International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 57 | Page 37
‘you have the energy of the sun in
your heart’. The understanding
that we are all aspects of an
interconnected whole, receivers
and transmitters in a universal
energy field, was given to Felix
by his father, and he has devoted
his life to the communication and
transmission of this simple yet
challenging idea!
Felix practise includes yoga,
martial arts, meditation, music,
poetry and storytelling. He has
been practising these forms
in some way for his whole life.
Currently he records music and
poetry with a collective known as
Triangulators, and also performs
Rock’N’Roll and Country classics
under the name Spirit of ‘68.
The great Rock’n’Roll performer
Charlie Gracie once told Felix
that ‘Rock’n’Roll is life, people
who love Rock’n’Roll stay young,
healthy and vibrant’. We are both
devoted to finding ways to connect
with, nurture and encourage the
living energy present in all beings.
Whether it be through yoga,
conversation, or Rock’n’Roll, these
are all vehicles to communicate
the essential truth, that we are life,
and life is us!
We met in 2010, drawn together
by our shared interests and love
of adventure. Only a short while
after we had come together
Felix was given an old College
building in South Bristol to look
after for a couple of years. He
had been working with a group
called
Artspace
Lifespace,
and their sister company the
Invisible Circus in Bristol. These
groups took on old buildings and
turned them into community art
spaces, giving people studio
and living space at low cost to
support the creation of wonderful
works. Together with a goup of 9
caretakers we transformed the
old College from an abandoned
building into a vibrant community
hub, filled with life and activity, we
opened a cafe, set up after school
clubs for the local youth, created
a vegetable garden and so many
other things too numerous to list
here. Alongside organising the
College Project, Maya and some
Yogi friends had initiated the
creation of a Yoga and Massage
Centre in Swindon. For two years
this space provided a wonderful
space for quiet, contemplation and
Yogic practices for the people of
the Swindon area.
During this time we brought
together our knowledge of Yoga,
martial arts and the natural world to
create a workshop called ‘Human
Animal’. Merging elements of
meditation, movement and theatre
we created an experiential journey
for people who attended, allowing
them to physically and consciously
experience the human journey
from the void to self-aware
consciousness in the space of an
hour and a half. It is our hope that
by encouraging human beings to
recognise and better understand
their simultaneous animal and
human nature, they will be able to
be more gentle with themselves,
and more easily assimilate,
channel
and
maybe
even
transcend the powerful biological
drives which are active in all of us.
When both of our projects (the
Swindon Yoga Centre and the
Bristol College Project) for a
variety of reasons outside of our
control, ended in 2012, we were
unsure as to what to do next.
The austerity measures in the UK
meant the local Council were not
able to support the community
arts projects we were working on
in the way they had in the past,
and there were no opportunities
locally to carry on the work we had
been doing. Initially we thought
of becoming a kind of mobile
sustainable community support
team, travelling around in our van
offering energy and counsel to
other projects doing similar work in
the UK. However, when our friend
offered us the land in the Alpujarras
for us to experiment with creating
an off-grid living environment,
and a more permanent base for
our activities, we jumped at the
chance.
We have so many dreams for
this space, in time we hope to
run a tea shop with herbs grown
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