The Embodied Permaculture Project is coming to its fruition. 20 permaculture designers, educators, communicators and leaders came together from all over Europe to engage in 18 months of embodied presence practice together to discover what deep inner work can offer their outer work of regeneration and changemaking. The live programme has now come to an end and we have been analysing and curating the many learnings from this life-changing experience for the last few months.
The data suggests that all participants have experienced positive transformation over the course of the project. Participants expressed the following as benefits from qualitative reporting via exit interviews:
- A greater sense of wellbeing – increased experience of calm, compassion to self and others, relaxed acceptance of what is happening, trust in self and life in general. Decreased sense of judgment towards self and others.
- Increased awareness and presence throughout the day.
- Increased ability to stay centred in stressful or conflictual situations.
- More confidence to “be themselves” and show up with emotional authenticity at work and at home.
- A greater capacity to stay present, listen and hold space for others without feeling of overwhelm.
- More trust in their inner knowing and less reliance on external knowledge or approval.
- A greater capacity to trust their embodied instinctual knowing and act on that in their personal life and work.
- A shift and an expansion in the sense of self from contracted, separate and thought-oriented, to more porous, connected and feeling/sensing oriented.
- A deep trust and sense of safety within the group which expresses itself as an openness and honesty when sharing and people self-organising to meet each other online and in person outside of the group sessions to increase connection. This sense of being together is supporting individuals in their own work contexts.
What Changed Through the Embodied Permaculture Project
Over the course of the Embodied Permaculture Project, participants completed two established self-report measures at the start and end of the programme. Together, these offer a picture of how inner awareness, emotional regulation, and embodied presence shifted over time.
The results point to consistent and meaningful change across both measures.
MAIA – Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness – Results
MAIA Outcomes Summary
Analysis of the MAIA questionnaire shows consistent improvements across all domains of interoceptive awareness between the start and end of the programme. Participants reported a stronger ability to notice bodily sensations, track changes in breath and physical states, and recognise emotional cues as they arise in the body.
The most pronounced gains were seen in areas related to emotional awareness through the body and self-regulation via bodily cues, suggesting that participants were not only more aware of internal signals, but better able to respond to them in supportive and adaptive ways. Improvements in trusting and feeling at home in the body further indicate a shift toward greater embodied safety and stability.
Importantly, after correctly accounting for reverse-scored items, results also show meaningful progress in reduced ignoring or overriding of bodily signals. This points to a decreased tendency to push through discomfort or disconnect from physical cues, and an increased capacity to listen to the body as a source of guidance rather than something to manage or suppress.
Taken together, the MAIA results indicate a broad strengthening of interoceptive awareness that underpins emotional regulation, resilience, and sustained engagement in demanding land-based and regenerative work. These findings closely complement the NETI outcomes, reinforcing the programme’s impact on embodied presence and inner capacity building.
NETI – Nondual Embodiment Thematic Inventory – Results
Across all thematic areas, participants showed clear improvements between the start and end of the programme. The strongest shifts were seen in inner contentment, acceptance of experience, and reduced fear or defensiveness, suggesting a move away from stress-driven inner states toward greater ease and stability.
Notably, gains were not limited to emotional regulation alone. Participants also reported meaningful increases in presence, inner quiet, freedom, vitality, and relational openness, indicating a broad strengthening of embodied wellbeing rather than isolated changes. Taken together, the results point to a coherent pattern of inner capacity building that supports sustained, life-aligned work in regenerative and land-based contexts.
Combined Outcomes Summary (NETI and MAIA)
Across both NETI and MAIA measures, participants showed consistent and meaningful improvements between the start and end of the programme. Results indicate strengthened inner stability, emotional regulation, and embodied awareness, with gains evident across all major dimensions assessed.
NETI findings point to increased inner contentment, presence, and relational ease, alongside reduced fear, rumination, and defensiveness. The average increase of 1.57 points per NETI item highlights the breadth of change across the whole questionnaire rather than isolated improvements.
MAIA results complement this by demonstrating enhanced interoceptive awareness and self-regulation. Participants became more attuned to bodily sensations and emotional cues, more able to regulate themselves using bodily feedback, and less likely to ignore or override physical signals. Reverse-scored items were handled appropriately, confirming that these shifts reflect genuine improvements in embodied awareness.
Taken together, the convergence of NETI and MAIA outcomes provides strong evidence that the programme supports integrated inner capacity building, combining psychological wellbeing with embodied self-regulation. These capacities form a robust foundation for sustained, resilient engagement in demanding land-based and regenerative work.
Why This Matters
The Embodied Permaculture Project set out to explore how inner practice and embodied presence might support people working with land, systems, and long-term change. The data suggests that this approach can support meaningful inner shifts that underpin resilience, agency, and connection.
Rather than offering quick fixes or stress management tools, the programme appears to support deeper reorientation, helping participants meet complexity with greater groundedness, responsiveness, and care.
Sharing the harvest through storytelling
The impact of this project on both the wellbeing and capacity of those working in regenerative change arenas and the depth it brought to their work and lives is both heartening and important. If we want to engage in whole system transformation, then of course we need to bring our whole system to that process. The Embodied Permaculture Project has supported participants to bring more of themselves to their crucial work, and the ramifications of this will be fascinating to witness over time.
The integration of our inner and outer worlds feels essential as we navigate our way through unknown and uncertain territory together. How we sense and make sense, how we relate to each other and how we show up in the world can seed more presence, peace and prospering or less. Our 20 intrepid explorers are sowing that abundance out there in their farms, organisations and communities and we wanted to maximise their reach and share their learning and wisdom in their own voices. And so we have created a 6-part podcast series exploring the core themes of the project and the transformation it facilitated.
🌍You can listen to their journey (and read related articles) here
🌍And here’s episode 1
Discover Embodied Permaculture For Yourself
The project was so helpful to participants that, as part of our sharing, we wanted to offer some of the learning materials to a wider audience. So we created a 9-week experiential online course exploring the essential principles, perspectives and practices from the course. We have created this in collaboration with the UK’s national permaculture charity, Permaculture Association Britain.
🌍You can find out more about the course here
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