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A Time of Natural Pause and Reflection
As Summer comes to an end (and we resist the urge to reach for the heating control!) It’s a time of natural reflection—a moment to pause, reflect, and think about where we want to focus our energy for the rest of the year.
For me, it’s been a busy but fulfilling summer, balancing work, spending time with my son, and diving deeper into my Somatic Trauma Counselling Training. I hope you’ve also found some time to pause and reconnect with yourself over the past few weeks.
The work I’ve been doing with somatic trauma counselling has been deeply profound and impactful. I’ve been incorporating what I’m learning into my breathwork practice and workshops, and it’s been inspiring to see how integrating these techniques have been transformative with clients. I’m looking forward to officially qualifying in November —it feels like a big milestone, and I can’t wait to take this work further.
On top of that, I’m halfway through writing my audible book on anxiety, which will be released as an audio guide in May next year. It’s been a challenging but rewarding process, and during my research, I’ve been reading Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation. It’s been a helpful reminder of just how widespread anxiety is amongst the younger generation today and how important it is that we keep talking about it and finding ways to manage it.
This summer wasn’t all about work, though. I went to a couple of festivals that were truly special. One was Wasinga, an annual gathering where about 200 of us camped together, sharing space and connection in a way that felt so nurturing, joyous and grounding. It was a beautiful reminder of how community and nature can be extremely healing.
I also went to the Medicine Festival and one of the most powerful moments was sitting with the Ripples Alliance, a group of Palestinians and Israelis who have joined together to find a path through the pain, discord and heartbreak to move away from further separation and division. Feeling the grief, the anger, the despair together but also the glimmers of hope. Here in this healing space we sat together and quietly wept and listened.
Their message was clear, we are not doing enough to collectively heal and it is really hard to know where to go from here in a society that chooses to disassociate and desensitize from the atrocities that are happening from what may seem far away. They shared the problem’s of the systems on both sides and how we are all a part of the grand system and how we can see and witness these broken systems more clearly than ever now.
One woman had lost 72 family members, which was just unimaginable. They sang together in Hebrew and Arabic in the wooded glade at Wasing and the experience of being in that space was deeply profound and moving. It left me thinking about how we’re all part of the bigger picture, and how important it is to stay connected to the suffering as well as the joy happening around us. Not always easy and many can feel frozen or overwhelmed.
I left Medicine Festival with a renewed sense that collective healing starts with each of us, in small actions, being brave to share our voice and moments of kindness and compassion. We all have a role to play. The world is so fragile and nothing is certain but if we prioritise our intentions towards kindness, compassion and equality for our communities, for our planet and all children then we can create stronger foundations to cushion the most vulnerable.
