Encouraging individuals to re-examine their choices about the way they live, relate and think with the Natural world.
Note: Please see my PRIMARY website:
http://ecovillagecooperativeproject.wordpress.com
Note: Please see my PRIMARY website:
http://ecovillagecooperativeproject.wordpress.com
"Human beings are part of the Whole…We experience ourselves, our thoughts
and feelings, as something separated from the rest…a kind of optical delusion of
our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our
personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be
to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to
embrace all living creatures, and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Albert Einstein
Reconnect With Nature
Encouraging and Inspiring Individuals to re-examine their choices about the way they live, relate and think with the Natural World.
(Copyright, Danny C. Shelton, Ph.D)
Dan Shelton grew-up working on a small family farm in Southern Illinois and created Reconnect With Nature & Project Eco-Community out of a vision he had at age 8, while standing on a bluff overlooking a field and distant woods. Since this vision, he has worked at educating himself through both academics and direct experience with Nature, shaping and focusing his offerings on helping people rediscover their human & nature relationship. He is an educator, facilitator, consultant and guide, with a doctoral degree in the science of Applied Ecopsychology and Integrated Ecology. Dan has over 20 years of experience in helping people rediscover the peace found in their inborn relationship with Nature. Dan is dedicated to enhancing interests and increasing the well-being of his audience. His work in Reconnecting people with Nature is experiential, stress reducing and healing. He has been awarded the “Rudy Mancke Award” for outstanding service in environmental education through the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission.
Offerings
1 Individual Consultations on: Creating ecological sanctuaries in your outdoor home
environment, deepening your relationship with the eco-region where you live, and
more.
2 Eco-regional educational field trips and excursions.
3 Four-week, at home and online Backyard Sanctuary/Ecostery Introductory Course
(With two to four hour in-person Introductory Gathering).
4 Workshops and Speaking Engagements.
Dan works directly with adults, as well as with regional institutions and organizations that are interested in Nature-connected education and experience. He is also instructor at the Heritage Institute. In addition, Dan has developed the “Ecological Community Education Project.” Its’ purpose is to offer Nature-Connected Education which fosters a way of living that values the peace, health and well-being of all of life as a guiding principle. This method promotes a Community in Communion with Nature philosophy and respects the intrinsic value of the whole of Nature.
Registration, Times & Locations by arrangement.
Many offerings can be customized to your needs.
Contact Dan Shelton
n[email protected]
http://www.hol.edu/view_course.cfm?cid=2484&nav=distance (THI on-line accredited course).
Ecosophies
"Ecosophies are lifestyles which aim for ecological harmony and wisdom with Nature. An ecostery is a place, centre, facility, stewarded land, or Nature sanctuary, where an ecosophy is learned, taught, shared and practiced."
(The Ecostery Foundation of North America http://www.ecostery.org/vision.htm )
The Ecological Community Education Project &
Ecostery Communities
Danny C. Shelton (Copyright, 2009)
Purpose Statement and Philosophy
Purpose
The Ecological Community Education Project (ECEP) considers our greater ecological household, each persons unique inborn natural system, and the more-than-human natural world to have intrinsic value. The purpose of ECEP is to offer Nature-Connected Education to any adult willing to develop a lifestyle and way of thinking that has the peace, health and well-being of all life and non-life as a guiding principle. This guiding principle will contribute to the development of a lifestyle of ecological values through thinking and belonging with natural systems.
Philosophy
The ancient Greek word for household is “oikos” or “ecos” the root of ecology, and relates household to the greater natural relationships of place. In order to dissolve feelings and behaviors of separation, emptiness, helplessness, and a lack of belonging in community, it is important to understand how we are related to this greater ecological household we call home. This is done through a process that values our own inborn natural sensory intelligence, communication, and relationships with nature.
Nature-Connected Education is learning through direct sensory connection with the ecological community of which we are a part. This art and method of education is an evolving process in full participatory relationship with the natural systems in and around our ecological household, using the Natural Systems Thinking Process (Cohen, 2003). If we are to better understand the planet that sustains us, as people once did, we need an integrated re-education process that values our inherent sensory system of communication and intelligence with nature. The Natural Systems Thinking Process (NSTP) accomplishes this through direct sensory connection with outdoor natural systems where we live.
Within this past half-century or more, human preference for indoor leisure, harmful consumer practices, and increasingly abstract technological recreation has created an alarming estrangement with the natural world of which we are a part (Louv, 2008). This nature-disconnected way of thinking has its cultural origins in the attitude that we as humans are separate from and thus dominant over the ecosystem that sustains us, and that nature is here to be used as a “natural resource” for humans only. Such a disconnected way of thinking creates a Win/Lose competitive mentality. Such attitudes establish conflict and estrangement with our inherent sense of belonging and community.
“Our ability to cognitively abstract our contact with the world constantly takes our sensory experience and hides it under a veil of thought.” (Dr. Mark Germine, in Cohen, 2003, The Web of Life Imperative, p.63)
The Projects’ educational pedagogy integrates a Community in Communion with Nature philosophy, and respects the intrinsic value of the whole of nature.
References
Cohen, M. J., Sweeney, T., Edwards, S. A., Brittain, J. C., McGinnes, J. M., & McElroy, S. C. et
al. (2003). The Web of Life Imperative: Regenerative ecopsychology techniques that help people think in balance with natural systems. Victoria, Canada.
Louv, R. (2008). Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit
Disorder. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, NC.
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