Most people who come on the programme have never considered personal development before – they just love nature and know that there’s something not right in how they are feeling right now.

Most personal development programmes will encourage you to ‘look inwards’ – that you are the problem, and if you can just change this or that then they have the magic solution.  Nature has a different approach – guided by living systems, we look at the whole picture – you, your surroundings and the rest of the world – so that any changes you make are rooted in your personal circumstances, and therefore, resilient and sustainable long-term.

Furthermore, the principles aren’t a to-do list or tick-box exercise, they are a set of principles and values for life – in the words of former participants their value is ‘priceless’!

We believe that living as part of nature involves relationships of reciprocity. We won’t encourage you to be a ‘consumer’ of nature, solely for what you can gain.  You’ll discover how to lessen your impact on the rest of the living world, building connection and roots that run deep and strong.

The natural principles were drawn together by Sarah Spencer through her reading and experience of numerous nature-inspired disciplines.  People have been guided by nature for millennia (living systems approaches feature in many ancient and indigenous ways of living), and there are many modern living-systems approaches too.  Sarah is guided by her own in-depth studies of permaculture, systems-thinking and regenerative leadership as well as biomimicry, regenerative cultures and indigenous and ancient philosophies.  42 principles feature in her book Think like a Tree: the natural principles guide to life, and you’ll discover all 42 inside the course, diving in-depth into 22 of them.

No, this is different.  We’re big fans of forest bathing and eco-therapy for connecting with nature.   But in Think like a Tree: nature’s principles you will be LEARNING FROM nature, not simply connecting with nature.  Learning from the principles that make living systems healthy, resilient, abundant, productive and successful.

The Think like a Tree: nature’s principles course was created for EVERYONE to benefit from nature’s wisdom.  Until about 500 years ago this is the way that everyone was living – it’s deep inside of us already, waiting to get out.  The modern world loves to label people as tree-huggers, hippies or woo woo when they are simply connecting with and learning from the living systems that are everywhere.  Living-systems approaches are being used everywhere – from business, to economics, to land design, health, agriculture, engineering, product-design and academia.  The course offers a new way of seeing the world, not blinkered by the consumerist, industrial, machine mindset that dominates our world. 

(p.s if you want to hug trees then that’s all right with us!)

I hear you!  I’ve designed the course to be short on screen-time and long on connection and learning time.  Much of that will be outside in nature.  We encourage you to spend time finding the natural principles in the real world, deeply connecting and learning from living systems.

If you wish, access the course in nature on your phone, for even more nature-time, or download the exercises and take them with you when you’re out.

Don’t worry – you can learn from nature anywhere!  Look for your nearby nature – that might be your local park, small garden, the trees on your street, or even a dandelion pushing up through the concrete ( a great example of resilience!). We can learn from nature everywhere.

University of Derby research shows that noticing your nearby nature, for just 10 minutes each day, will benefit your health and wellbeing.  Learning from nature is that same.