided to settle back in the UK and to a small Welsh homestead in need of regeneration.
He hopes to share this project with others looking to learn from wiser cultures and yearning for a life fully reintegrated with nature. He also hopes the seeds of heart wisdom he has brought back from tribes such as the Penan and Mbendjele can germinate and thrive in Western Industrial culture at a time when it’s so needed. Bruce is such a generous spirit and his message is so crucial in the times we are living in. I strongly recommend you watch Tawai: A voice from the forest which you can stream via the website
And for more information about Bruce and his work please visit: Bruceparry.com
You can listen to the podcast here:
26 May 2022
There is now a new ‘ Conversations on Holistic Activism’ section of the website. This is a more casual ongoing conversation about Holistic Activism that is intended to fill in the gaps that may have been missed out elsewhere. We will add to it over time as new questions arise.
4 March 2022
The recent IPCC report makes grim reading and has been released at a time when there is so much other grim stuff happening in the world, that understandably, is distracting us. But at a deeper level it is all connected.
This is why we must all work together to create long lasting behavioural and systemic change that reaches down to this deeper level. To do so is understanding that activism can’t just be reactive. It has to also be about healing the traumas that has led us into this mess.
Part of this process is about getting around cognitive dissonance by taking activism beyond ideological posturing towards finding the common ground that connects us. That way we can build a movement that is greater than the sum of its parts and that carries a diversity of opinion within it.
With this approach, people will become more interested in having ownership of what is an ongoing, flexible and unfolding systemic reassessment of the global crisis, rather than feeling the need to defend an ideological position at all costs.
Deep adaption, Regenerative Consciousness, Holistic Activism, and Earthbound are all examples of groups and movements that are taking us towards a new type of activism that carries everyone within it, wherever we happen to have landed.
20 February 2022
It seems so simple to say that we can spend time in a safe space being the observer; in that place between thoughts where we can simply watch the universe unfold without judgement.
But so many of us struggle to reach that space, partly because of unresolved trauma that lives on within us, sometimes passed down through the generations…and it will not allow us to let our guard down.
This is why techniques such as mindfulness and meditation just don’t work for many. A new generation of teachers such as Irene Lyon, Ronald Bal, Jeff Brown, and Gabor Mate are breaking new ground in terms of acknowledging and processing unresolved trauma.
Earthbound is an organisation that connects deeply with Holistic Activism in the way that it helps us to let go of unhelpful patterns of trauma, while recognising how this can help reconnect us to our deep interdependence with all things. In turn, it looks at how this has a positive influence on the the way we work with the earth.
This is an important article about how the cofounder of Earthbound, Dan McTiernan discovered embodied presence and how it in turn inspired him to share his insights with others.
Dan and his partner, Johanna now run courses that help people to do the same thing. This is so important at a time when our activism must go deeper than merely reacting to the destructive nature of humans who have lost their way. We must through our activism be part of the healing that caused this disconnection.
10 June 2021
We now have a Holistic Activism YouTube channel! This currently includes the audio version of the first edition of the Holistic Activism booklet as well as the Holistic Activism Guided Meditation.
We will over time, use this channel to upload zoom workshops/discussions, podcasts and interviews, so please feel free to subscribe and watch this space! You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdgdivyTp8VG6B6vQRyOyg
01 June 2021
This pandemic is horrifying in so many ways. It is also forcing the world to change its behaviour. It is waking the world up to the fact that what we had before was just a story and that we are quite capable of writing a new one.
And we absolutely need to write a new one. It is really important that we build on the changes in behaviour that we are seeing now so that something good and long-lasting can come out of this.
Holistic Activism can play a crucial role. We can use this time to help develop an all inclusive and interconnected movement for systemic and behavioural change. While we are all isolated behind our computer screens, we are intimately connected through the world-wide-web.
I am not sure yet how we are going to do this, but that doesn’t matter, because a willingness to collaborate combined with the interconnection of many minds, will pave the way forward. I am sure that this movement has already started. We just need to find our place within it.
But we will also need times of silence, times of meditation and connection with nature. That way our mind-work will be so much more productive and we will be better able to see past ideology into a realm of collaboration
Feel free to share this website, download the booklet and listen to the audio booklet with anyone who might be interested. HA definitely doesn’t claim to have all of the answers but we can be part of the wider conversation that we really need to be having.
Stay safe and lets change the world from the comfort of our own homes
Updated Holistic Activism Booklet
We have updated the Holistic Activism booklet once again in order to include some fantastic additional quotes and links. It is also now in a much more readable format. You can read/download the booklet by clicking on the link on the home page.
Due to the ongoing covid situation, we are still some way off getting back to running workshops but we do have a number of other projects in the works including writing a children’s book version of the booklet. We are also planning to record an audio version of the most up-to-date version of the booklet in the near future. Watch this space!
Book Recommendation
Meanwhile, peace activist and environmentalist Sue Gilbey has told us about a wonderful book that she would like all of the world to read. ‘The Properties of Perpetual Light’ is currently difficult to get a hold of in many countries, including Australia. Let’s hope that we can change that soon. This book has high praise from Alice Walker and Naomi Klein among many others. This boo like of others of its kind will play an important role in helping us to work towards the behavioural change that we so urgently need.
You can listen to an interview with the author Julian Aguon, on the Adelaide Chronicles podcast here:
You can get a taste of the book here:
Wednesday 28 October 2020
The Holistic Activism Guided Meditation is finally finished and available to listen to on our Soundcloud page. The link to that page is on our main menu. Feel free to download it and listen to it whenever it feels right to do so. Downloading is much greener than streaming and it is simple to do.. Simply click on the three dots at the bottom right of the title and scroll down until you see the ‘download’ button. It was written and recorded to help communicate the four steps of Holistic Activism in such a way that the booklet cannot so effectively do. The drumming helps put the mind into a deep space of presence while the ‘guided’ bit allows the listener to practice the steps on their own terms at their own pace. This meditation is therefore best listened to on a regular basis. That way it doesn’t matter if you do not absorb everything that it has to say on every listen. On some listenings you may not connect to any of the words while at other times you may connect more to what is being said in the narration.
Over time, you will develop an intimate connection to all four steps and be able to see and experience them as an integrated whole. This will help develop the new behavioural approach that can help shift us away from the climate and ecological emergency to a model of living that understands the interconnectedness of our inner world and the human and non-human nature that is all around us. A huge thank you to Mike Lowe for doing the drumming, to Michael Bayliss for recording the narration and mixing it all together, and to Rowena Garcia of Squeaky Pea Designs for the brilliant cover. Edition Three of the Holistic Activism booklet The third edition of the Holistic Activism booklet is now also available to download. This contains the transcript of the meditation as well as some additional tweaks base on what we have learnt since edition two. You can find the link to this on our main menu.
Workshops and Zoom Meet-ups
While we hope to run many more workshops in the future, we will also be embracing Zoom and by doing so we’ll be able to connect with people in multiple places and timezones at the same time. This is something that traditional workshops cannot achieve and while we embrace the intimacy of running workshops, zoom will also enable us to communicate what we have to say to a much wider demographic on a much more regular basis, irrespective of what the world throws up at us. We are embracing the normal. Please watch this space for notifications and/or contact us if you would like to get involved.
By incorporating Holistic Activism principles into all aspects of our activism, we can build movements that are not weighed down by cognitive dissonance. Instead we can look towards creating something that is able to cross disciplines and incorporate different opinions and values.
Holistic Activism 