HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND GREEN LIVING is a unique opportunity to increase your understanding of how life works, learn to design projects, such as a community, a garden, an economic system, an enterprise, your health, home or career .
You leave with a PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) certificate from Permaculture Denmark, an EDE (Ecovillage Design Education) certificate from Gaia Education, a sense of what works for you, practical skills to live a happier, healthier and more green life as well as being a valuable co-player in the co-creation of eco-communities, co-housing and other green projects.
This 12 week course combines theoretical and practical learning in 4 central areas of life. Each area lasts approximately 10-16 days and may be taken as an independent course.
Worldview: Explore and Re-create Your Life
Aim: To get a deeper understanding of how life works, increase vitality and your ability to master your own life.
Content: Health, “the see-saw of damage and repair”, food choices, lifestyle practices, body treatment, movement, massage, body-mind-spirit connection, thoughts, interconnection, self-diagnosis, nature, culture, self-reflection tools, personal & spiritual development, art, permaculture, macrobiotics, epigenetics, integral theory, spiral dynamics, inner transition, and more.
Social: Explore and Co-create Life in Community
Aim: To develop skills to become a valuable co-player in the co-creation of communities and green projects.
Content: Sociocracy (a decision making tool, which distributes power rather than centralizes it) and other community tools from CLIPS (Sustainable Community Incubator Partnership Program), hereunder conflict resolution, dragon dreaming and compassionate communication (NVC).
Ecology: Explore and Co-create Green Projects
Aim: To gain insight and skills to be able to live in a more sustainable way.
Content: A full Permaculture Design Certification Course. The use of permaculture design principles in regards to growing food, ecological building, green energy, water management etc.
Economy, ownership, organization & green entrepreneurship: Explore and Co-create Abundance
Aim: To have a deeper understanding of the financial system and be able to co-design green livelihoods, social economic systems and more.
Content: Economy and money – how does it work. Green economy. Designing local economic systems. Linking economy and ecology. Social economic enterprises. Ownership and organisation. Legal and financial issues. Empowered fundraising.
Designstudio
At the end of each of these modules you will work in groups to create a design related to what you’ve learned. After all of them you may participate in the design studio to create a design for a sustainable community. Everybody who completes this will receive an EDE certificate.
These different educational pathways are linked to the purpose of the Ecovillage Design Education (EDE): To train change makers in taking lead in the transformation of their societies. During this 3 month long EDE (Ecovillage Design Education), you will learn to apply the design methods and integrate the skills into real-life scenarios, to support you in creating more solid design projects.
In between the modules there will be 2-4 day excursions to different ecovillages and green projects for inspiration and acquiring more practical skills.
Avnø Højskole is an integral part of the aspiring eco-village, Avnø Oasis, which, in addition to the school, will consist of several other projects, including: A co-housing community, health sanctuary and green entrepreneurship. This completely unique framework provide a creative learning environment in conscious and active interaction with people who are committed to be part of the solution. During the course, the students form their own community, which to some extent will be integrated into the co-housing community.
To deepen the sense of community throughout the course students co-create morning exercises, evening and weekend activities as well as plans for cleaning & kitchen service together with volunteers, residents and staff where appropriate. The tried and tested self organising method of sociocracy will ensure that everybody feels heard and that activities during the period aligns with the needs and values of the group.
The more complex issues of HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND GREEN LIVING will be addressed from many different perspectives, including expert presentations, dialogue, student inputs, knowledge sharing, exchange of experiences, and experiential learning through practical experiences, exercises and project design and implementation. Through using the SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals), we will gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind key current global issues.
Teaching will be in English with Danish translation if required.
Sport – Do-in – Qi gong, Liberating movements, meditation, Chanting, dancing, nature walks etc are co-created based on the existing possibilities and the wishes of the students.
The purpose of the morning and evening circles is to create community, deal with practical tasks and adjust the course to the needs and wishes of the students. There will be a morning circle every day and evening circles 3 times a week.
There will be one morning session and two afternoon sessions of approximately 1.5 hours duration. Some sessions will be more theoretical and others will be more practical to learn and develop practical skills. During the PDC course, however, there will be several sessions.
As part of the practical sessions, you can get involved in designing and implementing projects that already exist in Avnø Oasis. Students will form groups together with more experienced members of the community and dedicated volunteers.
Examples on projects in Avnø Oasis that you may be involved in: Forestgarden, Café, Optimizing our energy consumption (renewable energy, CO2 negative heating etc), Avnø Oasis cookbook, Green commercial Kitchen (redesigning the kitchen at Avnø Oasis). New projects emerge, some lay idle in some periods, and others may already be implemented, when your course starts, so this list is by no means complete. To get your PDC and EDE certificates, your group has to complete at least one design from beginning to end.
Besides the actual project design and implementation the outcome may be articles, short films, multimedia presentations, exhibitions, performances and other local initiatives to share the insights and performance.
Evening and weekend activities are planned week by week in collaboration between students, volunteers, residents and teachers where appropriate.
Students on the HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND GREEN LIVING course, who wants to dive deeper into particular subjects, are welcome to participate in on our short courses for half price.
Kristiane, assisted by Olha & Victoria will be the ‘weavers” of the course. A role which is responsible for making it all come together in a greater whole. Besides being weavers they will be teaching various aspects of the course.
Rakesh Rootsman will be the main Facilitator of the PDC. Camilla will mainly contribute with community building (CLIPS). Victoria guides you to use art, imagination, spontaneity and poetry to create your new world. Ross and Ditlev gives us perspectives on the new economy. Alicia contributes with health and wellness. Bernhard and Rikke contributes with practical workshops on green building, Art, Ritual and Social Transformation as well as upcycling and sewing and Lucia will connect us with the beautiful nature at Avnø.
Some teachers may not be involved every time, we teach the course and other teachers may replace them.
The prices will increase with 500€ starting May 1, 2024
Secure your place in advance 🙂
Additional fees (max 3000 DKK/400€) applies for excursions and materials in some subjects / activities / projects.
Transport to and from the station, private use of the car, snacks purchased in the shop etc. are private cost, which you are responsible for.
Registration fee/deposit: 500 Euro has to be paid to secure your place as soon as you are accepted. It will be paid back when the course is over, your keys are returned, your obligations are fulfilled, and you have left your room in a clean and nice condition for the next person.
During the term, you will have the chance to share your culture at cultural evenings. It is possible to invite the local community for these events.
You’ll feel a deeper connection to Self and Nature and be more aware about how everything is interconnected, e.g. mind, body, relationships, culture, food, climate change, economic system, social (un)justice etc.
Kristiane Ravn Frost
Together with other people, engaged in the Avnø Oasis project, Kristiane developed the HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND GREEN LIVING studies in the spring of 2022 with the intention of creating a comprehensive 12 week program that would give people skills to take well care of themselves and at the same time go out and start green projects on their own.
Thus the course is a compilation of the knowledge you normally would have to attend a PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate Course) and an EDE (Ecovillage Design Education) to get combined with Kristiane’s comprehensive approach to health and personal transformation.
