Creativity, Climate & Connection
A (longer) note on Climate Spring's first Regenerative Writers’ Retreat
Sometimes the most radical thing a writer can do is - rest.
So what does that look like? Maybe it’s sitting alone in nature for an hour and simply observing? Maybe it’s sitting around a fire for hours playing games and sharing our stories with one another? Or maybe it’s feeling the soft mud of earth on the soles of your feet whilst wild swimming with dragonflies?
Ok… Maybe muddy feet in a lake isn’t everyone's idea of rest but it’s some of what went down during our retreat…
In July, Climate Spring hosted its first-ever writers’ retreat. We brought together 15 writers from underrepresented backgrounds - holding space for rest, regeneration, and creative connection.
“The Climate Spring retreat feels like a turning point in my career. Being able to connect with other writers who share my convictions in a safe and deeply supportive environment felt extremely freeing. It's brought me back to a sense of excitement and possibility in TV writing, and feels like the start of a beautiful community that will continue to nourish its members as time goes on. I feel more motivated and equipped to intentionally explore climate themes in my work.” - Siân Robins-Grace
The idea came together quickly. Lucy Stone (Climate Spring’s founder) and I aligned almost instantly on it. Lucy, who’s worked for years in climate activism, deeply understands how essential rest is in the work. I come from the world of TV drama, as a story producer - often working with writers navigating identity, trauma, and systemic inequality through their storytelling. Taxing and exhausting work. And what doesn’t happen enough - is support along the way - not just in funding, but also in restorative ways.
Over the years, I counter-navigate the extractive nature of the industry with a consistent yoga, breathwork and meditation practice. I’ve seen how somatic movement and meditation are key in helping us connect with our voice and our dharma - purpose in life. For creatives, I also think it’s necessary to have spaces that allow for this reconnection - whether it’s through meditation, or movement. So when I started teaching yoga, I knew I wanted to find ways to bridge the two worlds - creating spaces for creatives who navigate systemic issues while trying to create and shift cultural dials through their work.
Meeting Lucy, I realised we shared goals around more equitable worlds - but I also began learning more about the interconnectedness between climate, race, and social justice. It felt like such an obvious, yet delayed, connection, well for me anyway, and, for many, that link hasn’t landed. In the UK diaspora of Global Ethnic Majorities, sometimes survival with aspiration takes priority. We navigate this in systems that once extracted from us and have worked to disconnect us from the essence of our heritage - for many this centres around connection to the land and one another. As many of us reconnect these dots, it’s crucial we foster community along the way - because the revelations are heavy and the work is vast.
So, with this in mind, we all realised how necessary the retreat could be, in conjunction with the rest of the work we do. It felt important for the retreat to be designed as support for writers already engaging with themes of race, social justice, and, in some cases, climate. We intended to further bridge those threads and show how inseparable climate is. After all, those most impacted by climate issues tend to also be from marginalised backgrounds and the Global South.
We also wanted to explore how our personal ecosystems are inextricably linked to the wider ecosystem - that the health of our minds, bodies, communities, and imaginations mirror the health of the planet. We wanted the retreat to offer an embodied glimpse into the kind of regenerative space we want to build and live in. We also wanted to focus on community building amongst differing levels of writers because of the known struggle to get scripts about marginalised communities off the ground. So the writers in attendance all varied in level - some had already had their own shows and films made, others who are on trajectories to do so.
And so, off to Norfolk we went.
Passing through plains of flat land, (hay fever inducing) grass, trees and birds whistling away. Everyone arrived on Sunday afternoon at the stunning, remote location, West Lexham.
We opened with a welcome lunch, and I held a short arrival-meditation before Lucy and I set some context and intentions for the tone of the retreat – making sure the space remained inclusive, supportive, and regenerative. We then had a site tour. The team at the location showed us the chalk stream lake, where we could boat and located the safest spots to jump in for a dip. The site itself is powered by 90% renewable energy and has its own vegetable garden - where the majority of food for all our nutritious meals was grown. We found the firepits, a natural swimming pool and lots of wildlife doing its thing. After some downtime, we ended Sunday night with a therapeutic sound bath - with some cacao, led by the beautiful, creative soul and healer Zoë Laureen Palmer. Zoë also ran a workshop on inner-outer climates on the Monday, where we all created personal scents from local landscape materials.
We also held a session with the vibrant designer and resistor that is Felipe Viveros from Culture Hack Labs. Felipe spoke about the power of creative storytelling in shifting culture - helping everyone bridge connections between colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and climate change and we looked at examples and pathways to post-capitalist societies. We were mindful of the emotional weight of this and we made sure to remind everyone that this work is not carried alone. It requires a collective. And so, we move through it together. To offer further insight around this, the formidable Dr Emma Lawrence (A Lead Policy Fellow for Climate Mental Health) also held a session exploring the psychological impacts.
Our team also offered workshops on world-building and decolonising characters - supporting writers to reimagine narratives. And again, to support the emotional and creative thinking, I held meditation and breathwork as part of the yoga sessions. We focused on a different chakra each day - working with the elements for balance: earth for grounding, water for creativity, fire for our heart - helping us move forward with love for action. I also held a journaling session to support our creative practice and our relationship to it. There was lots of space in between - for rest, swims, boating, writing, one to ones, idea exploration and connection over shared meals or when playing Mafia around the firepit. A game that ironically ran a little counterintuitive to everything we were preaching. Always finding balance, hey.
By the end, we had all connected - spending time both collectively and in more intimate moments. What also became apparent was how unexpected the retreat felt - with some wondering ‘what’s the catch?’ It highlighted how few spaces there are in the industry that are free of product expectation, while allowing creatives to explore and nurture their practice, their relationships with one another, the land - and heal.
One writer said:
“This retreat was immeasurably special. It's quite rare to be in a space that opens you up both creatively and emotionally - and does it in a way that doesn't put your wellbeing at risk. I had never really considered incorporating climate storytelling and regenerative practices into my work - in an organic way that made sense for the world I was building but also illuminated a different world is not only possible but already unfolding…”
We closed the retreat with a short meditation and an open circle to share thoughts and it really felt like we were all deeply moved by what came through the space. By how vulnerable, accepting, and supportive we could be - when allowed to be. It was, in itself, an example of collective action. And it made it even more important that we continue on with this movement.
It also became clear how necessary it is that we all build supportive spaces and community, especially when faced with the huge challenge of shifting towards a more equitable, regenerative world. And so we also have to realise space for restoration is necessary alongside it for us to continue the work that needs doing, now more than ever.
“One of the most peaceful, nourishing and inspiring experiences I have ever had”. - Sumerah Srivastav
What I know now - is how possible this all is when met with genuine intention. And for me, at least, it’s been the most meaningful collective creation of my working life. Hopefully this is something we can open out to more creatives, because spaces and feelings like this shouldn’t be rare - they should be the norm!