How To Be Hopeful Episode 17 "Hope Is A Forest"

This episode I speak with artist Evgenia Emets from her home in Portugal about hope and her project Eternal Forest. We speak about the joy and  peace to be found in forests, and of Evgenia’s plans to create 1000 “Eternal Forest Sanctuaries” which will last for 1000 years, and about her hopes for a “quieter world” which we may look forward to

 

Eternal Forest is an ongoing long term art project which, Evgenia explains “will continue as long as I am alive and beyond” wherein we can “treat these spaces as sacred and connect with nature in a different way… and learn from nature…. creating these spaces with purposes and intention, with communities … and  protected by them”

 

We speak about the need to let go of patterns in our societies that no longer serve us:

“the idea of a piece of forest being property is something that I believe in the future will not exist… “

 

And we discuss how the lock down gave us a chance to practise and experience different ways of being, and to discover what is important. Evgenia says

“We are conditioned to think that everything has to have a monetary value…  

But there are things in life we can’t put the market value tag on-  like love, nature,  family”

 

We speak about the challenge of burn out for changemakers and activists:

“Sometimes you need to fail really badly… and come out if it with new knowledge….  it is not always about achieving something right here right now - maybe it’s about building a foundation for things to be done by other people”

 

We speak about the importance of joy and of dreaming

“ I look for the dreamtime that has been lost… what is asking me to work with it…  as soon as we make these decisions something magical happens…  nature says ok now I am going to show you things that you really need to see and to learn. This is what comes to you when you are still and quiet for long enough…. So let’s ask ourselves  “how do we do things differently with joy?”

 

About Evgenia:

 

To keep up with Evgenia and Eternal Forest you can find her on socials here: 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Photona/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=1

Twitter: @EvgeniaEmets

Instagram: @evgenia_emets

Facebook: @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/eternalforest/ 

 

About Bernadette:

My latest book "How To Be Hopeful" published by Elliot and Thompson is due out 10^thSeptember 2020. You can pre-order the book in these places:

WATERSTONES > https://bit.ly/2VTGvgg

AMAZON > https://amzn.to/3iBZSEr

HIVE > https://bit.ly/3e9zPAW

FIND YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOP > https://www.booksellers.org.uk/bookshopsearch

You can find me here www.bernadetterussell.com

twitter @betterussell

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