In recent years, I've thought about hosting an inspiring movie circle to engage with and learn from each other through a different medium, which can offer new ways to relate and bring up unique insights. In the spring of 2018, when Anne and Rajesh were invited to screen their labour-of-love documentary, Teach Me To Be WILD, at a resonant film festival in England later that year in November, their visit offered us the perfect catalyst to experiment with hosting our first Awakin Movie Circle in London!

Awakin Movie Circle in Pimlico & Community Screening at the Museum of Happiness

When a few of us had seen the first cut of Teach Me To Be WILD at a ServiceSpace retreat in 2016, we encouraged Anne and Rajesh to bring the film on a journey across the pond to London whenever it was in the flow for them and we were so grateful to see plans coming together for their visit. We shared news of their plans with the London community and asked if anyone knew about spaces to host a screening and/or felt moved to host one and we had so many wonderful responses from folks, including one from Shamash and Vicky who were so excited to host a screening as one of their first events in the new space at the Museum of Happiness in Shoreditch!



The Awakin Movie Circle at our home was a cozy gathering where around 20 of us huddled together around a "fire" that we had built in the centre of the room made of many tealights -- our intention behind this was to honour the role of the fire in holding space for heart-to-heart sharing, which we learnt about in the film and from John Malloy's lifetime work with vulnerable young people. Guests were welcomed by Anne and Rajesh's warm smiles and sat together for a few minutes of collective silence before receiving the gift of this beautiful film. We watched together, in awe, at the incredible relationships that hurt children form so effortlessly with hurt animals and could see how the animals became their teachers over time as these friendships deepened.

Through the film, it's a privilege to witness elders like John Malloy and Steve Karlin in action, doing what makes them come alive in the spirit of service. It was incredibly humbling to learn about the intentions behind how the staff members hold space for the animals at the wildlife sanctuary and how Steve welcomed each injured animal in such a loving way with a ritual. When a new injured animal arrived, he offered an apology about what brought them to the circumstances they faced and would even bottle feed young ones and sleep outside the enclosures of animals who had just arrived every night until they felt settled and at home in their new space. Naturally, the children's stories speak for themselves in terms of the deep personal transformation, which is possible, in the presence of these majestic WILD teachers who offer unconditional love, a first for many of the kids!



After the movie concluded, we held a few minutes of silence again to fully absorb all that we had just received and then shifted into a full circle formation around the fire to hold space for reflections, questions and sharing from the heart. The circle of sharing that followed was nourishing and offered deep insights and beautiful reflections from everyone. Daniele shared a beautiful observation about trust in our opening circle (the first of two), which many of us resonated with: "Animals were a mirror of the children and children are a mirror of us. The important message that made inner transformation possible was trust, actually trust came when judgment finished, both for animals and people."

Tran's authentic share of her experience of coming to the Awakin Movie Circle beautifully captures the intentions for this space, which is collectively co-created by everyone together: "I've been away for 4 months and I've been craving being around like-minded people in this beehive, I can feel the energy of everybody in the space and it is amazing. It's a privilege that we got to see the film and learn about it. I was so charged with emotions from the very beginning, it was full of feelings, from the eyes of the people and the animals. I'm thinking how much inner wisdom all of us have within us and seeing these kids sharing such wisdom is just amazing. How being in that space allows the children to return to themselves, being in a space where there is no judgment and it feels safe. [...] Something that really touched me was when Steve was tearing when he remembered the bird nests and the tree that was being destroyed and it made me think about our environmental issues right now and I feel the pain of the planet..."



The evening concluded with an offering of desserts, teas and coffees and each guest was invited to take home a handmade animal card, written so beautifully, about what makes that animal come alive and how it is called to hold space in the world. We are deeply grateful that Anne and Rajesh's labour of love film gifted us the opportunity to come together in this way, sharing incredible insights into their personal journeys, the making of the film and all the behind-the-scenes stories.

The following evening Vicky and Shamash kindly hosted a community screening of Teach Me To Be Wild at the Museum of Happiness's new home in Shoreditch! What a lovely way to spend a Friday evening watching a beautiful documentary film and circling up together with a wonderful community to share stories and engage in dialogue with the film's creators, asking insightful questions about the wildlife sanctuary, all of the people involved in the film and the making of it. What made this screening extra special is that a few young people joined us at the gathering along with an adorable service dog, Apollo, who stole everyone's hearts over the course of the evening :) The young people shared beautiful reflections after watching the film and one of them was so touched that he hopes to visit Steve's wildlife sanctuary in California to meet the animals himself!



The circle was followed by an abundant and overflowing vegan potluck, which even included a vegan chocolate fountain (!!), courtesy of the generous offerings of so many who had gathered. And of course heart-to-heart conversations continued over dinner and late into the night, with each guest remembering to take home the animal card that spoke to them, as a reminder of how they want to show up in the world.



Ripples from Anne and Rajesh's visit continued, as they journeyed to Totnes to share their film with a deeply aligned community there at a film festival, and connected many of us back in London with friends they made along the way and organisations they had a chance to visit and be inspired by. So grateful to you both for bringing your film and your journeys to share with the community here in the UK!




Awakin Movie Circle with Phil Borges: CRAZYWISE

While we were still planning Anne and Rajesh's visit to London, in October Rajesh got in touch with an idea for a second Awakin Movie Circle, this time with his mentor and friend Phil Borges, who is an internationally renowned social documentary photographer and filmmaker from Seattle. Phil worked as a dentist until a deep love for photography lured him permanently away from the drill. He spent the next quarter of a century documenting the world's disappearing cultures. A journey that took him high into the remote mountains of Asia and deep into the forests of the Amazon. A journey that led him to join as a guest speaker at an Awakin Circle in Santa Clara in 2013, featured as an Awakin Call guest in 2016 (DailyGood and Conversations later featured this interview in 2017) and brought him across the pond to our home in London last week on January 8th, 2019 for an Awakin Movie Circle during a personal holiday with his wife Julee!



Phil's labour-of-love documentary, CRAZYWISE, started life as a film about mindfulness, however as conversations began to unfold in front of the camera with various subjects in the film, a new theme began to emerge around mental illness, and he felt called to bring more awareness to a topic that he discovered many people knew little about. This film offers us an intimate lens into the lives of a few people suffering from mental illness over the course of 6 years and even includes footage from several years before that from Phil's travels in meeting indigenous communities around the world to learn from their life experiences and old-as-hills wisdom. The theme of mental health and the stigma around it is something that struck a chord with many folks in the London community with nearly 100 people expressing an interest to join this gathering over the past couple of months.



On the night, around 50 of us squeezed into our living room to watch this eye-opening film together. Having hosted our first circle just a month and a half prior, we followed a similar format and opened the evening with a few minutes of silence, followed by a brief introduction to Phil and his film before diving right into the screening. Following a few minutes of silence, Phil shared more about his journey with the film, stories from behind the scenes as he held space for the people in the film whose journeys we closely followed, and more about what he's learned since making the film about how people suffering from mental illness can access help and support to transform their lives and about how experts in the field are developing new ways to address mental illness.



After Phil's share, we reconfigured ourselves into a circle to hold space for what was emerging in people's hearts and minds and invited everyone to share popcorn style what was alive for them. We opened the circle of sharing by inviting our dear friend, Charlie Claydon, to share his personal story about the journey of transformation he's been on since he was 15 years old, when he first experienced challenges with his own mental health. Charlie suffered from anxiety and depression as a young person, however this went undiagnosed for several years until he was 21 and found himself at a clinic. Over the years he struggled with difficult relationships with his parents, suicidal thoughts and feeling quite alone in the world and unsure what to do about it. He tried all of the "typical" avenues to addressing his mental illness, including counseling and medication, and when none of it worked, he began to explore on his own by tuning into his own body to listen to it in a deep way. He then aligned his life choices to support his own healing journey over the years and found that food had a large role to play in this process. He began experimenting with how certain foods made him feel and realised that a vegan diet was one of many changes that made a huge difference to his mental well-being and eventually supported him to recover from anxiety and depression.

Inspired by his own journey with mental illness, Charlie was moved to start a volunteer-run, online community, My Mental Health, where people suffering from mental illness could connect with each other, share experiences and learn and grow together. In his own journey, he found that community played a really important role for his mental well-being by keeping him connected to life and even his own purpose, and he wanted to offer this gift to others.

A few years later, while experimenting in his own kitchen with making "good vegan chocolate", he stumbled upon an incredible recipe he created himself through trial and error, and this planted a seed for what emerged next on his journey -- he left his well-paying and interesting finance job in the city to start his own chocolate company to promote mental well-being, The Well Bean Company! :) For Charlie, delicious vegan chocolate is simply an instrument to connect with people about mental well-being, given how little people talk about this. As he mentions on his website, "Our passion for mental wellbeing came first, then chocolate came along and gave us an opportunity to make a difference." With each bar of hand-crafted, cacao-conscious chocolate made with love, he offers the gift of a small booklet, sharing different ways we can all look after our own mental well-being including meditation, yoga, exercise, community, healthy eating and more!



We are so grateful for Charlie's heartfelt share, as it invited many beautiful open-hearted personal shares from people's journeys with mental well-being as the circle unfolded. Many people shared their own struggles with mental illness and how when they first experienced these struggles, they lacked the tools to begin to understand their situation and what they were going through. As such, they felt it is so important that this film continues to reach more people to help others make sense of what they are experiencing when they are struggling with mental health challenges and to not feel alone, as there can be many parallels between people's experiences of mental health breakdown, especially in the early stages of the journey. People in the circle who had relatively little experience with mental illness and didn't know anyone who suffered from it were equally grateful for the film as they felt that it opened their hearts to the realities that people experience and the deep suffering they can go through when struggling with mental illness. There is so much we can learn from each other's experiences and the circle that followed the film was a really beautiful opportunity to practice the deep listening Phil spoke about earlier in the evening, which is essential to being in community -- in this way both the sharing and holding space is truly a gift to everyone in the circle.

Our evening once again concluded with an overflowing offering of desserts (mostly vegan!), teas and coffees and continued sharing from the heart as many people in the room connected with each other in smaller groups. As we said goodbye to our final guests, Phil and Julee, at the stroke of midnight, Deep and I felt grateful for all that had unfolded that evening with a simple intention to hold space.



Following the Awakin Movie Circle, we received *so many* notes of gratitude from people who joined the circle and felt so deeply moved both by the film and the circle that followed (and even some photos and video clips). It struck a deep chord in many people and gave voice to their experiences with mental illness, which not many could understand. We've also received messages from several people who are interested in hosting screenings of CRAZYWISE with different communities they are a part of -- the ripples continue in full force as always from these types of gatherings.

This gathering was a unique experience for Phil and Julee as well as it was their first time to experience sitting in a circle together with all of the guests immediately following a film screening. They were both really moved to see the authenticity and vulnerability of the sharing that unfolded from a deep place in people's hearts when we held space for each other by sitting together in a circle. They felt that being in a circle together created a safe space where people felt comfortable sharing deeply personal life stories and lessons with each other, which is such a beautiful gift. Phil and Julee shared afterwards how they hope to incorporate the circle format at future screenings they are involved with.

We are so deeply grateful to Phil and Julee for offering all of us a deeper understanding of the realities of what people experience during a mental health crisis and the journey they embark on from there. Their visit and gift of their film seeded a heart-opening circle of moving shares, which deepened our interconnection with each other and our understanding of mental well-being.