In the autumn of 2021, we shared our tips on effective digital detoxing on our Instagram account. For many of our clients, 2023 was a heavy year, so as we enter the Holiday Season, we have decided to collate all our digital detoxing tips into a handy e-book. You can download it here.
Watch any Christmas movie and the plot line is likely to end with a couple falling in love. Christmas comes a close second to Valentine’s Day when it comes to emphasising romantic love and being in a couple. There are plenty of people out there who are content with their solo status, but if you’re not one of them, the holiday season can be tough, leaving you feeling like you failed or are unlovable in some way. What doesn’t help is facing an avalanche of seasonal togetherness on TV, in cinemas, on Christmas cards, adverts, gift catalogues, and more.
Winter has fully arrived. At this time of year, nature all around us slows down, and animals begin their hibernation period. In the past, people would sleep for longer periods of the day with their animals in an attempt to keep warm during the colder months. Scientifically, your muscles move slower in cooler temperatures (based on the principles of thermodynamics, which is the branch of physics dealing with how energy relates to heat, work and temperature) and, according to the Met Office, the end of ‘the growing season’ for lawns is marked by five consecutive days below 5oC. So slowing down, resting and sleeping more in cold temperatures is normal for humans, plants and animals. Yet, in today’s society, we hardly ever slow down at any time of the year and being busy seems to be the default response to “How are you?”
What are the benefits of slowing down, and how can we do it?
Until recently, I had no real idea of what Forest bathing was. I had heard of it in passing, and that was about it. I started thinking about it more when I was looking up at the underside of trees and thinking about how happy it made me. This led to wanting to find out more about Forest bathing, what it was and how I could do it!
We are delighted to announce that we are now on Spotify with our new podcast on digital wellbeing and digital futures.
Welcome to our November Newsletter.
How are you doing? For many of my clients, things feel heavy at the moment. I am having many conversations about the online discussions escalating into conflict and the need to switch off and find peace. I agree that when the amount of incoming messaging gets too much, we need to pause. And it’s also worth thinking about peace: what does it mean to us personally? I speak a lot in those newsletters about authentic communication, as well as rest and restoration – it is a base for healthy regulation of our emotions. And we always come back to humanity – how can we be authentically ourselves, and what do we need to heal and thrive? So many questions…answers are hard, complex and not always clear.
Good morning. I hope this finds you safe and well. It’s finally frosty in the UK, so I put away the remaining spring flower bulbs and pulled out the warm blankets and hot chocolate. I am working on a project related to the Witcher universe, so the timing is perfect: I spend my evenings working on a geek therapeutics essay, so I am reading about Slavic myths, the feminism of witchcraft, and the liberation of female fantasy characters. I am still a little bit busy at work, but when things are quiet, I will also cook meals from the Witcher books. Literary stories can be healing, and at this time of the working calendar, people are so exhausted that tensions are running quite high. A healthy dose of escapism (I like the word!) allows for a good restoration, balancing out the intensity of human interactions.
This is a gentle reminder that our next CPR workshop is next Friday from midday to 2 PM and you can register here. I hope you can join us!
A month of resistance not to post. You see, I started writing on Substack over a year ago to finish this autumn and publish the articles as a printed book – a digital wellbeing almanac, if you like. However, I’m not too fond of endings. Winter evokes grief anyway, and for me, the time between October and early January marks many anniversaries of losses – of close people, of significant parts of me and my identity. Both of my parents died in those months. I qualified as a counsellor this season (which shifted a lot in my inner world). A few months after receiving British citizenship in the early summer of a few years ago, in November of that same year the U.K. government introduced an immigration law which ended the certainly of citizenship of all its citizens (we can now lose the citizenship any time, with no explanation or right of appeal, and no information – we would only find out that it’s invalid upon the return to the country).
Our memories don’t necessarily define us in the way we think they do. They are a narrative we have created over many years based on fragmented elements of events, situations, people and activities we have experienced. As with any narrative, we can change it to help us create a better present and future.