OUR ETHOS
Learning to live in harmony with ourselves and nature.
​
Living in Harmony with ourselves
​​
-
Keeping the body fit and flexible through yoga practice, a mix of hatha and vinyasa; restorative and yin yoga.
-
Becoming more accepting of the people we are and appreciating our place in the world through trauma healing and meditation.
-
Eating and promoting a healthy, balanced diet – growing and using organically grown fruit and vegetables and home reared beef and eggs.
​
Living in harmony with nature
​
-
Reducing our use of plastics, with reduce, reuse and recycling whenever possible.
-
Sourcing and shopping ethically for food, cleaning products and clothes.
-
Improving our use of renewable energy – solar panels installed 2019.
-
Maintaining the highest standards of animal welfare on the farm.
-
Involvement in environmental protection and commitment to re-foresting areas not suitable for agriculture on the farm – to date in excess of 1000 trees have been planted.
The Five Elements and The Raphael Studios​
At the Studios, our Ethos is to support you in attaining balance, helath and happiness.
We like to think of this journey through the language of the elements - 5 elements of yogic spirituality that help us to understand the laws of nature, the interactions and relationships between things.
​
These elements are Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Ether.
All the elements have different properties which allow them to interact and support each other; and our practices here at the Studios will support, nurture and grow your connection to the elements.
The interplay of the elements is beautifully illustrated by the story of a tree:
​
The little acorn, full of life and promise (Ether), is planted in the soil (Earth). The Sun shines and warms the soil (Fire) and the rain waters the earth (Water). The acorn grows into a sapling, then into a young tree, and finally through the capturing of the sun, water and nutrients in the process of photosynthesis, grows into a large oak tree. This tree inhales carbon dioxide, thus purifying the air on the planet, and breathes out oxygen, to sustain living creatures (Air). Its roots also stabilize the earth, and its wood provides shelter and warmth (Fire). Thus the fire consumes the wood and reduces it to ash, which is washed into the earth to enrich the soil, which feeds another tiny tree which has just sprouted; and so the cycle begins again. The same cycle exists for humankind, as we are conceived, live and die within the cycles of nature and the Great Wisdom of the Creator.
​
Here at the Raphael Studios, our Ethos is to bring each element to our practise together - working toawrds balance, health and happiness; and also I believe, to highlight our responsibility as human beings to the natural world.