Welcome to 2023, a new year! A chance to start fresh, dream and witness more beautiful sunsets (like the one below in San Miguel, Mexico 🇲🇽 towards the end of the year). If you’re struggling with this weeks’ transition back to work, I hope this letter of reflections can provide you with 5-8 minutes of light relief! ☕ recommended whilst reading.
👋 Hello Friends,
Happy New Year!! 🎆 Welcome to 2023.
It feels pretty good to let go of 2022 and start with a feeling of emptiness. Of possibility.
My dreams (yes, more dream analysis coming your way!) seem to think so too. On the second day of this year I dreamt I intentionally burnt almost all of my possessions in a ritualistic community fire which we witnessed #BurningManStyle. It felt surprisingly normal and kind of refreshing.
Whilst I have no intentions to actually do this, I believe in the more metaphorical interpretation of being willing to let go of the old to make space for the new. I wish this for all of us.
What would you like to burn away to give you the space for something new?
Over the Christmas break I completed my Year Compass Annual reflections and unearthed some key learnings from 2022, which are below for you to enjoy and digest while you reflect on your own!
Sending (Virtual) Hugs, Love & A Warm Smile,
Georgie 🤗💜
10 Reflections From 2022
1. Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. CELEBRATE! 🙌
This is the key ingredient in motivation & aliveness. Some things I am celebrating from 2022:
Very happy clients having their lives transformed - 51 completing my Transformational Conversations programme, supporting 6 organisations and also 6+ coaching clients
Spending c.42 hrs chatting with 3 friends across the globe on a weekly call (now for 2.5 years!)
Attending 77 exercise classes (a mix of HIT, spinning, swimming, yoga and pilates)
Hosting 9 friends at home, being hosted by 8 friends during many of my travels
Catalysing a creative community of c.25 with The Artist’s Way 🎨
Analysing our late Queen’s conversation superpowers for ITV/Channel 4 📺
Co-running a working group and writing a research proposal to change a bylaw in my community, Sandbox. Publishing a co-created Census report.
Making the decision to go on a sabbatical - completing 5+ courses and travelling to 8 countries 🗺️
2. Community is not a nice to have. 🤗
Community delivers more value than we can imagine - connection, growth, learning, belonging and more.
It is a need that we are not acknowledging or designing our lives for. Spending some of this year co-living and working with friends reminded me of the absolute joy of unorganised connection. Where you don’t have to put something 2+ weeks ahead of time to hang out with fellow humans. Communities top me up, and more and more I wonder why we are living in cities that do not have the consistency of community designed into them.
3. There are no escape routes from life. ⏏️
Sometimes life throws at us all kinds of unexpected challenges each year.
I had my phone snatched from my hand.
I contracted shingles (hello nerve pain) so was on heavy painkillers during my big birthday party.
I experienced weeks of interpersonal conflict that kept me awake at night.
I got heat exhaustion whilst travelling and on the same day…
Life threw me an oven. Quite literally! (see above). Very very fortunately (I happened to be standing on the side not in front of the oven), I only came away with bruises and shock after being hit by an oven when there was a gas explosion in Mexico last month.
Embracing the uncontrollability of some of life is the lesson I keep being thrown. There are no escape routes - no opt outs of life’s challenges- so it is time to face our lack of invincibility with more acceptance.
4. Seek the truth but don’t expect your mind to understand it. 🤔
I am beginning to realise the limitations of the mind, and how my search to find the truth of existence and the universe might bring me embodied truths that I cannot really explain. Paradox is here and although I really want to be able to understand it from a cognitive capacity, our minds may not have the capability.
5. Your life is relatively insignificant. 🕯️
This beautiful tree is approximately 2000 years old. It has lived for 20 centuries, 200 decades, and seen c.100,000+ humans through their entire lives (one after each other).
This year I received an embodied experience of my insignificance in the universe. 80-100 year life is in the scope of the nature of the universe, very very little. And it’s unlikely we will be remembered much beyond our time. It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that we aren’t special. But it is also a tad relieving as the pressure to change the world lessons a little. We can make our mark, but what matters is the value we bring to the people and world we live in right now.
6. Pay with appreciation. 🙏
When I was a child Mum made all of us write proper thank you letters after Christmas and our birthdays. Sometimes writing felt like such a chore and I resented having to do it. She didn’t accept our excuses. Now I see why.
When you give of yourself to others, you receive.
But you receive the most when you understand how what you gave means to someone.
I attended the Sandbox Global Summit in Mexico in December. A 250 person 5-day event is no mean feat! These events are consistently some of the best I have attended, and they are all organised beautifully by volunteers who really want to create magic for others. Sometimes you don’t get to truly see or experience the magic you have created. I saw an easy opportunity to capture everyone’s magical experience by reaching out to the attendees and creating a ‘Words of Appreciation’ book on Canva. Everyone was so enthusiastic, willing and generous to share what the summit experience meant for them. All in all it took me about 1 day, was pretty fun to design and felt really meaningful. It also reminded that sometimes you just need to be a catalyst - be willing to start something and others will follow.
It is shockingly easy and simple to give. The low-hanging fruit (small actions, huge impact) available to us all is often appreciation. And it’s especially important when people give their time, love, sweat and tears for free. We all want to be seen and valued.
7. Go to the cinema. 🎞️
My brother laughed at the lack of profundity of this insight when he asked me what I had learnt from 2022. Though simple, I consider it to have an enormous positive impact. There are some ways to spend time that deliver so much nourishment, inspiration and joy like the cinema, galleries, music jamming and creativity workshops. The ROI is high - 1-2 hours investment and the high can last over a week impacting my wellbeing, productivity, connection with others and creative insights. Why did I only go to the cinema less than 5 times last year?!
8. You’re ready. 👍
There are some things that we will never feel ready for, despite all the evidence of the contrary.
I’ve wanted to perform zouk in front of an audience for a long time but never felt like my dancing was at the right standard. This year at Sandbox’ Global Summit in Mexico, I decided to step into the fear and perform at the Talent show. Nervous on stage knowing that 200+ human were watching what can be quite an intimate and sensual dance, I rode the wave of adrenalin and experienced a lot of joy exploring my edges. The feedback afterwards felt incredible too - hearing the delight and surprise from friends who had never seen that side of me before.
I may not be an advanced dancer, and as good as some of my dance friends. But the good news is that few actually know the difference, and not that many care. We’re more ready that we think we need to be.
9. You’re not ready. 👎
‘Carl Jung once said, “Beware of unearned Wisdom”. In spirituality you must do the leg work and work up to the deeper waters. Instead of jumping into the deepest end where you will not be able to stand. Your ego in a panicked frenzy will grab unto anything it can, even a made up fairyland. Opening pandora’s box overwhelms and fragments the soul’. (Tom @Your Mate Tom)
I have a tendency to jump into things that bring me fear - to say yes, even when my body is not fully on board. It’s generally a good quality because I get to grow, living life out of my comfort zone. And society rewards me, because ambition is an admirable quality.
Except sometimes it’s not great because I stretch too far and find myself overwhelmed in the stress zone. I have jumped too far and panic or fear sets in because I haven’t had the necessary ‘stretch-zone’ experiences that help me build the skills to find stable ground through the transition. Our nervous system can’t take extreme change without their being some collateral damage.
It’s a little like when you’re learning to ski - you’ve got the basics, are feeling confident on the green runs and then decide you can try a red or even a black run. The steepness of these runs requires mastery of turning, hard stops and balance. In trying, you pick up too much speed, can’t control your turn and fall over, losing your skis and rolling down a steep hill. You lose your confidence, fast. It doesn’t immediately return and suddenly skiing is no longer as liberating as it once was.
This year, I have been forced to confront my ambition in the spiritual realms, and find myself humbled. My ambitious driver part, who is often the one running my ship, wants to be more ready than I am, to ‘let go’ of things faster. I’m learning that you can only really let go when you feel safe to, and parts of me are not yet ready to completely shift my paradigm. Kind of unsurprising really! And yet, I’m needing to meet my own frustration, impatience and disappoint that this is the case. This is the next doorway…
10. You’re not for everyone. ❌
I gave a talk at the IBTM conference in Barcelona in December. Well, it was more like I facilitated an experience, with a short talk on the side. When I informed the audience what was going to happen (connect with people in the room using my conversation menu), a number of people walked out. I gulped, wondering if I had made a mistake. But it was a great moment because those who stayed really invested in the experience and I received some incredibly positive feedback afterwards - that it was unlike any talk they had attended there. It made me want to design even more experiences that force self-selection! It goes to show - you don’t need to serve everyone. Not everyone is ready for what you have to give right now. And that’s okay because those who are will really be there for it.
2023 Intentions 📅
2023 is going to be great!
My intentions for the year are: Co-create, follow the joy not the outcome, ask for help, write daily, sleep 9 hrs, make proper quality time with friends, be willing to surprised, create extravagance for the sake of it, more sunset KPIs, prioritise adventure, throw things away and close doors.
(I’ll unpack them more in the next letter!)
Consumable Delights 😋
📚 Book - When the Buddha Needs Therapy by Keith Martin-Smith
How does awakening, or enlightenment, relate to psychological shadows, trauma, and our identity as either spiritual people or spiritual teachers? Is it possible to be fully awakened, and fully human (and therefore flawed and conditioned), at the same time? If so, what does this mean for gurus, shaman, lamas, roshis, and rinpoches, and for us as students and practitioners?
My experiences have shown me that psychotherapy and spirituality have a lot to learn from each other. This brilliant, insightful and easily digestible book explains why this is the case. If you like Integral theory or Zen, you’ll like this.
📺 Film - Avatar: The Way of the Water
I fell in love with the land of Pandora during the first Avatar movie 13 years old, so wasn’t sure if this next instalment would match or trump it. I was pleasantly surprised! As the latest film is set underwater, a lot was filmed underwater with the actors learning to free-dive. Pretty cool! Since then, I’ve spent some procrastination time watching amazing freediving videos including ‘One Breath Around the World’ and now want to learn.
👂 Sleeping Tool - Custom-made Ear Plugs
If you’re also trying to hack your sleep, and struggle with the limitations of throw-away ear plugs available, you might enjoy getting some personalised ones. They are reasonably comfy and I’m sleeping through a lot of background city/ late-night flatmate noise (including some alarm clocks, so beware!), which has improved the depth of my sleep.
A Parting Quote 📝
Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.” Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.” For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.
―Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet