Designing with Nature’s Cycles: Ecological Awareness in Practice

How deep reconnection can guide nature-based wisdom and solutions

Facilitated by Dr. Deborah Benham

The living world is in constant flow, moving through cycles of birth, tender emergence, growth, flowering, flourishing, maturity, productivity, slowing and release, and finally death and composting—each stage essential for the conditions of new life to arise again. In many modern societies, however, we have come to prioritise only the peak of productivity, often losing connection to the wider cycles that sustain life.

This course invites you to reweave that connection. Together we will explore the 8 Petals framework (formerly 8 Shields), a practical and archetypal map for recognising, embodying, and designing with nature’s patterns and seasonal flows. Through this lens, we learn to work with cycles rather than against them, bringing greater balance, creativity, resilience, and meaning into personal life, community relationships, and professional practice.

The course supports participants to develop practical tools and embodied practices that can be applied across many contexts, from everyday living to organisational and bioregional design. It draws on deep ecological understanding, nature connection practices, and regenerative design principles to support a shift from extraction and disconnection towards ecological citizenship and active participation in living systems.

By the end of the course, you will have a set of insights and practices to support more aligned ways of living, working, and contributing within the cycles of the more-than-human world. The emphasis is on integration, not information alone, encouraging real-world application in families, teams, and communities over time.

In this course, you will develop an understanding of:

• The Importance of Natural Cycles, Stages, Seasons and Flows 
  • How stages and cycles create the conditions for life to thrive.
  • The loss of cyclical embeddedness, awareness, and practice in modern life, and its impacts.
  • The 8 Petals design frameworks, how these have been developed and how they can be applied.
  • Regenerating natural cycles in our lives, communities and workplaces.  

You will also develop your own practice of:

• Designing with Natural Cycles
  • Establishing a cyclical nature connection practice which restores our relationships with the ebb and flow of life.
  • Becoming familiar with the archetypal and practical wisdom in each stage and expression of nature’s cycles.
  • Recognising and celebrating seasons, cycles and flows through the year. 
  • Applying the 8 petals design framework to your personal, community, and professional life.  

Course Dates

Live virtual course sessions will take place on 4 consecutive Mondays, via Zoom:

September 14th, 21st, 28th, and October 5th, 2026

8am-10am Pacific Time / 11am-1pm Eastern Time / 4pm-6pm British Summer Time

Recordings will be available for registrants who are unable to attend a session. 

Dr Deborah Benham guides people and organizations to reconnect with and learn from nature's 3.8 billion years of innovation. As co-lead of Transition Network International - supporting community-led resilience, an ecologist and nature educator, lead tutor on the SHIFT Bristol one-year practical sustainability course, and an accredited Biomimicry Educator, she works locally and globally to help communities, students, businesses, and nonprofits design and implement regenerative futures. She leads the Living Systems Alliance - a collaboration between Transition Network International, Permaculture Association, Global Ecovillage Network, Kincentric Leadership and Biomimicry Institute - supporting communities and bioregions worldwide to reconnect with, learn from and design as nature. 

Deborah has a PhD in marine conservation and 28 years spanning wildlife ecology, sustainability education, nature connection and community resilience. She's worked closely with the 8 Shields/Connection First deep nature connection movement, and founder Jon Young, since 2011. Leading in depth online and on-land courses and experiences, teaching alongside Jon, and contributing to leadership training and organizational development. Deborah also brings her experience as a 4 dimensions of sustainability - Gaia Education (UN accredited) trainer, and trainer of trainers. She is the creator of the ‘Becoming Ecological Citizens’ framework, supporting people to shift from polycrisis overwhelm and paralysis to agency, active hope and sustainable action, aligned with their interests and joy.

Deborah lives in Bridport's pioneering co-housing community, practicing the regenerative principles she teaches. Her warmth, scientific rigor, and story-rich approach inspire audiences to become active contributors to thriving communities and ecosystems.

AskNature Hive members receive $100 off course fee, with discount code shared in the Watering Hole. 

Students receive 20% off course fee; please email media@biomimicry.org with picture of current ID to receive discount code.