Adrian Kowal, co-founder of Way of Nature UK, facilitates men’s retreats in the wilderness to help shed the ‘armour’ locking in suppressed emotions
“What does it mean to be a man in 2017? To be brutally honest – confusing. From an early age I have been spoon-fed mixed messages: an eclectic mix of inherited pressures, poor role models and even fairytales.
So it feels like a huge proportion of my own journey into manhood has actually been about unlearning these reinforced ideas and discovering what being a man means to me. The journey has been at times rough, surprising, humiliating and illuminating.
What has supported me most to witness the healthy masculine side in myself has been attending, and later leading, men’s groups. During these evenings it’s been so enriching to experience what is happening ‘behind the scenes’ for men from all walks of life – and feel that what they are sharing is most often a mirror into my own inner experience. To be part of a circle of men who are prepared to speak deeply about the real issues they face has, in turn, allowed me to begin to strip myself of the armour that has shielded whole aspects of myself, both the shadow and the…
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