A quarter-century in one book
Richard, one of our longest-standing facilitators, has published his first book, Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life. It draws together twenty-five years of experience across Chinese medicine, yoga, meditation, dance and movement, Native American traditions, tantra and community living, with a healthy dose of what he's learned here at Moinhos Velhos, where he's been based since 2014.
What it covers
The book works as a broad, practical guide to understanding the nature of the soul, and how you interconnect with everything and everyone around you. Alongside that, Richard covers the natural forces at play in the body and mind — yin and yang, the five elements — and how tuning into them supports genuine health; how the mind actually works, and its relationship with the body and emotions; the dynamics of close relationships; and how practices like yoga, meditation and Chinese medicine work to support all of it.
Recognition
The book was named one of the ten best self-published titles of 2021 by The Bookbag, a nice piece of external validation for a project born almost entirely out of Richard's own practice and teaching here.
The personal thread
Alongside the more practical material, Richard shares a fair amount of his own story, from growing up in Dudley, through to the winding path that eventually led him to Moinhos Velhos, and the personal development work that shaped how he now teaches and treats. It's a rich, honest thread running underneath the more instructive chapters.
You can buy the book on-site during a stay, through Richard's own website, or simply meet him in person on a programme here.
