Hi there. Writing to you on a Saturday, instead of our usual Sunday - tomorrow is Easter here in Greece. I'm in the process of moving to a new house and I'm running an experiment. Each day, for a month, a piece of me gets put in a box. I’m downsizing to fit a smaller flat or room. I'm inviting people on my socials to follow me as I choose what stays and what goes. I made a reel about one of the things I'm saying goodbye to: six blue notebooks filled with memories of my brother - as they were...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Photo by Alexander Sergienko on Unsplash If trauma is held, then it no longer is. The bigness of trauma scares people away. We’re not used to allowing people to have their emotions. We either want to shut them down or rush to soothe them. A big prerequisite for any kind of wound to heal is to give it support, not management. How many times have you felt grief so strong that it made you want to explode? It feels awful when other people hurt, because we know how it feels in our own body to...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Credit: Nathan Dumlao Hi there Reader, I've been sitting with this recently. War is too close to home, literally and metaphorically. The mind sends shivers down my spine. And, at the same time, the heart feels for the world. The pulse of my heart can radiate through the hurt, and into remembrance. We’re here to breathe, love and be there for each other. Like Pemma Chodron says: “We don’t set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our...
14 days ago • 1 min read
Hi there Reader One thing I NEVER expected in my life was to love speaking in public. I went from wanting to hide to not getting enough! Mad 😁 As part of my film festival work, I had to moderate Q&A’s, the discussions between filmmakers and audiences after a film’s screening. I had to ask questions if the audience felt shy, translate back and forth, and also act as peacemaker in case conversations got heated. It’s not open-heart surgery, but it could get really stressful. Over the years, I...
28 days ago • 1 min read
Hi there Reader, If you’re a team leader, you’re probably putting surreal pressure on yourself to juggle office drama, deadlines, and budgets perfectly (and then feel guilty if you don’t). It leaves you feeling lonely and exhausted. You wish you could stay calm and confident, restore team peace, and get the job done effectively and promptly. If this resonates, join me for my upcoming online workshop “From drama to direction: Effective team communication for caring leaders”. It's next Tuesday...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi there Reader, Where does communication between people go wrong? And what can you do to make it better? 1 People don’t listen. A cliché, and a fact. We speak over other people all the time - either out loud, or in our heads. 2 Anything we say is ultimately about us. It’s like we’re speaking to a mirror - to ourselves, about ourselves, for ourselves. It’s hard to accept, but the mind is so self-centered it’s a wonder we ever manage to get anything across, or done. 3 The past is always...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi there Reader, My plan was to send you today news about my new workshop From drama to direction: Effective team communication for caring leaders. (See details here) Then Iran happened. I felt a familiar charge of fear and guilt in my body. A voice in my head mocked me: “Really? A workshop on office communication when the world’s on fire? What difference will that make? What will people think?” Thankfully, I can now rein in any derailing, shaming thoughts that go rogue. And I remembered I...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi there Reader, I read this by Hélène Cixous and it made me stop. “I wished that that woman would write [...] so that other women, other unacknowledged sovereigns, might exclaim: I, too, overflow; my desires have invented new desires, my body knows unheard-of songs.” Something inside of me stirred and looked up. “She’s talking about me. Yay, yay, yay! What’s happening? What are we up to? Where are we going? What should I take with me? I’m ready. Let’s go!” The excitement. The joy. The...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey there Reader. One of my favourite things to do is redefine words. Understand how I use them and why. Decide what they actually mean to me. One that has been coming up a lot lately is courage. Such a laden virtue. It creates insane expectation and comes with a lot of implied judgment - how much of it is inherent, how it's to be used, whose is bigger. A breeding ground of insecurity and shame; the opposite of what it's "supposed to" be. Well, my latest definition of courage is "focusing on...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey there Reader. Our inner world can sometimes be too permeable a vessel. Distinctions and boundaries are hard to detect. Where do the collective’s emotions begin and yours end? Which feeling is yours, and which has been absorbed? What gets through, and what gets stuck? Especially during times like the current sociopolitical maelstrom. The outer affects the inner, and the inner reflects the outer. It’s almost like a Catch-22 for the psyche. We get to learn ourselves as the world, then...
2 months ago • 1 min read