Let ourselves be reminded by the moon – update on our path towards becoming a truly regenerative business

When we were living on the German farm in 2020, being outside a lot, growing our own food and connecting to the land, it just organically happened that we discovered our relationship with the moon too. We saw it constantly: the growth, the decline, the dark and then slowly reappearing again, above us, always with us after long days outside.

It was the moon and that year that reminded us about the power of circularity. The power of embracing the natural qualities besides growth again, that we’ve never been encouraged to explore and relax into.

It was relieving and painful at the same time when our bodies remembered that truth. We felt so tired. Our bodies were literally screaming at us: stop running, stop being in constant hussle mode and now stop feeling guilty for taking a break.

For both my sister and me that year on the farm was the beginning of two years simply restoring our bodies with the energy they were craving. Two years of slowness, practices that connected us again and again to the voice of our bodies, two years of composting all the shit from our lives and bodies that we have not had time and space to digest and learn from before. This required us to become very creative with our lives. Because restoring our energy meant not taking part in the “normal” hussle of a “normal” 40 hour job, but finding ways to financially survive instead as well as the right words to ourselves and our worried family and friends for our seemingly radical exit from society. Our dad especially was already sceptical about the long – in his eyes – “break” on the farm, and now we still did not want to look for a “proper” job? Oh god!

But everything inside of us screamed at us to not go back into the systems that disregard the natural rhythms so much, leaving us and ecosystems literally with no space for restoration, no space for a healthy expression of life. We understood our privilege to try and made it our challenge to build our lives and organization it’s thyme in alignment with natural rythms with the vision to support others in doing the same.

Julia and me taking a break over christmas in Southtirol, where part of our family lives

Looking back now, I am SO happy that we took that decision and even more happy and proud that these two years are behind us, haha. I think it is safe to say that they were the most challenging years of our lives on all levels: mentally, emotionally, intellectually and financially.

Mentally as we constantly had to talk against our own and others fears, standing up for our believes through stepping out of our comfort zones. Trusting ourselves was a lot of times exhausting.
Emotionally as we and our loved ones got to know ourselves and each other in new ways, which led to a challenging journey through outdated family and relationship patterns.
Intellectually as we continued our research to understand how personal healing, social justice and environmental regeneration are interconnected and finding ways to put our learnings into practical and graspable concepts for our workshops.
And financially as we ditched “normal” career paths for Master graduates and instead became self-employed, mobilized our networks, finding and creating projects and workshops to earn enough money to pay the freaking high costs that come with being self-employed.

Even though it seemed too difficult and too much, almost too many times, it somehow always stayed very clear for both of us that we will not go back! We will find ways! Luckily we have created an amazing network through the years and received amazing mentoring through e.g. the Break fellowship in 2022 who supported us on our way.

We are now in our 3rd year after our farm stay.

Starting to see it all pay off.

Our bodies have reached a state of so much strength and calmness, filled with more gratitude and confidence than shame and anxiety, that we finally feel that we are slowly arriving. Arriving where?
In a safe body. In a healthy state of mind. In relationships with ourselves, others and our Earth that feel much more nourishing and real.

I personally believe nobody ever arrives at a state where life is only “love and light”, especially if the world around them is falling apart. The daily entanglement and engagement with our worlds inside and around us asks us, or even demands us to let in the the pain, the sadness, the anger, the destruction and chaos. If we learn from the moon and slow down sometimes, we can get in touch with these “darker” emotions and understand that, really, NOT expressing them slows us down much more! While many believe it’s better to cover our emotions up, trying to hide them under the rug, we really are cutting us off from valuable and vulnerable parts of ourselves – parts of life.

We believe there is a deep connection between the state of the planet and our inner worlds. We don’t give the Earth and ourselves space enough to restore and to regenerate. And we believe the world desperately needs these spaces that allow our ecosystems and nervous systems to heal. Everywhere. In the heart of our societies. To finally slow down and understand how we learned to suppress life and harmfully interact with ourselves, others and the Earth. We need structures that hold us while doing so. That provide for us while doing so. That allow us to live more in community again. Structures that allow us to simply be while finding new solutions for our lives, organizations and systems - or structures that become the new normal as they proove to be nourishing for us.

With it’s thyme, we want to be the space where people can not only learn and experience what it means to live in structures that respect life and the limits of the Earth, yourself and others, but also help building them! So that together we can build a new world based on regenerative principles. Sounds too big? Yes, it definitely is too big for only Julia and me!

That’s why it’s thyme is going through a huge transition right now. We are moving away from “simply” giving workshops about regeneration as two freelancers, allowed the organic growth of our (still volunteer-based) team of sharp minds and passionate hearts, who are now with us in the very beginning of becoming a regenerative business. Yes, you read that right! Business! Although we might not sound or look like your typical business men and women, we want to show that entrepreneurship and money can be used in a regenerative way, namely for the support and growth of regenerative structures and everyone who is building a regenerative world.

With a wonderful Advisory Board and growing supporter base, we continue the challenging path to create a new status quo with even more confidence, continously learning and turning anxiety into strength while building our business model, community and a prototype of our first Hope Hub – all without losing our humanity, joy and connection in the process.

So far, so good. We’ve come so far; I believe we can do this! Well, I guess if we did not believe, we would not be doing this haha. Wish us look, cheer us on and support us anyway!!!

What is behind the concept of the Hope Hub? Read about the concept of the Hops Hubs and how it is an integral part of our business model in one of our next blog posts!

Until then: let yourself be reminded by the moon :-).

Hannah