Root Systems: a workshop on creating the structures needed to stand tall in stormy weather.
TAUGHT BY TREES, SHARED BY ME.
Friday, February 6th at 7pm Central, via zoom.
(session recorded for those who can’t attend live)
For the dreamers, storytellers, creatives…those who know they have big work, healing, growing to do, and that they don’t have the luxury of waiting for everything to calm down before they get started.
And for anyone looking at their life personally and our world collectively and wondering how they are even supposed to be right now.
Let’s gather and learn from the masters of holding strong amid turbulence. Let’s invite in the grounding you’ve been craving.
Have you ever stood at the base of a big tree, looked up, and thought about all the thunderstorms and snow banks it must have withstood to be the size it is today? The owls in its branches, the squirrels scampering along its trunk, the bugs that have lived their whole lives off of the bounty it provides?
(If you haven’t, you should. It’s a great meditation.)
The strength of a tree isn’t an accident, it’s the outcome of a strategic web of layers and networks that make sure it is flexible enough to grow, sturdy enough to hold its own weight, rooted enough to spread, connected enough to find what it needs in the earth and carry those nutrients all the way up to its furthest leaves.
Trees know that before they can be impressive, they need to be well-supported.
We would do well to follow their lead.
When we’re thinking of the impact we hope to make, the offerings we want to bring out into the world, and the steadiness we’re craving, our first thought should be about what would need to happen under the surface to carry and sustain the things we want to extend.
Especially right now.
Most of us don’t need to learn how to stay 60 feet tall during a blustery day…but we do need to figure out how to remain focused and effective during a decade of compounding crises and an attention economy that never stops pulling at our eyes.
And is that really so different?
In this workshop we cover:
Why the natural world is the most trustworthy teacher we could ever learn from
The principles the earth follows to sustain growth
The structures trees rely on to grow tall and strong over many decades
How we can apply those lessons - journaling prompts and practice suggestions to mirror every part of a tree’s support structure
How to nourish your relationship with the earth, and soak up all the wisdom and healing it has to offer
You’ll leave feeling closer to nature,
closer to yourself,
clearer than ever on what you need,
and more confident than ever in your ability to provide for those needs.
New to this round of the workshop, your enrollment will include a brand new nature meditation, handcrafted by me, for you to listen to as you lean into connection with the earth, as well as a PDF full of journaling prompts for further exploration.
But you don’t have to take my word for it!! Here are some things those who’ve already taken the class had to say about how it felt to them:
“I would definitely recommend this to my friends - the tree framework so clearly delineates how different aspects of our lives and selves come together to protect and support us. Learning about this framework feels like gaining such a clear and focused lens for my own growth”
“This class gave me a new way of thinking about roots! I feel like I have been hesitant to establish roots in the last year or so because I conceptualised them as limiting me to a particular place/path/etc. I like this idea of ALSO thinking of roots as my way to expand and explore”
All paid subscribers to my Substack get 20% off! Joining my Substack for $7 will get you access to a month’s worth of Church of Bread and Roses (my substack exclusive weekly live ritual) AND save you $5-10 on this workshop!
My hope and intention for this workshop is that you find a new sense of confidence in your ability to remain close to yourself, tending to both your needs and your mission, even as the world rages on around you. Our ecosystems have been nurturing abundant growth through centuries of disruption. They show us that it is possible to adapt to unpredictable conditions while holding fast to what matters. I think we would do well to learn from them!!!
Your enrollment includes an invite to a live workshop via zoom on February 6th, access to the workshop replay, as well as a meditation and pdf full of journaling prompts to help you integrate and apply everything from the class!
Scholarship spaces are available, email hey@frankieconsults.com to inquire (inquiries are reviewed in batches, so if you don’t hear back for a bit, don’t worry)!
PLEASE NOTE: The workshop is offered on a sliding scale to make it accessible to more people. I trust you to choose an appropriate price, based on what you can afford. Paying as much as you are truly able to allows me to offer this workshop for free to low-income participants sustainably.
Who you’re hanging with:
My name is Frankie Simmons, and I’m a certified Texas Master Naturalist, a card-carrying member of my local nature reserve, a grateful Lexapro taker, and a Sunshine Hunter. I am very curious about relationships (with ourselves, with life itself, with the world around us) and how examining and tending to those relationships can offer us inspiration and healing. I don’t have any fancy credentials to share with you, and I don’t approach you as an expert of anything, but as a fellow seeker - just trying to feel my way through life without closing my heart or losing my center, just like you.
I have learned a lot about my practice of biomimicry from adrienne maree brown, whose work on this earth I’m endlessly grateful for!
I am not a therapist or a trained counselor, this space is not a substitute for mental health care, and not an appropriate support for those in active crisis. It is also not a space that will fix you, erase your grief, or magically make functioning in late-stage capitalism an easy thing to do. My hope is that it will offer you anchors, tools, and perspectives that will make staying close to yourself and clear on your work feel doable. And that you will continue to tweak and transform those tools to match your unique needs.
