News from YIP – October 2023

Dear friends of YIP

We hope this newsletter finds you well. 

The weather is changing and the ground is covered with  colorful leaves. With the darkness came rain and wind, but inside the buildings the light and the warmth has been held by the Yippies. Working together on the Light festival, deciding on their internships, creating working groups and hosting creative evenings. 

They finished the Community & Collaboration block by presenting a prototype of the Light Festival to the local community and with new ideas and feedback they enjoyed a well deserved Autumn break. 
After the break they had a taste of the Inner Awareness block by moving, dancing and working with Movement Vilnius. A beautiful start to moving inwards.

Written by Lidewey Huybrechts

In this newsletter you will find: 
– Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations that Matter written by Lewis Macmaster
– Intro to Entrepreneurial Project Skills written by Jade Temple
– Action Based Prototyping writtenby Enza Blosseville
– Moving in Complexity written by Tsu-En Chiang
– Creative afternoon sessions written by Sydney Dinopol, Lies Vanderbauwhede and Zuri Jozeph de Gòes

– Invitation to Light Festival written by YIP16

– Opening applications YIP17
– YIP-Alumni Project: Regeneration Training written by Diane Keyes (YIP7)

Intro to Entrepreneurial Project Skills

-with Nil Roda-

Last week’s contributor, Nil Roda offered the Yippies valuable lessons and insights on how to successfully plan and execute an event, specifically the Light Festival, which we will be putting on in December. He taught us the importance of organizing, marketing, budgeting, and setting goals. We worked on a mission statement for the festival and created a buyer persona, which we then worked around. Nil encouraged us to ask ourselves questions such as “what is the purpose of this event and who are we looking to serve?” He also stressed the power of community and connections, asking people for help and utilizing resources that are available to us.

This week, we divided into the groups that we were interested in so we could focus solely on one or two aspects of the festival. I am a part of the food team and after this week I feel that I have the tools and knowledge to make this aspect of the festival successful.

I believe that the whole group is feeling much more confident, as we now believe this is something we really can do. 

Instead of just lecturing us on how to throw an event, Nil had us lay everything out and really get into the organizing, planning and doing. He helped us to see that although there is a lot of work that needs to go into this, with good planning and organization, we can make it beautiful, fun and successful. 

I am very grateful for this week with Nil and for the opportunity to put on this event, as these skills are very useful and valuable for now and for the future.

Written by Jade Temple

Mesa: Action Based Prototyping

-with Brenno Kaschner Russo-

This week was focused on the light festival. Our main goal was creating a final concept to test with a live audience.

Brenno started by presenting himself and the different projects he has organized. He is a very sweet and wise person. Hearing about all of his projects allowed us to stop limiting ourselves. After he talked about all of these crazy ideas, we realized anything is possible!

He introduced us the “MESA method” which is a problem solving method. Originally created by a Brazilian company, the concept is that we all sit on a big table together (“mesa” meaning table in portuguese) and solve a problem within 5 days. We would meet everyday for two hours and share ideas, feelings and concerns about the festival. We also elected two guardians who would make sure that everything was going forward. Around this table we talked about our different issues and used the very useful advice from Brenno : “give solutions instead of opinions”. All the groups created with Nil in the previous week had the opportunity to express their needs and concerns. 

Through different advices Brenno invited a non judgmental approach as well as open communication. The first one came out of a conversation we had about our interconnected society and access to information. The conclusion was that people are very disoriented and confused. “There is a lot of information but that doesn´t mean that there is understanding”. As a response we asked ourselves: How can we unconfuse one another? As a way to do it Brenno reminded us of the difference between dialogue and discussion. I want to share it with you because I believe it can really change things: A dialogue is based on union because it is a collaborative build up. Within it people suspend their personal opinions, they accept. While in a discussion people tend to need to defend their opinions. In order to do it they find the stronger argument and it is the one that usually wins.The major difference is within the two kinds of listening. One is listening is to add ideas for building up together. The other is listening to find the stronger argument and win the conversation. 

Thanks to a deeper understanding of how we can improve our conversations each group was able to create a prototype: on Friday, our final day, we had the goal to give local people a taste of how the light festival will be. And we actually did it !!! After two rehearsals under the rain, all of our groups were (kind of) prepared for the presentation. We experienced the doubt of not knowing how many people were coming, and I remember the mix of stress and excitement me and Zuri had (as we were the host of the night) when we saw an entire class of the school waiting outside the greenhouse!! I think overall there was a bit of confusion and miscommunication. But everything went really well because we followed the flow of things and found a way between chaos and order (big up to Art of Hosting). 

As a group we were all very proud of each other and I think this week really helped us believe in ourselves and our capacities as individuals.

To conclude, the magical energy of Brenno who shared his light with us helped a lot for the light festival.

Written by Enza Blosseville

Inner Awareness

Moving in Complexity

-with Justas Kučinskas-

After the autumn break, as Yippies returned from their individual travels and routines, we were greeted by “Movement in Complexity.” This was one of the courses I had been eagerly looking forward to since I first considered applying to YIP. As the temperatures dropped and the days grew shorter in November, this course kindled a deep inner warmth within me, awakening my inner awareness.

In the classroom, we engaged in various movement practices, exploring different levels (high, low, floor), alternating between movement and stillness, experimenting with speed, both individually and in groups. We delved into the five elements of dance, practiced quadrupling, wrestling, and more, all guided by Justas and complemented by props like elastic cords and small cedar blocks. These aids allowed us to break free from our usual movement patterns and discover the possibilities of different activities, making for an engaging and beautiful exploration. Also, we practiced walking at the slowest pace possible. In my everyday life, I am always rushing from one place to another, rarely paying attention to how I walk, how my feet touch the ground, or the swing of my arms. Yet, these seemingly insignificant details are of paramount importance because adopting a comfortable and healthy walking posture can bring positive effects to the body.

“Your movement is only beautiful when it is sincere.” This phrase from the first class resonated deeply with me. I realized that my movements and dances are not about pleasing others or gaining their approval but about self-expression and self-understanding. Focusing on the present moment and feeling the body is not an easy task. I practiced slowing down my movements, attentively feeling the joints’ mobility and muscle contractions – sensations I often overlook. Unlike learning a specific sport, the movements we practiced this week are drawn from everyday life, making it possible to keep the body supple, flexible, and warm through daily activity.

I found inspiration in Justas’ approach, where strength and flexibility come from whole-body movements rather than isolated exercises. This insight motivated me to incorporate more full-body movement into my daily life. If I allow my body to move freely in my everyday activities, my muscles will naturally develop, and my body will unfold. However, if I engage in prolonged and mechanical work, such as sitting at a computer for extended periods, my body will become stiff and sore. In such cases, I will need more intensive stretching and training to relieve tension and strengthen muscles because these movements were absent from my daily routine. I appreciate the way these movements open up my body, allowing me to explore its flowing possibilities. I intend to continue this flow and warmth, feeling the changes in my body, which brings me inner warmth and pure joy.

Written by Tsu-En Chiang

Creative Afternoon Session: Metal Work

-with Richard Svanström –

To Richard, our wonderful metal work teacher, 

Thank you for the warmth and humor that you bring and for your enthusiasm towards our ideas!
 

On Wednesday afternoons, Yippies head to different creative sessions. On these days, I eagerly skip towards the metal workshop where we are greeted by Richard with a warm smile.

Since the day I stepped into the metal workshop, I’ve found so much joy in working and creating there. I love how warm it is inside the workshop, a far cry from the chilly autumn winds blowing the trees outside the window. I love the myriad tools, materials and beautiful projects hanging on the walls and in tables, scattered around the room. I love the sharp smell of metal, burnt coal, and ash in the air that envelops us. I love the different sounds that different metal makes as you hit on it with a hammer and seeing what that hit changed, or maybe that it didn’t change anything enough for you to notice. I love the sound that glowing hot iron makes when you dunk it in water. The intense bubbling, sizzling and hissing that quickly dies away. I love the scratching of silver on rough pieces of sand paper, imagining the amount of silver dust that goes flying in the air and wondering just how much silver dusk do I carry in my lungs today? I love our silence, and the immense will and focus that we have and give to what we’re doing. It’s an energy that radiates from each one of us and to each other – a force that has the power to inspire others’ will and imagination to create. 

Each one of us attending metal work, is working on something different – each exploring different metals and working with its different qualities. I am working on a brass bowl and others are making silver rings, earrings, steel candle holders, hooks, and flowers from thin metal wire. Seeing what each of us makes is so inspiring in the way that we are all working on such different, unique and totally us things. The will that people have towards making what they have envisioned, and their ability to navigate around physical limitations while still staying true and honoring their ideas was deeply moving. It showed me time and time again that the boundaries of something are only really limited by where we want to take it. It was truly wonderful to see how a flat piece of silver was rounded into a ring, how a piece of steel was sculpted into a candle holder, and how from strands of thin metal wire one created flowers and leaves.

I enjoy and find this work as equally important as the conversations and discussions that we have up in the Hive. It is work that asks of you and develops another kind of thinking and being present – a kind of focus and being grounded that I find we are exercising less and less in the world. When I am working, I find that I am not thinking about anything but the bowl that I am forming in my hands. It’s a focus that is inward and concentrated towards something but does not shut out the world. It has so much to do with 

being awake to the world through our senses and how we are connected to our bodies – in touch, in seeing, in hearing, in smell, in our strength, and in our delicateness.

In our courses, we touched quite a few times on the role of the human being in nature as part of nature. And when reflecting on this work, the image that came to me was how through this, we took what’s from the earth and with the elements, we were able to transform it into something beautiful and useful – just like how the cow takes food from the earth, works on it inside and gives it back to the earth transformed and as something that has the power to nourish the soil. It made me think a lot about our place in the world and what it means to be part of a whole, and that maybe, change is born out of a shift in the way we see ourselves in the world – when we begin to see the human being in this picture as something who can take from the world, work on it and bring it back into the world as something that carries transformative power.

By Sydney Dinopol

Creative Afternoon Session: Art Therapy

-With Susan Bäucke Kollem-

Yesterday I saw Susan at Skave café 

I recognised her immediately

She came up to me as she was leaving and said ‘I hadn’t recognised you’ in German

Have I changed then I wondered afterwards? 

Yes, of course I have changed

The art therapy sessions with her contributed to that 

I came with an open creative mind

Ready to discover which colours wanted to come to the surface 

But above all I discovered which one I was hiding

Yellow 

The colour of optimism, happiness, life and fun

Feeling confident and energetic

The first months here gave me many challenges 

A new group of people

A new environment 

Which made me question myself

Triggers resurfaced and old habits emerged 

Although I know myself when I am alone, here I had to rediscover myself and my light again

How can I continue to embody my true nature as my environment changes?

Now in the darkness of autumn and winter 

I feel I am finding it back 

Finally 

This fire within me 

That keeps me going 

Thank you Susan 

For helping me light it up

By Lies Vanderbauwhede

Creative Afternoon Session: Wood Work

– with Per Ingvad –

Per, my woodworking teacher at the local high school, is like a woodworking wizard. He’s the kind of guy who can turn a simple idea into a work of art and make it look easy. I’ll never forget my first day; I was pretty clueless about woodworking, but Per’s enthusiasm and patience made me excited for the rest of our time. Every day felt like a new adventure. He showed us how to work with different types of wood, from the soft and wet birch to the delicate cherry, and how to use all these cool tools, from chisels to power saws. 

In the world of woodworking, persistence is the key to transforming the wood into something. I’ve had my fair share of moments where my fingers throbbed with soreness, and I questioned my sanity while carving intricate details into a spoon handle or carefully shaping an incense holder. But those moments of discomfort were just part of the process. They were the trials and tribulations that, in the end, made the satisfaction all the sweeter. As I stepped back to admire the finished incense holder and spoon, I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of accomplishment. The toil and perseverance had paid off, and in those moments, the sore fingers were forgotten, replaced by a profound appreciation for the beauty of craftsmanship and the joy of creating something with my own hands.
 

After our first lesson, where we learned the basics and got started on wooden spoons, he encouraged us to design our own projects and let our imaginations run wild. What I appreciate most about Per is that he turned the class into a tight-knit community. We’d help each other out, share ideas, crack jokes and celebrate each other’s accomplishments. Thanks to Per, I’ve discovered a lifelong love for woodworking, and I’ll always be grateful for that.

By Zuri Joseph de Gòes

Message from YIP16

Invitation to the Light Festival

Coming this winter, an evening of light, warmth, music and food for the whole family from YIP16! 

For the last 30 years, the Light Festival, or Ljusfest as it is known locally, has been a yearly winter tradition here in Ytterjärna, until it stopped 8 years ago. This year, Yippies have taken on the task of organizing the Light Festival, rekindling an old tradition and within it finding ways to make it our own. We hope that this becomes a new start for the Light Festival and that with what we create it can carry on. Through the Light Festival, we hope to bring light and warmth to families amidst the darkness of winter and create something that unites people. For us as a group, we hope that through this we get a taste of what it’s like to take something from an idea to manifestation, as well as gain skills and experience in organizing events. 

The Light Festival will be taking place on the 3rd of December, from 15:00-19:00 at Nibble Trädgård, Ytterjärna. We hope to see you there!

Internship fundraising: GoFundMe

YIP is an anthroposophically inspired educational program based in Järna (Sweden). The aim of YIP is to make people grow as individuals and find out how we can help the world. In the coming spring we will have the opportunity to go on internships located all aroud the world. This experience will allow us to meet inspiring people as well as learning from different cultures.

To be able to finance our travel costs and accommodation abroad, we are doing different fundraisers like crafting postcards, selling apple juice, hosting a big light festival on 3rd of December, and this GoFundMe that you are on right now.

We would be incredibly grateful for your support!

On this page we will keep you updated about our process and share with you some of our experiences when we will be back after our internships…

Lots of love <3

Your YIP16

To find the GoFundMe page and more information: click here

Message from YIP

Opening applications YIP17

As we here in Ytterjärna enter the inner awareness module of YIP 16 with the wonderful group of participants currently committed to the program, the team is simultaneously working towards opening applications for YIP 17. We speak about who may be looking for a program like YIP, we speak about how we can make YIP visible and accessible to those who would wish to hear of it, we set dates for our design of the YIP 17 curriculum and we reconnect to the core of what YIP seeks to serve in the world at this time in our development.

For me personally at the moment, I hold the hope that YIP can contribute to supporting and fostering the development of courage to meet the tasks and demands experienced both inwardly as a call for inner development and outwardly as we experience the harsh realities of what is taking place in the world. I also hope that YIP can fuel and fan the unique fire of each individual applying to the course in the full knowledge that each particular flame is a vital part of the whole. Finally (for now) I have the wish that YIP can support the creative capacity of each applicant to thrive in the work they engage with as an individual out into the world and as a group and that they can leave YIP with the lived experience of having unceasing creative capacity.

The YIP 17 applications will open on the 17th of November. If you have the possibility of spreading the word within your networks or with those people you feel could benefit from YIP we would be very grateful.

With warm and heartfelt greetings to all,

Annie (Team member)

To be notified, click here.

To get more information, click here.

YIP-Alumni Project: Regeneration Training

YIP is a social entrepreneurship program, and each year the alumni network expands and a lot of projects are worked on. We are curious to see what these projects are that YIP alumni are working on, so we decided to include each month an article written by an alumnus in which they can explain their work and experience.
 

This month we hear from Diane (YIP7 alumnus) about the Regeneration Training:

Over the last two years a group of YIP alumni (Diane Keyes YIP 7, Philip Stoll YIP 1, Chris Becker YIP 13, Pauline Wenzel YIP 13, Felix Swiatek YIP 6) together with others in Germany have been prototyping ‘The Regeneration Training’. So far, the Regeneration Training has been run twice on two different farms. Currently, we are gearing up to run a further 10 trainings in the coming year or two and are building partnerships with foundations and other organisations with a shared vision of regenerating landscapes and our relationship with Nature. 

The intention of the Regeneration Training is to offer a very practical and at the same time personal way to heal Nature as well as our human relationship to Nature. This healing process involves not only ‘external’ changes through learning and implementing concrete biodiversity measures, but also an ‘internal’ change in our way of thinking and our personal relationship with the world. We understand these two aspects (the inner and the outer) as necessary to tackle the climate crisis, and we try to address them simultaneously in this training. 

The Regeneration Training involves exploring one’s own intimate connection with Nature, learning specific biodiversity methods, developing one’s own skill at applying these biodiversity measures through working hands-on at a local farm, and learning through community. The participatory learning formats that we know and celebrate at YIP inform a great part of the Regeneration Training’s curriculum and the way it is delivered. Participants leave with the ability to support the healing of their local landscape (be it a small city garden, a large farm, or a neighbourhood park) through concrete biodiversity methods (the ’10 biotopes’ based on Hans-Christoph Vahle’s plant sociology). A specially developed perception practice (according to PETRARCA) offers an entry into a new way of experiencing and being in relation to nature. 

It has been a great pleasure having the opportunity to work so closely and so creatively with fellow YIPpies from other years. It feels like living YIP 3.0, which is something we explored in my YIP year: the idea of living YIP outside of the YIP bubble ‘in the real world’. It’s so relieving to hear a chorus of ‘Yeahhhh’ when you suggest we open the meeting with a check in and a song, and it feels so healthy to know that others are just as interested about giving honest feedback and reflecting our collaboration process. So: thank you YIP for preparing the soil for this initiative to come to be and for us having such joy living this culture ‘out in the world’. 

If you’re interested in attending the training or simply getting in touch, feel free to email us at: diane.keyes@live.com or info@fakt21.de 

By Diane Keyes (YIP7)

In the next newsletter you will find:

– An Inquiry into Self: Biography Week
– Anthroposophical Anthropology
– The Art of Sculpture
– Portrait Painting

– Light Festival

– YIP-Alumni Project

Newsletter composed by Lidewey Huybrechts, Yander Fabri and Naomi Richards