As we approach the end of the year, many of us are reflecting on it and collecting learnings. So this month, we are exploring the benefits of reminiscence and nostalgia for our wellbeing.
How are you doing? How was this year for you? December marks the end of the year, a time of slowing down and reflection. I am spending most of my free time looking back at the year 2022 with a heavy heart. If you know me, you may find this surprising: I am, in fact, a sceptical optimist – optimist nonetheless. However, in order to move forward, look into the future and change, I find it incredibly important to pause and assess the past twelve months. Since I started blogging in 2004, I have also used the December time for written, public summaries, so here it is.
Good evening! I hope this post finds you safe and well. It’s a cold and gloomy weekend in Bristol, and it’s raining, so I am wrapping up in blankets and hiding in the comfort of our home. Since various holidays are approaching, I am spending time tidying up the home and putting away my paperwork after completed counselling studies. It’s time to organise and clean up my living spaces, so it is also the time to check in with all our houseplants. Each time I finish a major course, I adopt a tree. Usually, it is an olive tree to symbolise wisdom and peace, but this year, I decided to get a lemon tree. Simply because 2022 was incredibly challenging and sour. As they say: ”When life gives you lemons, make a lemonade”. I hope to make some next summer!
Today, I am offering you a few reflective questions to start exploring your negative tech bias. I have listed the areas people mostly use for daily language myths without noticing that they are doing it.
Last week, I posted about making my winter menu, and good job I did – the snow arrived in Bristol this weekend. It’s officially winter. Everyone in my close family celebrates their Birthdays in winter, so snow inspires me to think about my ancestry. In liberation psychology, ancestry is important as it supports the process of re-authoring the authentic stories of people who, due to racial or other forms of abuse, experienced a loss of identity and agency. I work on re-authoring people’s individual and collective agency a lot across all my services. It can be counselling, coaching and also social media consultancy.
Good morning. It’s foggy and quiet in the UK this week. The mosses “are out”, puffed up, plump, bright green and excited about the soggy weather. Nature is resting, and so am I. I am in a peaceful state of wintering, slowing down softly while finishing various bits and bobs of work before the holidays.
How are you doing? I hope this email finds you safe and well. Most people I talk to these days find themselves surprised by the upcoming holidays and feel exhausted, so I hope that you can take care of yourselves and check in with your friends and colleagues. I sense the need for good, deep, soft wintering this year: slower pace, gentle candlelight, pampering evenings, more kindness, gratitude and companionship (by this, I also mean allowing ourselves time for stillness to reconnect with ourselves). I hope you can find ways to do so. Slow down and go softly.
Good afternoon. I hope your Monday is as soft as mine. This weekend, I am visiting family in the Veneto region of Italy to reconnect with them after a long period of studies, to rest up and restore. Travelling helps me nurture a different perspective on life. So, as I prepare for my return, I reflect on the need for critical awareness (so very crucial for effective digital well-being).
Good evening! I hope this finds you safe and well. I took a week off posting because – as a wise poetry publisher once told me, “we only happen to be writers”. Sometimes, we have nothing to say, and that’s okay.
Who owns the rainbow? Who owns the clouds, the lakes, the trees, the autumnal leaves on a grapevine falling gently off an estate wall? You see, an animal won’t understand the concept of land ownership, for instance. A frog will come back to the same wintering pond but won’t ask us for permission to hibernate on our allotment plot. It will simply choose a safe spot to do so. If we “own” the rights to the plot, we claim the right to all Nature inhabiting it, but the frog – quite frankly – doesn’t care.