This week's show is with Arthur Haines, who describes himself as a forager, ancestral skills mentor, author, public speaker and botanical researcher... but that's just because he's so humble! In reality, he's an oracle of deep knowledge and understanding of the natural world. He's been helping people explore human ecology for over 20 years, with the mission of developing deep awareness of and connection to nature, promoting individual health, and fostering self-reliance. If understanding botany was a super-power (and it probably is), Arthur is a true super hero!

He grew up in the western mountains of Maine, a rural area that was home to swift streams known for their trout fishing. He spent most of his childhood in the Sandy River Valley hiking, tracking, and foraging.

Arthur now runs the Delta Institute of Natural History in Canton, Maine, where he teaches human ecology, focusing on the values of foraging, wildcrafting medicine, and primitive living skills.  He continues to spend a great deal of his free time practicing his skills as a modern hunter-gatherer.  As a research botanist for the New England Wildflower Society, he recently completed a comprehensive flora of the New England region entitled “Flora Novae Angliae” and has authored over twenty publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, including naming species of plants new to science.  His series of YouTube videos has inspired thousands of people interested in foraging wild edible and medicinal plants.

In this conversation, we spoke about the importance of community - another of Arthur's passions and areas of deep knowledge... Arthur explains what he means when he talks about 'community' (and it might be a little different to your definition), why being part of a community is in accordance with our evolutionary expectations, and how these days most of us lack community (as Arthur said in this show 'Almost everything about the current structure of society stands in stark contradiction to how we lived as people prior to the agricultural revolution.'), and what the issues with that are.

We ended on a positive note with Arthur's practical suggestions of how we can all create community in today’s modern world.

I’d love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Human's real need for community sits alongside other aspects that we understand are critical to human health that have been formed by our evolutionary history, such as food and movement. The issues of going it alone include conditions that are considered the norm in modern culture such as anxiety, depression, shame, struggles and stresses.

• Arthur defines community as 'place and commons'. In indigenous communities, everyone held the land in common, they all have common landscape that they get to feed themselves from, heal themselves from, and get to connect to that place that they share with all of the members of their community.

• True communities are bound by a cohesion created by a common needs and is exemplified by real equality and wealth distribution, such as indirect reciprocal gift economy. Everyone is in it together and no-one gets to step outside the stresses that the community is experiencing.

• We are typically held back from creating real community because of our attachment to convenience and comfort - we are used to privacy and doing what we want when we want. We can take baby steps in this direction by keep our communities small enough so we can know every member deeply, have a connection to our common place, and no hierarchy: everyone is equal, no matter their age or ability.

This week's show is with Kerri Hummingbird. Kerri is a Soul Guide, Best-Selling Author, and Host of Soul Nectar Show where she interviews luminaries and spiritual thought leaders about essence and purpose. Kerri's has a powerful story of total transformation from a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder and Manic Depression into being a renowned empathic intuitive healer and spiritual mentor.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• When we store trauma as a child (especially between the ages of 0-5), it isn't something that can usually be healed with words, especially if the trauma happened when we were pre-verbal. That's why it's so powerful to allow energy to be moved in other ways.

• Instead of focusing on your sight and thoughts, focus on your experience, the sounds, the smells, the textures, your feelings. Reconnect to the consciousness of the earth, water, the four directions, the stars and the sky. Allow yourself to open up to feeling and knowing something new.

• Create an earth painting by making a sacred space, finding objects to represent the parts of your life you'd like to change, breathe your feelings into the objects, and then be a witness to it. And when you're ready start moving the objects around and see what feels right. You can even burn or bury the objects if you like! I know this can seem like a really out there or woo thing to do but logically it makes sense to me that using tangible objects as metaphors to see your life from a new perspective could be powerfully transformative.

This week's show is with Flora Douville, an anti-image consultant. Flora is a hybrid of an intuitive and a mystic, plus a personal coach and a professional consultant. She is an expert in teaching you to feel the different layers of your personality — who you are and how you show up in the world. She can help you put more of YOU in your life, business and relationships. She will also ​match your energy to the right clothing to have your life and wardrobe fully aligned on who you are at your core — so that you feel invincible in your everyday life, all by being you.

This week is the first of its breed! It's the first Lian & Jono show in which we, Lian Brook-Tyler and Jonathan Wilkinson, go deep on a topic that we're seeing is coming up with our one-to-one clients. 

On this week's show, we’re talking about the super power vision. What we see comes up over and over in coaching sessions is the importance of having a vision, what happens when we don’t have one, and also why it’s vital to include all parts of life in your vision.

So many people don’t have a vision, And sometimes that just an oversight but we also know some people actually believe that it’s somehow a bad thing - or unspiritual even :)  to have one. So we’ll dig right into what’s going on there.  

When we have a vision it really acts as a powerful guiding light so you can be more present, open and adaptable to whatever’s showing up in the moment. 

We’d love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Firstly, what a vision is: It isn’t: Goals or solely achievements or a list of material items and it is: An holistic and aligned sense of how you’d like to be showing up in the world.  
• Whether you’re aware of having a vision, you have one! You’ve either have a vision that you’ve consciously created or you’re living out the one you’ve been given by the culture you’re in. Why it’s natural to have a vision - Purpose/reason for being, for the good of our tribe, for the good of the generations to come, to honour our ancestors way, etc. So why not create vision that actually works for you?!
• Get it out there by writing it down, drawing it or creating a vision board
• And lastly, give yourself permission!