#20 Rewilding a Life: The Joy of Greenery with Alice Vincent

Happy New Year. Yes, it's two week late, but it's a pandemic world and it has taken me this long to feel motivated and ready to share.

In this episode I share where I have been at the for the past couple of months. I talk anxiety and coping.

I am about to start my New Year Journalling process where I reflect on the past year, work on my current values, passions, and priorities, and finally plan and find focus for the year ahead.

I decided to turn this into a free guide for you to download and use as a digital prompt or print at home. Join me in a gentle process of reflection, processing, and dreaming for the future year.

It's free to subscribers on the mailing list. Unsubscribe at any time. https://www.elizabethdhokia.com/subscribe/

Let me know how you get on!

#GoodLifeUnravelled

@elizabethdhokia

In this episode I talk on day 1 of England lockdown 2 about:

• why I am limiting my screen time
• what mini moments of daily trauma can do to us
• acknowledging that lockdown 2 is different
• creating different seasonal routines
• whether we should bring out the Christmas decorations early
• the need to adjust in the longer term to a different way of living
• what it's like dealing with able-bodied reactions to lockdown
• my hope for more empathy
• why we need to be more creative in adapting to the new way of society functioning
• reaching out if you feel lonely
• what I did when I had a low day
• and an invitation to connect with me.

Get updates on: https://www.elizabethdhokia.com/subscribe/

Links mentioned:

• The Importance of Processing (ep.  37)
• Setting Boundaries (ep. 25)
• Holland Otik on being chronically ill in lockdown (ep. 50)
• My mailing list
• Core values worksheet

#GoodLifeUnravelled

In today's podcast episode we chat with Kayte Ferris from Simple and Season, a business coach and blogger who left the corporate marketing world and moved to Snowdonia in 2017. Since then she has helped over 100 creatives launch and build their businesses online, winning awards and launching a top-rated podcast along the way. Kayte’s approach is all about creating a business that feels like you, ignoring the rules and should do’s and trusting your soul.

In this episode we talk about Kayte’s approach to intentional business and slow marketing and what that looks like. We both share the belief in working from a place of intentional values and Kayte tells us how she’s been able to craft a business that works well for her by staying rooted in those values.

We also touch on whether business values and personal values need to be separate.

I ask Kayte about being vulnerable in her work, and how to manage connecting with your audience in a way that is truthful. We talk about what success means and how business can function in a sustainable way.

Other things we touch on include visualisations to make and direction your decisions, using tarot cards to journal and process you mind. Plus we talk about how self-care can be a prickly term.

I very much enjoyed this chat with Kayte today. I think we come from a similar place in our approach to business and career. It’s great to see somebody who has honed their core values and put them into action, somebody who has created a business that works best for them.

Show notes: https://www.elizabethdhokia.com/kayte-ferris/

#GoodLifeUnravelled 

In a culture that prizes being busy and productive, I argue that there is a value in procrastination. 

For too long we have associated procrastination with laziness, emptiness, nothingness. We sometimes link procrastination with a poor sense of self-worth.

But what if we reframe that? What if we look at why we are procrastinating and what the act of it can do for us?

#GoodLifeUnravelled

This is part 2 of the interview with Holland Otik. Listen to part 1 on episode 48 first.

Holland Otik is a maker, chef, teacher, researcher, and animistic object enthusiast who incorporates magic and ritual into everything they do.

In this episode we cover a range of topics in quite some depth. It's a super interesting discussion with some pretty profound and insightful ideas. 

We cover: 

• How most of the spiritual and wellness industry in the west uses eastern philosophy, beliefs, and culture and repackage to make it accessible to white westerners.
• History of folk religion in the UK was linked to the natural world and a lot of that has been lost with disconnection through urban life.
• The importance of autonomy in our current way of life.
• Links with personal spirituality between autonomy.
• How capitalist society needs us to be disconnected to keep the system going.
• Personal art is essential and not a luxury. 
• Everyone is has a creative practice if you reframe what they do.
• Everyone is a curator and noticing that is liberating.
• The imperfections in relationships make them more meaningful.
• The good life comes from being yourself and giving space for others to be themselves.
• Living with chronic illness taught her to accept that it's not possible to always be happy or without pain, but finding a peace and accepting moves you forward.
• The pandemic has opened her eyes to how able-bodied people see illness. This is triggering for the chronically ill and disabled whose lives are always like that.
• How the wellness industry can make the chronically ill feel disempowered.
• The tragedy narrative attached to disabled people and the chronically ill. 
• How seeing disabled people thriving might change perception of illness.
• Even the perception of a wellness treatment can change depending on who it is serving.
• Wellness industry not accessible to the people who need it the most.
• What to say to somebody who is chronically ill.
• Holland's MA art work on tragedy narrative, child abuse, and self-harm.
• The problem with centring trauma response on authority figures and not the victim.
• The need the allow people to self-soothe in the way they know best.
• The power in truly seeing one another and appreciating their autonomy.

Show notes: https://www.elizabethdhokia.com/hollandotik2

#GoodLifeUnravelled

In today's podcast episode I chatting with Holland Otik, a maker, chef, teacher, researcher and animistic object enthusiast who incorporates magic and ritual into everything they do. She currently owns a small shop and studio in Hereford.

This conversation was epic. So much so that we ended up talking for twice as long as we scheduled, and this interview will be split into two parts. Our first two parter!

So today's episode is part one of the two part interview with Holland Otik.

In this episode we cover Holland's journey to this stage in her life and career including various job roles including lecturer, chef, and artist. 

We talk about what a maker actually is and what a creative practice looks like.

Holland shares her interest in animism and how that informs her current practice of making masks. 

This leads to a conversation about symbols and rituals. And then onto how we can create our own spiritual practices. 

We also touch on the topic of wellness and spiritual industries capitalising on practices from other cultures. 

We finish by wondering whether it is possible to practice spirituality in a way that is ethical, responsible, and self-aware.

Come back next week for part 2 of the interview.

https://www.elizabethdhokia.com/hollandotik/

#GoodLifeUnravelled

Empathy levels have declined by a staggering 40% in the last 30 years and as Michelle Obama mentioned in her latest speech - the empathy deficit is having a devastating impact on personal relationships and our communities - causing polarisation, division and unhappiness. 

Mimi Nicklin unpacks the science and value of empathy in her new book Softening the Edge. Revealing how we can become more empathetic and happier.

Mimi Nicklin is a bestselling author and the host of the ‘Empathy for Breakfast’ breakfast show as well as the Secrets of The Gap podcast. She is an experienced marketer and communications specialist, a well-known empathetic leader, and the Creative Officer and Regional Managing Director for a global advertising agency.

https://www.elizabethdhokia.com/mimi-nicklin/

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