Hello, namaste and peace be with you. At Seed to Soul we offer nature yoga and mindfulness, nature connection, permaculture and gardening workshops and camps. We are a Yoga Alliance International certified yoga school as well as Permaculture educators certified by the Permaculture Education Institute.
We are called Seed to Soul because we feel that every seed yoga and and nature plant in us goes straight to our souls and every seed we plant (no matter if it's an actual plant, a feeling or an idea) nourishes our soul. Every step we take on this journey opens up so many more paths to learning, growth and happiness. Practicing yoga and connecting with nature nourishes not only your body, it also feeds your soul and helps you feel part of nature's cycles again, something that is sorely lacking for so many of us in today's fast, urbanised, often impersonal lives. Connecting to ourselves through yoga and nature helps us discover so much about about minds, our feelings and our actions.
Christina began teaching yoga combined with nature education in Goa, India in 2018. She saw the lack of awareness drives about the environment and wanted to contribute to educating her community in a non-combative, positive way so she began to weave nature education and environmental awareness lessons into yoga and mindfulness lessons for kids in the hopes that they would go home and share what they were learning with the rest of their families. As a family, we started our permaculture farm in in 2020, transforming our piece of land from rocky, lifeless soil to a farm growing a wide variety of foods. You can click here to watch a video of our first six weeks of work. We also rescued four horses who lived in our backyard. In Our plan was to start teaching permaculture, nature yoga and more here once the restrictions of the Covid pandemic allowed. But in June 2021 we made the tough decision to relocate the family to Dubai because of the ongoing logistical challenges of Covid-19, such as schools for the kids being shut for more than two years. From running a farm in a village in Goa we had to adjust to a life in an urban, desert, compound-based environment. It has been challenging but has also taught us so much and we are very grateful to have these choices and opportunities that the UAE have extended to us. In Dubai, we started growing food mostly in a variety of containers and were able to grow various fruits and veggies while failing with a few as well. Then we built several raised beds, added an aviary for our rescue pigeon Fleckchen (who has since successfully returned to nature) and expanded our learning garden with the addition of our two beehives. We just completed building the Seed to Soul yoga shala where we are now offering yoga classes and teacher trainings as well as nature connection sessions.
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We are hosting workshops, kids camps and more in our own garden and are teaching at other venues and events as well, including The Arbor School, as part of the eedama team, at The Emirates Soil Museum and the Nature Fair by Natura Tribe.
To find out more about each of us and our qualifications click here.
About Yoga
Yoga is a science. We use the word science to describe something we study in order to build and organise knowledge about it. Through testing and experimenting we come up with explanations, truths and laws. This is exactly what the original yogis did. They practiced different yoga poses and breathing techniques and tested their effect on their own bodies. Then they used what they learned to come up with rules, explanations and instructions about the practice.
It is often said that yoga is the unity of movement and breath. Both moves and breathing exercises are important parts of yoga. By practicing yoga we can calm our mind and connect to our inner selves. Only when we are connected to our own feeling and behaviours are we able to connect to others and our environment. This is why we at Seed to Soul feel that yoga is an important part of nature education and permaculture - it's a very important tool that can help us leave our fast-paced, disconnected lives behind and start living a more fulfilled and connected life where we feel that we are part of our community and of nature as a whole.
About Permaculture
Permaculture is a set of design principles entered on whole systems thinking. It simulates or directly utilises the patterns observed in natural ecosystems. Permaculture is not just for farming and gardening but can be applied to many other fields, including regenerative agriculture, rewilding, community resilience, architecture, education and economics - to name a few.
“Permaculture is an innovative framework for creating sustainable ways of living. It is a practical method of developing ecologically harmonious, efficient and productive systems that can be used by anyone, anywhere.” - Permaculture Magazine (www.permaculture.co.uk)
The main principles of Permaculture are:
CARE FOR THE PLANET
CARE FOR PEOPLE
FAIR SHARE (returning surplus to the system)
In permaculture we think carefully about how we use resources such as food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material supplies. The idea is that we can get much more out of life by using less by designing an ecologically sound way of living that helps us to cooperate with nature and take care of the Earth and its people.
The 12 Principles of Permaculture:
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Observe and interact (being observant and responding to what we see is really important in moving towards a more ethical and sustainable way of life - learning from nature as well as from each other)
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Catch and store energy (energy is abundant on our planet and we need to learn to catch and store it in plants, with renewable energy, etc. - growing your own food at home is a great way to catch and store energy from the sun
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Obtain a yield - we can obtain yields such as food we grow for our families but it can be less tangible yields as well, such as happiness and health
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Apply self-regulation and feedback: understanding where we’ve succeeded and where we’ve gone wrong
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Use and value renewables (sun, wind water, etc.)
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Produce no waste - moving towards a zero waste lifestyle
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Design from patterns to details - look at the big picture before we get bogged down with little things
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Integrate don’t segregate - remember that people and plants work well in diverse systems - no monocultures
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Use small, slow solutions - it is easy to become overwhelmed if we try to do too much too soon
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Use and value diversity - ecosystems and human society functions best when a variety of different plants, animals and people form them
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Use edges and value the marginal - making use of all we have, including fringe elements in using land, work places, our home and society in general
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Creatively use and respond to change - change is an inevitable part of life; use it. Permaculture isn’t just about the present but also the future
Source: ethical.net