Promised a weekend of personal growth and community in the wilds of Somerset.
Co-founder and lead guide, Sam Adams, introduces First men as a men’s wellbeing organisation, ‘we care for men’s souls we care for men’s hearts, and we recognise this omission in modern society that there’s a lack of identity for men. For boy’s there’s no rite of passage into manhood, there’s not even another rite of passage for men into eldership. There’s this accidental flow into being retired or a grandfather or into being a University Graduate, it’s not mindful. What we do is bring mindfulness to each of these transitions to help men form an identity, and in that place of identity there’s a sense of peace and purpose. Peace about who I am and purpose about how I can serve the world in my unique way.’
‘What sets us apart from other men’s organisations is we work with nature and the natural environment as the primary place to support men on that journey towards a clear identity. We work with the elements, water, earth, air, and fire – using those four ideas as metaphors for personality, for identity, for emotions. Influenced by ecopsychology, environmental arts therapy, mythology and indigenous principles, the pre-empire way of thinking. Our animism is remembering our roots as animals, as ancient tribal people, our primal instincts, men and women walking the land connected to the seasons and the other species.’
‘To support men in connecting with their inner landscape, the wild of the soul, we look for venues that are wild externally. We want the container to be a reflection of the inner wild, a rich multi layered place where we can say ‘look at the wild of that tree or that pasture or the birds and animals on the land, how is that like our inner landscape?’. So, when we look for a venue we’re looking for wilderness, we’re looking for the elements, a place for fire, a place where there’s water, a place where we can connect with earth whether it’s the soil or trees, and air, air being spaciousness and quiet and away from the noise of traffic.’
‘Green Heart and Chills ticked all those boxes, it is a place where it’s wild and even more so than just any old piece of land or National Park, the fact that the farming family are consciously, mindfully, bringing wildness practices or rewilding agroecology to their land is a big tick for our values, and for me personally as someone with an agroecology background. The other thing then is facilities, we could be outside all the time but in the British climate, and particularly late October, to have the Green Heart barn was essential. We had the outside space and then the flexible indoor spaces with the kitchen, the toilets, the shower, it provided a flexible space that we could then play with for each moment of the retreat. There were 29 of us, including our team, and we could comfortably increase this to 40-50 men for future retreat workshops we hold.’
‘The weekends activities can be broken down into themes. One would be mindfulness practices – meditation, silent solo practices, breathwork practices alone and in a group, walking – we called it a medicine walk where the men were invited to go walk on their own and take an hour of solitude. Sharing circles would be a second theme – we gathered in circle around a fire at different moments throughout the three days to share, connect, explore vulnerability, to explore emotions. Embodiment would be a third theme – making noises, dancing, chopping wood, fire craft, hiking up to Small Down Knoll, touch and embracing each other through eye gazing and play, wrestling and physical contact. Rest and nourishment make up a fourth theme – space to chill, to enjoy music, conversation around the fire, we brought musical instruments and books for lounging.’
‘The invitation for men throughout is to step outside their comfort zone by about 20%, so each junction provides an opportunity to say ‘hey is this a bit uncomfortable? Go for it, we’ve got you.’ That’s an important way in which we do our work.’
‘It was very, very cold during our weekend, it had also been wet and the tent canvases were solid ice when we opened them in the morning which added to the wildness.’
‘The site was also an attractive option for us due to the available support of the Higher Education Grant funding. I would also like to add that the service provided has been excellent and professional, it’s been a pleasure working with you.’
The team here at Chesterblade Hills certainly enjoyed hosting First Men’s first retreat weekend and look forward to welcoming them back in 2024. Keep an eye out for up coming dates on our What’s On page and social media.