Permaculture is an ethical design system — inspired by indigenous wisdom traditions — created to help us remember how to live in harmony with Mother Earth, with each other and with ourselves. The three core ethics of permaculture are Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share (or Future Care) which means caring for all beings, including ourselves and including those yet to come. Here at Flowing with Life, we’re inspired by the indigenous teaching that all decision-making can including consideration for the next seven generations.
Here we describe the traditional 12 permaculture principals offered by David Holmgren with new translations by Vishwam which bring a life-centred and holistic approach to the principals and how they apply to self care. These design principles apply not only to gardening to self care - our body-mind is also an ecological system - or any other system that could perhaps work more effectively for the benefit of all. This can include businesses, decision-making systems, garden design, architecture or any other system.
1: Observe & Interact (or … Participate with Awareness)
We can explore what it means to observe in an open-hearted way not only what is obvious at first, but what may be hidden within. Through looking, feeling and listening, we get a sense of what a body is needing to thrive – whether that’s a human, plant or animal body, a body of land, or a social body. Through participating in life in a heart-centred way, we observe the effects of our connections, our ways of relating, and how when we change, those around us change. Observe and interact can sound a bit like we’re outside the system. The heart is all embracing. Participating with awareness makes it clear that we are included, we are part of the great system of life.
2: Catch & Store Energy (or … Open to Receive, Retain & Share)
We might see the whole of life as energy flowing through different forms. It appears as sunlight cascading through the ecosystem, as breath passing from plants to animals and back again, as the food we eat and the creative inspiration that comes to us all. Opening to this flow of life, this flow of energy is essential for any system to thrive. Many, many people find it easier to give than to receive. Find it easier to be active than to relax. This imbalance can cause dis-ease within the system. And caring for ourselves is fundamental to caring for our family, our business, our community, whatever system it is we wish to nourish. Through strengthening and softening our systems (for example, through regular yoga practice), we can support this healthy flow of energy. And of course, we don’t want to just store (or hoard) anything - we receive, retain and share energy for the benefit of all beings, including ourselves.
3: Obtain a Yield (or … Co-create benefits)
A definition of a perfect act from Yoga is one that benefits someone, including ourselves, and harms no one, including ourselves. Through cooperation, whether with fellow humans or other forms of life, benefits are able to flow to all beings. We can also develop a cooperative relationship with our own minds, open to seeing the benefits (or yields) in a given situation. Through befriending the mind and coming to rest in the heart, our awareness of life is deeply transformed. Both seeing the benefits in life and allowing cooperation to flow takes practice over time. Being gentle with ourselves as we learn — whether that’s nurturing the seeds of plants, developing a new community resource with others, or simply inviting a practise of self-care into daily life — compassion is profoundly helpful here. We’re not just focusing on what we give, but on how we give together with others to lead to benefits for all.
4: Apply self-regulation & accept feedback (or … Co-create in Dynamic Harmony)
Continuing on the theme of cooperative creation, we can recognise that we are both part of the larger system and that our bodymind is a system itself. Healthy, natural system naturally find their own harmonious, dynamic equilibrium. They adapt and change as circumstances in the larger system change. We can practise this ourselves, allowing ourselves to be adaptable, open to change, attentive and listening: to the earth, to others and to our own bodies, minds & hearts. Regular practice of yoga and heart meditation or similar practices is a wonderful way to live natural human lives in dynamic harmony with others. Developing our intuition, our loving awareness and our openness to what others have to share with us (or that we wish to share with others) are all invaluable capacities for elements working well together.
5: Use & value renewable resources & services (or … Honour Cycles)
As we shift focus from the linear mindset of ‘what can I get’ or ‘how do I make it happen’ and tune into the way that all of nature is continually cycling and recycling, we become increasingly aware that everything in life we need is here. By honouring the cycles of our bodies, of the days, the seasons, we celebrating the sacredness of life. Celebrating is a way of opening to receive, to give, to share the abundance of life.
6: Produce no waste (or … See the Gifts)
Through nurturing our conscious awareness, we can come to see the gifts in any situation. Even an injury or illness can be, with practice and compassion, seen as a special blessing come to help us give loving attention to an aspect of life which may have been neglected in some way. This principal might also refer to honour our own gifts. Instead of telling ourselves, ‘I’m not ready yet’ or ‘I’m not good enough yet’, we can see that our genuine gifts love to be practised, developed and explored. Through seeing and honouring our own gifts, we can support and welcome the gifts of others - including those within different elements of the beautiful ecosystems within which we dwell.
7: Design from patterns to details (or … Begin in Wholeness)
The tendency of mind is to divide life into bite-sized pieces, often focusing on what it wants or what it doesn’t want. The nature of the heart is to embrace wholeness, to perceive the fullness of life. When engaging in permaculture design, it can be very helpful to allow awareness to come rest in the heart through heart meditation and to begin the process from a place of wholeness. In this way, we begin with seeing the (potential) system overall, considering what it needs to thrive and then looking at how different elements can contribute and work together to support the process.
8: Integrate rather than segregate (or … Open to Embracing Life)
Normal mental conditioning is to try to hold on to pleasure and push away pain, to stay with what is comfortable and avoid what is uncomfortable. As we all know, growth happens outside the comfort zone. Through welcoming all of life, just as it is, we all the elements of the system to find their way of working together for the benefit of all. Please note, embracing life does not mean being a doormat. Saying no to harmful relationships is a way of saying yes to ourselves, yes to healing, yes to life. Welcoming our own liberation is an important part of helping support the healing of our world. If we look at this principle from the other side, we can see that Life is embracing us, too. This opening to the embrace of life is a process - not something which is ‘achieved’.
9: Use small and slow solutions (or … Appreciate the Steady & Subtle)
If we focus on solutions, it means we are thinking of life in terms of problems. Instead, we can focus on what is available to support life that may not be so attention-grabbing and instead nourishes our capacity for patience and attentiveness. By helping the mind to become quiet and return to its source in the steady presence of the heart, we become more aware of how subtle shifts in the movements of the body, the choice of words, the placement of a plant in a garden can have tremendous benefits. The changes ripple out through the whole system — which is really the whole of the Universe.
10: Use and value diversity (or … Cherish Diversity & Individuality)
Every element of a system contributes differently because it is unique. Your gifts and another’s are not the same. Both are equally important contributions to the wholeness of life. Supporting every element - whether plant, animal, mineral, conceptual or spiritual - to play its part helps the whole system to thrive. Embracing our own diversity is important to playing our part in life’s beautifully rich tapestry. Within us all are many elements. The ways we relate with ourselves and others is what makes systems work the way they do. So if we change the way we relate, we change the whole system — even if it’s not obvious right away (see principle 9: Appreciate the Steady & Subtle). This applies to any system we might be focusing on, whether that’s our own body, or home or garden, to a community space or even an economic or political system.
11: Use edges & value the marginal (or … Explore the Edges)
Going back to comfort zones, we might avoid our person edges. Whether that’s the edges of our range of physical movement, the edges where our emotions have been kept back or the edges of what feels known and certain to us. There is great value in unknowing - in being open to explore without having firm answers. Exploring the edges of what is known and knowable leads to an openness to mystery. And where any two systems meet - whether systems of thought, individual biological systems or whole ecosystems - there is an increase in vitality and potential. Meeting the edges with openhearted awareness, fully open to exploring without prejudice (pre-judgement) can lead to profound learning (and unlearning).
12: Creatively use and respond to change (or … Embracing Evolution, Let Life Inspire You)
“All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God is Change.” ― Octavia Butler
It is easy to become jaded. We face so many challenges here on Earth, including climate change. And yet change is fundamental to life. It helps us evolve, grow and transform on every level. This is our natural evolution which is not just about biology, but also about consciousness. By being open to life, breathing it in (the literally meaning of inspire), we have the capacity to be present and face the challenges and invitations always present in times of change. Yoga and meditation help us be flexible to life’s changes. “Adapt, adjust, accommodate” — Swami Sivananda.