Self Care and Personal Work These resources are focused on self care and personal work, however you made a wish to try some of them as part of regenerative activities in your circles or local groups. General Support Options The Trained Emotional Support Network (TESN) & Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) TESN provides supportive functions for both individuals and groups. The realities of the Climate Crisis and potential involvement in protests leave us all needing a little support at some point. TESN and the CPA have a structured set of support offerings ready for you. How can TESN and the CPA help you? Click here for information of how to access this support Other useful apps & services Give Us a Shout - a 24/7 texting service for stress, anxiety and depression Calm - meditation app Headspace - meditation app Support for People of Colour The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network Home of the largest community of Counsellors and Psychotherapists of Black, African, Asian and Caribbean Heritage in the UK. MNPC (Mindfulness Network for People of Colour & friends) A grass roots & trauma based organization, endorsing and bridging alternative indigenous methodologies with western science. Tell Mama Provides support for victims of anti-muslim hate and also monotors and records anti-muslim incidents and attacks. Exhale “Our app creates a space where Black Women can feel seen, heard, and cared for while offering resources that benefit all who seek healing and balance.” The Black Wellbeing Collective A community and workplace well-being service for inclusive & intersectional well-being support for lived experiences and the healing of social exclusion. Synergi Focuses on the intersection between racial justice & mental health, distress and/ or trauma. "We celebrate the history of activists that have come before us, and in collaboration, we build on this legacy." Healing Justice London Is investing in the patterns, postures, and practices we need to enable reverberant impact throughout our communities. "Community infrastructure is our surest path to survival and communities will be the stewards of the spaces and structures we need to support us all." Somatic Practices for Connection and Vitality Short films demonstrating the practice of ‘somatic ecology’ by Jenny from XRUK regenerative Culture’s circle. In these films Jenny invites you to explore with her. She invites you to pause to notice sensation in your body: to feel the ground beneath you, the movement of breathing, the sounds and smells around you. A sensory attunement. From there she invites you to see how your body directly responds to the environment around you and how parts of the body respond to other parts of the body. We might call this ‘the felt-sense of your living body (soma)’ in resonant connection with the natural world. In developing these practices people often notice how supported they feel by the natural world. Sleep can improve, healthier food choices increase, creativity flourishes, decision making is more aligned to wellbeing, relationships with others may become more responsive and less reactive. We may start to be in direct dialogue with the whole natural world through the sensing body. Somatic Ecology: Without Words - Pointing to something that’s happening without the need for words. Just as the heart beats without the need for any words. Somatic Ecology: Connecting to the Source of Life, Creativity, Healing, Relationships - Coming into this sensory curiosity as a way into presence.Out of past conditioning and future concerns, we connect to the source of what is new. Open to new creative insights and healing and harmonious relationship. Somatic Ecology: The Body as a Weather-Vane to the Wider Ecology - In reciprocity, correspondence, felt relationship with the environment, other plants, animals and the elements themselves. Somatic Ecology - Surrendering all words of ownership (I, me, mine, ours)separation, domination, can help us feel the natural relational field. Also as we exchange nouns for verbs. Somatic Ecology: The Child of Nature - The intelligence of innate nature-wisdom felt through the body in connection to the rest of the living world. Somatic Ecology: In Resonant Connection with All Life - Feeling the rest of life, as living movements of the (so-called) outside world, inside us. Feeling the living world as kin. Feeling the support and safety of the community on a continuous basis. Somatic Ecology: Liberated to Speak It! - Inviting you, when you feel safe enough to do so, to share with others how you are experiencing the world. What is happening in your body(soma) and felt-sense when you see the birds fly overhead, when you smell the scent of a flower, when you hear the sound of the rain. Somatic Ecology: In Celebration of Innate Embodied Wisdom - In thanks for the willingness to listen to all of life; the land itself, the earth, the smell of the earth, the sounds of the twigs and how it feels directly in the body (my body). The twig breaks out there in the woods and something happens in this body. Let’s amplify and give value to this felt-sense of correspondence. Somatic Ecology: In Solidarity with the Message of Connection - In the resonance you are acknowledging its reality. An embodied and relational solidarity. Meditations and Reflections for XR work These are a series of meditations and reflections recorded for XR for support, resourcing and renewal by XR rebel Simon ‘K2’ Mckibbin The below recordings can be found on Soundcloud under "Extinction Rebellion Meditations & Reflections - Support, Resource & Renew" at: https://soundcloud.com/simon-mckibbin/sets/extinction-rebellion. Content XR Brief Introduction to these Meditations and Resources A quick guide to using these practices for emotional strength, clarity, and connection in times of crisis. XR Organic Body Grounded Awareness For Soothing A calming practice to help you feel settled, steady, and connected to your body. XR BREATHE Front Line Action Support A breathing-based support tool for staying calm and focused during high-stress direct action. XR Reflective Meditation Resourcing And Preparation For Protest Action A guided space to gather your inner strength, clarity, and purpose before stepping into protest. XR Comfort Meditation Safety Security From Anxiety Fear And Panic A gentle meditation to ease fear and create a sense of inner safety when things feel overwhelming. XR Grounded Aware Presence GAP Short A short reset to help you feel centred, calm, and steady in any moment. XR Grounded Aware Presence GAP Long A deeper, longer practice for building inner steadiness and resilience from the ground up. XR The meaning of Violence and Nonviolence in Co-liberation through Presence An exploration of how our actions and attitudes can either harm or help collective freedom and justice. Soothing Meditation for anxiety and fear & other strong emotions A gentle guide for calming emotional storms and finding balance inside yourself. XR Be Water Reflective Meditation Inspired by water’s adaptability, this meditation supports fluidity, flexibility, and calm in action. XR Treasure Of Your Universe Presence Attunement A practice to tune into the quiet strength and wisdom already living inside you. The Essence of Nonviolent Communication beyond Superficiality and Techniquism A look at how true connection goes deeper than words — into honesty, empathy, and real understanding. Meet Uncertainty and Fear with Safety Resourcefulness Resilience Presence Meditation A steadying meditation for facing the unknown with courage, adaptability, and inner support. Do we stand on thin or thick Ice? Uncertainty Truth and Safety A reflection on navigating danger and uncertainty with awareness and care. Embodied Relational Community Compassionate Connection Attunement A practice to help us feel and build deep, caring connection with others in our movement. Intuition and The Shape of Being Breathed by the Universe An invitation to listen to the quiet wisdom that guides us beyond logic and control. Sensing as a Foundation for Intuition just Noticing Playcise A playful practice to notice your body’s signals and let them guide your next steps. Coming Home to our Sense of Agency Through Presence Attunement A way to reconnect with your power to choose, act, and care — even in chaos. What the Body is Noticing and Letting it Rest In Itself A meditation to slow down, listen to your body, and let it rest into natural ease. Presence as a Protective Cloak of Safety Balance and Wellbeing A practice to wrap yourself in calm, balance, and steadiness — like a cloak of inner safety. Story of the Lost Horse & Something in us Knows how to Come Home Attunement A story and reflection about how we can trust something deep inside to find the way home. Transformative Conflict a creative response to fear and anxiety on the front line Tools for turning conflict into connection and creativity, even in high-pressure protest situations. Being The Change Transformative Community & Language that Connects & Disconnects Explores how our words and ways of relating shape the kind of world we’re creating together. Active Hope Sentence Starters A Spiral of Active Hope This explanation and following exercise is taken directly from the Active Hope Foundations Training from Chris Johnstone and Madeleine Young. We hope that you enjoy this practice. They say "Please feel free to use, copy and adapt it". Active Hope is a practice we can apply to any situation. It involves three key steps: We start from where we are, taking in a clear view of the reality we face, seeing what we see and feeling what we feel. We identify what we hope for, in terms of the direction we’d like things to move in or the values we’d like to see expressed. We take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction. Can we have a conversation that helps us meet each other more, support each other in facing disturbing world events, and nourish our capacity to play our part in responding with active hope? Can we have this conversation with others, and with ourselves? Inspired by the work of US author and activist Joanna Macy, and the spiral practice described in her book Active Hope (co-authored with Chris Johnstone), the process described here offers a suggested conversation structure designed to head in that direction. Please see this guide as an invitation rather than prescription, with suggestions to follow and experiment with, while also respecting your choice about how and if you do so. This practice moves through four stages – Gratitude, Honoring our Pain for the World, Seeing with New Eyes and Going Forth. Stage One - Gratitude. We begin with Gratitude as this helps resource us, putting us in a stronger starting point to face the disturbing information. Gratitude also reminds us of our inter-dependence, of ways we receive from others. Evolutionary psychologists identify gratitude as a social emotion that increases our desire to give back to the communities and networks of support we receive from. There are two sides to gratitude – appreciation and thankfulness. To experience appreciation, see what words naturally follow the start of a sentence that begins with the words “I love…” You’re invited to name what you love, appreciate, relish and delight in – this might include people, places, experiences, colours, qualities, or anything else that follows the words ‘I love… ‘. For thankfulness, you’re invited to see what words naturally follow the sentence starter ‘I’d like to thank…’ Who or what have you received from, in ways that support you? See how it feels to name and thank them. Stage Two – Honoring Our Pain for the World. When we give attention to what we appreciate and feel supported by, we may also recognise ways these are threatened by conditions in our world. The next part of the spiral invites our witnessing of our own or each other’s concerns, as well as the feelings these may arouse, seeing what words follow this sentence starter: ‘Looking at the future we’re heading into, my concerns include…’ Stage Three – Seeing With New Eyes. Facing disturbing realities can leave us feeling overwhelmed. If we’re to give our best response it helps to open to perspectives that inspire, empower and resource us, that open us to a sense of possibility. One way of doing this is to see what words follow a sentence that starts with “what inspires me is…” Stage Four – Going Forth. Now we move into the last stage of the spiral, which is about looking at what we can do, the part we can play, in the larger story of acting for what we love, addressing our concerns or following what inspires us. Our hopes give us a guide here. See what follows these sentence starters - - - looking at the future we’re heading into, what I deeply hope for is … a part that I’d like to play in support of this is … a step I will take towards this in the next week is. Active Hope - The Spiral Seven Sentence Starters Exercise There are 3 ways to engage with this exercise: Personal Reflection. Create a space for yourself, within your daily life – turn off any devices or notifications and minimise other distractions as much as you can. Do anything else that feels good for you, to prepare – maybe clearing your physical space, or taking a few deep breaths, or whatever enables this to feel like time for you. The invitation is to take each sentence starter as a prompt for reflection, recording your thoughts and feelings in whatever way feels best. You may want to use pen & paper to ‘journal’ your responses, you may choose to draw or doodle, or you may wish to record yourself speaking – either audio or video. Whichever method you choose, say the sentence starters to yourself (either aloud, or in your head), and then let whatever wants to come, come. If you freeze up at any point, go back to saying the sentence starter again and see if anything else comes. When engaging with this exercise as an individual, it is entirely up to you if you want to set a time limit, or not. For some, it may be helpful to use a timer and choose an amount of time for each sentence starter (5 minutes, for example). Others may prefer to let it take whatever time it takes. You could even experiment with both to see what works best for you! When you have completed all 7 sentence starters, take a moment to reflect on how this process has felt for you, and to thank yourself for engaging with it, before heading back out into your daily life. Check back in with what you have written, drawn, doodled, or recorded at any point in the future when you would like to reconnect a bit more with yourself. Paired Active Listening To do this, you can team up with another rebel , or you could enlist a friend or family member.It is a great way to bond and get to know each other. We will also be using a different type of listening from the listening we tend to use in daily life. This is called Active Listening and it involves giving all of our attention to what the other person is saying – letting their words soak into us. One person is just talking, and the other is just listening – unlike a ‘normal’ conversation where the talking may go back & forth on any subject. Because we know that we don’t have to respond to what they are saying, we don’t need to give any of our attention to thinking about how we will reply. Instead, we can fully engage with their words with curiosity. If you are unfamiliar with Active Listening, it can feel quite odd at first, but try sticking with it! Each person will take a turn to say one of the sentence starters, and then see what words flow naturally for them from there. Silences, noises and gestures are welcome too! Decide whether you want to give a certain amount of time for each response. Before you start the process, you may want to agree with each other about what level of confidentiality you would like in regards to what you share – or, you could agree to check-in about this at the end of the practice, and to respect whatever you decide on then. To start the practice, we suggest that one person completes sentence starters 1 and 2, and then you swap over. Then you can each take a turn at sentence starter 3, on its own. And then each take a turn at sentence starter 4, again on its own. It then works well for one person to complete sentence starters 5, 6 & 7, before swapping over for the last time. When time is up, the listener raises a hand to let the speaker know. That doesn’t mean they have to stop straight away. If they’re in the middle of saying something, they might want to finish that, or say whatever is needed to feel complete enough for now. When they do finish speaking, it works well to have a moments silence to let their words ripple out - or you may say a simple “I hear you”, or “thank you” - before swapping over or going on to the next sentence starter. When you have both completed all the sentence starters, find a way to thank each other for all that you have shared, and you may want to have a few minutes chatting about how the process was for you. This is also a good time to check back in with each other about confidentiality – to see if anything has changed for either of you. Group Active Listening. In a group, we can follow a very similar process to in pairs, with each person taking a turn to speak, while the others listen. A timepiece can be passed around the group, so that each person is timing for the person next to them. Or, depending on the size of your group, and the time available to you, you may choose to split into pairs (or 3s) to go through the sentence starters. If so, you can then follow this with a round of active listening (eg. 2 mins each), as a whole group, to reflect on how you each found the process. And, at the end, you can find a way to thank each other for all that has been shared. Again, it is supportive to come to agreement about confidentiality within this group.