NÄRA is a Swedish word meaning near or close, as in near to our hearts or being close together. At the same time it means to nourish, as in nourishing ourselves and our connections.

NÄRA is also the name of a community and physical venue in central Malmö, that has been experimenting with ways of involving and inspiring more people into practices of relational awareness and growth. Where facilitators offers diverse workshops and morning practices.

This festival stems from a longing to provide more opportunities for people to connect around authentic practices, circling and embodiment. As the local and Scandinavian communities involved with this are growing, we want to celebrate, combining deep processing with the ease and joy of just being in togetherness. We hope this festival will support further development of these communities and bring valuable and inspiring experiences for everyone participating.

Authentic Relating is an umbrella term covering both a movement and set of practices that facilitate an honest and heartful way of exploring communication and connection beyond social masks and norms.

Circling® is an organic authentic relating practice based on a few principles that support you in being more in touch with your own truth and at the same time staying in connection to others. It’s organic in the sense that the group’s aliveness and experience of relatedness direct the unfolding of the process, rather than imposing any specific structure.

Embodiment suggests that as human beings, our bodily existence is at the core of who we are. Through our body, we are in a direct relationship with all other bodies and the world. Ways of exploring embodiment can be meditation, dancing, martial art, playing music – any activity where you’re experientially in touch with your direct sensory experience of being alive right at this present moment.

NÄRA, both the festival and the community based in Malmö, are inspired by the longing to contribute to a more beautiful and peaceful world, and support people’s ability to co-operate and relate well together. It builds on the idea that we humans are fantastic beings with enormous gifts and capacity to connect and love, AND that many of us need to practice using this capacity. Patterns of self resistance, trauma, and disconnection to ourselves and others and the world make it harder for us to stay attuned to our gifts and act from this place of love. Our deeper mission is to inspire the exploration of how we can connect more, communicate bravely and with aliveness, stay grounded, stay curious, be responsible and whole beings, and cultivate deeply loving relationships to ourselves, each other and nature. At NÄRA, and through our practices, we want to work at core level of our global challenges; the ability to be whole together, and believe the larger-scale changes we are hoping for will follow naturally as humans feel more connected and understanding of each other.