Regenerative approaches developing the link with the living

"Regeneration, also sometimes called regeneration, is the ability of a living entity to reconstitute itself after the destruction of part of itself. Regeneration carries with it repair."

Gaston Pineau  is one of the precursors of the introduction of the concern of the living in formation. First he consolidated  approaches to self-training by theorizing the practice of life stories. Then he became interested in socio-formation and the power of groups and the social, and finally in eco-formation. With the question of the human footprint on the world, the question that crosses us today is how to remember nature? How to inhabit it with more respect and mutual benefits? 

The challenge is to regenerate the living and that the living regenerates us in return. For this, pedagogical approaches help us to feel the nature within us. Not only our human nature but all the nature with which we are unconditionally intertwined. These pedagogical approaches touch our bodies, our emotions and our whole being. When they activate the collectives, it is all the energy flows that circulate and all the vibrations that unite us to the pounding of the earth, the rustling of the wind, the friction of the water. For behind these poetic metaphors, nature produces a movement, a form of continuous noise that envelops us, unites us, and also penetrates us through bone resonance, electromagnetism, radiation, waves, and the percussion of micro particles. These sound landscapes construct our sensibility.

Living things are subject to multiple movements that intersect with light, ecosystems that make and break. We are part of this meta-organism that we call "Gaia" on the scale of the earth or "Universe" on a larger scale. To regenerate the living is to become aware of an infinite number of possibilities in our choices. Regenerating an organization, a city is learning to see it differently 

Pedagogical practices promoting regeneration

There are plants or animals that are experts in regeneration. These examples from nature are inspiring as to the processes that operate. There are several educational practices that can be used to regenerate ourselves. If we remember that we have a body, we can give it a break and offer it a " acoustic nap " . It is simply a matter of lying down at the beginning of a learning session and letting yourself be carried for a while by the sounds of previously recorded nature's rhythms. The simple connection to natural sounds is already a restorative act as our senses are assailed by muffled, mechanical, throbbing noises that put our brain to a severe test. Obviously the same nap in the middle of nature will bring us in addition irreplaceable smells and sensations of the ground or lights.

The Human Permaculture  has a broader ambition than a simple nap. It aims to awaken us. It aims to support the development of human communities. Somewhat like the permaculture practiced in organic gardens, it seeks the way to make a community more autonomous, more mature and more resilient to events and contexts. It presupposes that each person has his or her rightful place in a whole and contributes to others in order to grow collectively.  "It proposes a set of postulates, principles, attitudes, tools and methods that allow for the elevation of consciousness, the understanding of self and others, the facilitation of communication, collective work and living together."

Methods like "The Work That Connects" imagined by environmental activist Joana Macy, experiment with our belonging and connections to living things. They involve the expression of our emotions and feelings. They aim to rediscover the energies buried within us that can be mobilized to change our course.

These methods often have in common that we reincarnate, that is to say, to regain awareness of our bodies. In this regard, "Somatic Expression" by Jamie Mc Hughes,  puts the understanding of what it means to inhabit one's own body back in the spotlight. The word somatic is said to be fairly recent and was coined by philosopher Thomas Hanna in the 1970s from the Greek, soma - body. This approach reinterprets the circulations between subjective inner experience and the objective, biological and functional wisdom of nature. The meeting of these two flows is not unlike the philosophical approach of phenomenology and the subjective construction of the environment. 

The Life Art Process by Anna Halprin  is a search for artists using the arts as a healing force imagining dance and expressive arts programs in connection with nature in the service of social justice and communities in need. 

The practice of gardening, better yet shared gardens is a social connection to a nourishing nature. Seeing plants grow for pleasure or food, leads to learning, questioning, organizing together spaces favorable to growth. The inevitable mistakes of the gardener in dealing with the seasons, the soil, the abundance or lack of water, animals, unwanted species, lack of knowledge or tools, climatic conditions, etc., connect to the complexity and wisdom of nature. But gardening is also a physical practice that engages the body when it comes to digging, hoeing, removing overgrown stones or weeds, preparing the ground, watering, etc.

All of these practices of regenerating the living engage the body. They are studied in "emersiology"  which presents itself as "  body ecology, studies the language of the living body in the awakening of new sensations to consciousness without the latter having voluntarily desired it or deliberately sought it in a performance." 

Awakening the body through the approaches of connections, artistic, sensitive, physical, sports, making energy flow through movements in connection with nature makes us more alive. 

For Bernard Andrieu "Rather than letting go in a situation of loss of control it is a matter of triggering emersion by letting the involuntary and the unconscious pass while not delivering from it in a trance but in a dance, a mostly controlled movement or in an image of liberated motor skills." (excerpt from the presentation of the seminar led by Bernard Andrieu at the University of Paris-Descartes, Laboratoire TEC - Techniques et Enjeux du Corps)

What first step to take?

Some of us have so machinized our bodies and nature that putting ourselves into movement has become a completely foreign idea to us. So it would be appropriate to go through their hearts. Art of soul - Art for the soul seeks to provoke wonder in order to gain a quality of presence in the world  and to feel in harmony, peace and joy of living.

Contemplation would therefore be a first step before taking the plunge. Some invent the "contemplative photo" to start this path. We know the photos of high peaks of the Tibetan monk Matthieu Ricard seeking to raise funds to develop schools and educational projects. But behind these beautiful shots is also a Tibetan approach. "Miksang "  is a Tibetan word that means "good eye". It is a form of meditation from contemplative photographic art. It is said to be based on the Art Dharma teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

By dint of contemplation, the eye would be freed from the conceptual artifices that prevent us from seeing. It would free us from our egos that incessantly push us to master and control nature in an overweening pride. The almost meditative contemplation would help us to be present to the beauty of the world, without trying to perceive it anymore. Non-movement would prepare all possibilities for movement.

Sources

From sustainability to regeneration February 17, 2021contribution INR. Philippe Derouette. Project Manager Digital Responsible at IT-CE (BPCE Group) Deputy Director of Strategy, Financing, Partner Relations at INR. https://institutnr.org/de-la-durabilite-a-la-regeneration

Persee https://www.persee.fr/doc/rfp_0556-7807_1993_num_105_1_2525_t1_0137_0000_4 

For Science. The Animal Sound World https://www.pourlascience.fr/p/fondamental/lunivers-sonore-animal-4570.php 

Wikipedia Gaston Pineau https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Pineau 

Ouaikeup https://www.ouaikeup.com/ressources/sources-d-inspiration/ 

Tamalpa France https://www.tamalpafrance.org 

Joana Macy's Work That Binds, https://larevolutiondestortues.en/work-that-binds-ecology-profound-ecopsychology-joanna-macy/#  

The Somatic Expression by Jamie McHughes, www.somaticexpression.com/somatic_expression.html  

Emersiology https://icima.hypotheses.org/490  

Thomas Hanna https://www.apprendre.org/education-somatique-hanna/   

The Human Permaculture http://permaculture-humaine.en/#  

Miksang https://www.miksang.com 

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