Today we finish our nervous system regulation excursion by talking about community health.

The reflection invitation for the next few days is a continuation of yesterday's: which people do you want in your life long term? (Whether they live close by or far away doesn't matter at this point). Try to write down as many as possible. Bonus points if you reach out to them over the next few days.

Today we speak about activities that can boost oxytocin - individually and collectively - and the benefits that can bring to our bodies and groups.

Reflection invitation: Are there any people that you can aim to see regularly, i.e. once a week? What kinds of activities would be supportive to have another person (or several) join? How can you create consistency in a way that doesn't add mental load, but takes things off your plate?

Today we'll continue covering the nervous system, including differences between the female and male nervous system, and the vital role of oxytocin, as well as the vital role of oxytocin and how this impacts collective nervous system regulation.

Reflection invitation: how does your body react when there's a stressful situation? How does it feel in your body (sweaty palms, racing heart, etc etc)? And what automatic behaviours are triggered by it?

Strap in for today's Nervous System Science 101! This knowledge underpins everything I do in my community work.

We'll cover how our body responds to different inputs and impulses, and how to create space for stress-recovery - which is the pre-condition for sustainable community building.

Our nervous system is like a snow globe. It has two states: "shake up", where all the particles whizz up in the air, and "slow down", where the particles slowly slowly fall to the ground. The former is fast and immediate, the latter is slow and can't be rushed.

Reflection invitation for today: how many "boring" activities do you have in your life, where your nervous system's snow globe gets the chance to let the dust settle?

See you tomorrow, where I’ll cover how our individual nervous systems begin to interact with each other, when we’re in the same room together.

You're likely back in your day-to-day life after the holidays.

Today I invite you to reflect on:

What is the contrast between your holiday-life, and your day-to-day life? What are the benefits of both, and what emotional quality do you associate with each? (e.g. rushed vs relaxed; stable vs lost by having no routine, etc)

I'll be back tomorrow - have a great day.

PS: if you're based in Brussels, join our next Idealists Quarterly event on 21st January, 6pm! https://luma.com/ooq6evcm

Welcome to week 2! Here are this week’s reflection invitations:

1. If you have any NY resolutions, how many of them are “I should” items - meaning things that you know you should be doing, but aren’t doing yet?

2. What is the WANT behind the SHOULD? Put differently: Why do you want this thing? When you have successfully accomplished that, how do you want to feel as a result of that?

3. How can your community support you in getting that feeling? For example could you make plans to do a daunting task together?

See you again on Monday 5th January. Then we'll switch to daily audios and reflections, where we’ll get into the neuroscience, political and practical aspects of community building.

Have a great rest of the holiday season, and a happy new year!

Welcome to week 1 of 33-Day Community Building Challenge!

Today's reflection invitation is:

1. What does community mean for YOU? Be specific.

2. ⁠How would it FEEL to have that already in your life?

3. ⁠Are there any ways you can allow yourself to feel this way already NOW? And are there any opportunities to gift this feeling to someone?

If you can, write these reflections down somewhere so you can track your progress going forward - and see you next week.

It’s hardly a secret that fashion has a problem. Or rather, it has many: carbon emissions, water use, micro-plastic, chemicals, human exploitation, waste.

How do brands get away with this? Kiki Boreel explains how models are complicit in  this, by selling us things we don’t need and won’t like - by making ugly things look beautiful. In all this, Kiki is observing three worrying trends: First, moving from quality to quantity. Second, from natural to synthetic. And third, from trends to even more fleeting micro-trends.

To understand the carbon economy, we have to first… well, understand the economy. We must acknowledge that it’s run by human beings, who operate based on incentive structures and belief systems.

Sevim Aktas, founder of the EU Green Deal Brief on Instagram, explains how she had to venture out of her bubble to learn to be less judgemental and gain new perspectives. She recounts an anecdote of how she not only survived, but ended up enjoying a dinner with non-climate-conscious “finance bros”. And she explains why, sometimes, you should not call a spade a spade, if you want to convince the unconvinced.

Tamara Makoni, award-winning diversity and inclusion specialist and CEO of Kazuri Consulting, knows for a fact: stories connect us all on a human level and help us empathise in a way that cold, hard facts and statistics don’t. And people always have a story. Each and every one of us.

In this episode, she shares some learnings from her work - and how stories of inclusion and exclusion are something very universal. She uncovers the connection between inclusion (or lack thereof) and issues of climate justice, as: “we are all facing the same storm, but we are in very different boats. Some of us are facing the storm in speed boats. Some of us are in yachts. Some of us are in inflatable rafts or in canoes.”

Check out her work at: https://www.kazuriconsulting.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamaramakoni