Feminism, Regeneration and Cyclical Living: An Interview with Activist Alana Bloom

Interviewed by Lauren Thompson

Alana is an artist, facilitator, mentor and activist committed to regeneration. Her mission is to support a shift towards a more nature-based eco-centric society and to support others to live wild and soulful lives through remembering their wholeness and the cyclical intelligence within and around us.

Weaving the intelligence of the more-than-human world into her work through nature connection, ritual, embodiment and cyclical wisdom, Alana leads transformational experiences for people to explore their creative gifts through community, connection and many practices inspired by theatre and dance. 

Here, we discuss the themes of her work and talk about all things social activism.

How would you describe your work to someone who has never experienced it first-hand?

I wear a bunch of different hats. My offerings centre around cyclical living, women's work, regeneration and cultural healing. I think the thread that runs through the work I do is aligning ourselves with the wholeness of nature and nature's capacity for diversity. That often looks like welcoming our whole selves if we're tired, if we're excited, if we're energised. Creating spaces where all of us are welcome, essentially. 

To describe my work more specifically, I run events, trainings, workshops, retreats and various happenings. Some of it is based around regenerative cyclical living and rewilding. A lot of it focuses on women and reclaiming feminine wisdom. Feminine not necessarily being equated to women, but the feminine, which is so much about yin, slowness, rest and receptivity. A kind of down and in, rather than action and out, which is what a lot of dominant society is catered towards. 

I work a lot with the perpetual summer modality, perpetual summer being the dominant capitalist consumerist mainstream culture. To come into a better balance, we need to incorporate the whole cycle: spring, autumn, and winter. The qualities and attributes that are connected with these seasons can act as a healing balm for perpetual action over productivity that we are expected to upkeep.

Where would you say your work as a performer and a facilitator intersect?

I started my facilitation and space-holding journey as a performer. I trained for five years in physical theatre and circus. I feel like that space created such a deep level of embodiment for me. My body is – was – my work. Expressing and creating with my body on a day-to-day basis gave me a strong foundation of embodiment skills. I think this really comes into my work as a facilitator because I lead so much with my body and listen with my body. I really open up my senses, my intuition, my felt sense of the environment that I’m working in. 

Being a performer, I did a lot of clowning; this is really important in facilitation. Bringing that into the space can really defuse tension. I think it’s important, while some of the work I do can be quite serious, that we can also bring our joy and our pleasure and not take ourselves too seriously. 

What is it that drew you to facilitating and person-centred events?

I really love working with people. I think facilitating is an extension of that because it is about people. I also love creating experiences that are performance. I did a lot of immersive theatre, and I think it’s similar to facilitation because you’re much more interactive with your audience and really create a bond. I also enjoy offering my creative research and exploration and involving people in it. I guess that was my doorway into creating facilitated experiences and environments for people. 

What would you say are the main themes of the work that you do, and why?

One of the big themes that underpins a lot of my work is regeneration and moving towards a regenerative culture. We’re living through a climate and ecological emergency and heading into a state of crisis. I spoke before about how our culture is in this perpetual summer and that people are burning out and experiencing mental health issues. That’s also real for our world. Our world is burning out.

Regeneration, for me, is really about moving towards a life-sustaining culture that can also be resilient in the face of these things. This also links to my work around rewilding, which has mostly been focused on women’s work. A lot of our cultural conditioning as women comes from this dominant patriarchal overculture and women have often been contorted to fit into boxes. So, rewilding for women is about welcoming our full and whole selves and, in doing so, bringing our own gifts to the world. Those gifts are actually very much needed if we are to face the climate and ecological emergency. 

I’m also part of a land-based project in Devon called The Living Project, which ties into my passion for rewilding our culture, the way that we live and our relationship with the land. Then the other major theme of my work is cyclical living. Cyclical living is about honouring the changes of the natural world around us and seeing ourselves as part of that. 

How has moving online over the pandemic changed the way that you work?

It’s changed things a little bit. I’ve been running courses and workshops online. A lot of the work I would do would be quite experiential, embodied, getting people out on the land. So, I’ve had to be quite creative with how to bring nature connection into the online space. What I do find fascinating, and maybe a kind of silver lining in moving things online, is that people develop their nature connection relationship with their immediate world, rather than taking themselves on a retreat into nature ‘out there’. 

Moving online has made me even more aware of the benefits of running things in person. I feel committed to continuing to create spaces in real life; online work is a sort of preparation for being together in person. I think for many it’s been a creative challenge that has its rewards and losses, so I’ve just had to get really clear and centred and expand my field of awareness to these little boxes that I see on screen.

The natural world plays a huge part in your work. What aspects of the natural world inspire you the most?

It all inspires me. I have definitely built relationships with particular creatures more than human beings. I feel that deer have really played a big role in my life. I live on an estate with a deer park, and I explored and performed a piece called ‘Artemis’. Artemis is a Greek Goddess that’s highly connected with deer. I have a deerskin drum; I have a number of deer skulls and bones as well. So, deer have been a big part of my journey. It's been more of a relationship that has inspired me in many ways. For me, it feels important that I learn to see the aliveness of this world. Within that aliveness, there are hundreds of thousands of more-than-human beings that we can build relationships with, that are animate, that have their own personalities and ways of being in the world. I’ve been growing food on a land-based project for the past year and have seen the cycle from seed to a flower, to a vegetable. I’m deeply inspired by that cycle.

Would you say there’s an element of social activism to the work that you do?

Yes, absolutely there is. I'm trying to create a conversation around how we can shift from hustle culture to something that is life-sustaining and regenerative. An alternative pathway to this capitalist, consumerist society that is slower, more felt, more connected. It’s tangible, and yet it’s also very personal to each community and circumstance.

Can you tell us a bit about your current offerings and plans for the future?

I work with an organisation called Enrol Yourself, and I’ve been running a learning marathon through them in Devon since January based around cyclical living, regeneration and rewilding in collaboration with The Living Project. 

The best place to stay updated on my happenings is to check out my websites www.regeneratingrhythms.org and www.alanahydebloom.com to join my mailing list. There’s also a free workbook that you can get once you join that explores some of the themes discussed in greater detail.