Awe and wonder

Maybe We’ve Forgotten How Important

Connection Really Is

In our NOURISH Community we’ve been thinking about connection this month.

Not just connection with other people, although that’s incredibly important, but connection in a much wider sense.

Connection with ourselves.

Connection with the natural world.

Connection with our communities.

Connection with the things that make us feel alive.

It strikes me that many of us spend our lives connected to everything except ourselves. We respond to emails, messages and notifications. We look after families, colleagues, clients and friends. We move from one thing to the next without really noticing how WE are doing.

I don’t think that’s because we’re doing anything wrong, I think it’s because life is busy, and somewhere along the way we’ve stopped making space to notice what we really need. 

Learning printmaking at a retreat with Artist Maggie Smith

Connecting with a common purpose gives us a sense of belonging and excitement

Pause

One of the things I love most about our weekly NEURONOURISH sessions is that they give us permission to pause. For half an hour each week we slow things down. We learn a little about how our amazing brains work, we have some lovely conversations, we reflect, and then we spend time in guided relaxation. Nothing complicated. Nothing overwhelming. Just small, consistent moments that help us reconnect.

This month we’ve been exploring connection, and it’s reminded me that wellbeing isn’t something we create on our own. We feel better when we understand ourselves a little more. We cope better when we allow other people alongside us, and we thrive when we feel that we belong.

And I’ve been reminded, yet again, how much the natural world has to offer. A walk through woodland, listening to birdsong, watching the light change across the landscape or standing beneath a sky full of stars can shift our perspective in ways that are surprisingly powerful. The research backs this up, but I suspect most of us already know it instinctively.

The NOURISH Community has become exactly that for me too.

Yes, it’s somewhere I share neuroscience, guided relaxation and practical ideas for supporting your wellbeing, but it’s also become a community of kind, thoughtful people who encourage one another and remind each other that we’re not meant to do everything alone.

Next month we’re moving into a new theme: PLAY.

Not because life isn’t serious -we all know it can be - but because our brains need curiosity just as much as they need certainty. They need laughter, creativity, novelty and moments of joy. Somewhere along the way many adults have forgotten the need to play. It’s something our nervous systems still need, even though we ‘grow out of it’. 

If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, I’d love you to join us.

Whether you’ve worked with me before, been on a retreat, or you’re completely new, you’ll be made very welcome.

Sometimes all it takes is thirty minutes each week to start noticing life a little differently.

I’d love to share those thirty minutes with you.