Episodes

  • Feeling Stuck? Wondering What You Should Do Next?

    Feeling Stuck? Wondering What You Should Do Next?
    Jul 1 2026

    I sometimes notice that I’m feeling stuck.

    When I’m frustrated, trying to figure something out. Stuck for inspiration when I’m attempting to create something or solve a problem. Stuck in thought patterns and loops.

    It’s tempting to give up or seek shortcuts when this feeling kicks in, as if it’s something to avoid or overcome. But stuckness can encompass a wide range of experiences and open the door to all sorts of interesting discoveries about ourselves and the things we care about.

    https://youtu.be/0pIjNB-ZoA4 Feeling Stuck Because You Don’t Know What You Want

    Sometimes we feel stuck when we don’t know what to do. Not just in the existential sense of “What should I do with my life?”, but in smaller, everyday ways too.

    We might struggle to choose between two options. We might know what we don’t want, but not be able to identify what we do want. Or the idea of settling on one thing brings a flood of everything we need to sacrifice to do so.

    Feeling Stuck Because There Are Too Many Possibilities

    Sometimes stuckness comes from having too many possibilities. Too many interests, projects, and lives we want to live. We need to reconcile and navigate life with our finite time, energy, and capacity without becoming overwhelmed by the abundance of options.

    Feeling Stuck Because None of the Options Feel Right

    We might feel stuck when none of the available or obvious options feel right. The choices on offer don’t reflect who we are, or we’re trying to force ourselves into a life designed by someone else for someone else.

    Perhaps things flowed freely for a while, but they no longer seem to fit.

    Feeling Stuck Even Though You Know What You Want

    Sometimes, stuckness comes because we know exactly what we want. But we’re afraid of what choosing it might mean. We might fear what others will think and worry about regretting the sacrifices it asks of us.

    Feeling Stuck as a Doorway

    Feeling stuck can be a doorway to self-awareness, curiosity, and discovery. It’s a territory that lends itself perfectly to map-making. Rather than creating a list of things to do, fixes, solutions, missing pieces, and the correct answers, we can treat feeling stuck as a territory to explore.

    Before deciding what to do, we might ask ourselves where we are and how we got here.

    The Map of Stuckness and Possibility

    I didn’t anticipate the map I created over the weekend becoming anything specific. But as I explored these questions, I could feel it coming to life as a mini-zine journal companion workbook centred on a simple question…

    What do I care about?

    As simple as that question may seem, it can be difficult for many people to answer, especially those whose decisions, choices, and priorities have been shaped by concern for how their actions will affect others.

    Maybe something has changed in your life, and you suddenly have more time and space to think about what you want to do.

    Or perhaps you’ve reached a point where you feel yourself fading away, and you recognise that it’s time to come home to yourself.

    To figure out what you care about, what’s important, and the shape you want your life to take.

    A Mini-Zine Journal Workbook

    The workbook isn’t designed to tell you what to do. That’s never been my approach.

    Instead, it’s designed to help you slow down long enough to hear yourself, notice where you are and what you care about, and perhaps make surprising discoveries along the way.

    Learn more and download it here.
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    7 mins
  • When People ASSUME They Know You – Variety & Neurodiversity

    When People ASSUME They Know You – Variety & Neurodiversity
    Jul 5 2026
    In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, we explore the variety of neurodiversity. I’ve been staying with friends over the past few weeks, including Lucas, who is nearly 12. He is autistic, and after spending time trawling through the Gentle Rebel Podcast episode archive, we had a chat about topics he thought would be good to explore. One of those topics was what he described as “the variety of neurodiversity”. When I asked what that meant to him, and why he felt that was an important thing to discuss, he said that it’s important to realise that not all neurodivergent people have the same needs or preferences. It can be frustrating for him when people make assumptions because of his autism, confusing one person’s experience as being true and applicable to everyone. It reminded me of the story I’ve told a few times on the podcast, when I shared that I love horror films and someone responded by saying it meant I wasn’t a highly sensitive person (HSP). Fortunately, I met a bunch of fellow HSP horror fans who were very grateful to discover they were not alone in that love and passion. It was a really nice reminder that we are all different. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to our natural variations, and while brains share characteristics across neurotypes, our needs, preferences, and tastes are a more complex mix of genetics, environment, and psychology. https://youtu.be/4xJmXtRoIlM 13 Questions I created a mini-zine for Lucas to answer some questions about this topic, which I share in the episode. He has given me permission to talk about his responses because we hope this can help people feel a bit safer and more confident being themselves, even if it makes them different. And for those listening who spend time with neurodivergent people, we hope this encourages them to see everyone as an individual rather than making assumptions that they would be the same as others they’ve met, or as themselves. I would also love to invite you to share your own responses to these questions. I’ve created a survey because I’d be really interested in gathering a variety of responses and getting a sense of the variety of neurodiversity. Can you remember a time when someone assumed something about you because you were autistic? What did they get wrong? Before moving to be educated at home, Lucas had noticed adults assuming that he was like the other autistic children at the school. The teachers assumed he found it difficult to learn, but in Lucas’s case, he found it difficult to be at school. Having spent a lot of time with the family over the past five years, I’ve seen this radical shift as he has transitioned from that institutional school setting to home-based education and is absolutely blossoming. In a way, it feels frustrating that the teachers who had all but written him off through those assumptions will likely never see it. He loves learning, is a sponge for knowledge, and embraces the joy of connecting the dots across a vast range of subjects. What do people tend to misunderstand most about neurodivergent people? “Sometimes people think we’re all the same”, Lucas replied to this one. “They assume that ADHD people are naughty, but actually our brains have so much to focus on so it’s hard to listen.” “Naughty” is a judgement based on the person making it (and the context they are in). In many situations not designed for different types of brains, when people are unable to focus, respond as expected, or do so at the correct speed, authority figures may ascribe intent to those actions. This underpins the disadvantage faced by those expected to play by rules that impose a heavy cognitive load. This can prevent them from functioning and flourishing in their natural way. Have people ever tried to help you in a way that actually made things harder? What did they do? I didn’t ask this question to make people with good hearts feel bad. But because it sits at the heart of much of this stuff, and I’ve heard countless stories of kids being ignored by those who think they know what’s best for them. Lucas described how his needs were ignored by the adults at school. We know about the role of differential susceptibility from the ever-growing body of research around environmental sensitivity. Vantage Sensitivity indicates that the more sensitive someone is, the more positively they are affected by a safe and supportive environment. Diathesis Stress shows that the more sensitive a person is, the more they’re negatively affected by stressful conditions. The school setting can be stressful for neurotypes with diverse sensitivities whose nervous systems don’t naturally fit the normalised environment. Do you know autistic people who are very different from you? How are they different? Lucas said yes to this because, for example, some autistic people he knows are more confident when speaking. Those whose brains function in similar ways still have different personalities, ...
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    23 mins
  • The Strangest Secret

    The Strangest Secret
    Jun 26 2026
    The Strangest Secret was released in 1956. Earl Nightingale’s 35-minute, six-and-a-half-thousand-word recording was one of the earliest motivational tapes. It sold more than a million copies and became the first spoken-word recording to achieve Gold Record status. The recording was released during a period of post-war economic expansion in the United States. Consumer culture was booming, and suburban home ownership was rising. The promise of upward mobility felt tangible for a growing American middle class encouraged to live a story about abundance, opportunity, and individual advancement. In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I look at some of the ideas and assumptions running through The Strangest Secret, and how they echo themes that have become deeply embedded in self-help culture over the past century. https://youtu.be/-t_aynxdw9E What interests me is less whether Nightingale’s advice works than the story he tells about success, failure, responsibility, and human potential. It’s a format followed by generations of motivational speakers, coaches, entrepreneurs, and personal development enthusiasts. It continues to influence how many of us think about ourselves and the world today. I heard about The Strangest Secret through a video by Sean Munger titled The Tools Cult: History of the Amway Motivational Tape Scam. My attention was caught by a reference to Napoleon Hill, who inspired Nightingale when he read Think and Grow Rich in 1948. That book, as well as Nightingale’s tape, became important resources on the Amway reading list. Nightingale’s Definition of Success “When we say about 5% achieve success, we have to define success, and here’s the definition. Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” This is a reasonable concept. To act in the service of bringing a worthy ideal into being provides a flexible definition that can be applied in many ways. Nightingale says he believes that success is a life lived with a specific sense of purpose and direction. So it’s confusing when he seems to undermine this by viewing success through a financial lens. He suggests that if you follow 100 men between the ages of 25 and 65, you would witness a desire for success at the start of life, but by the time they’re 65, one will be rich, four will be financially independent, five will still be working, and 54 will be broke. This underpins his position that only 5% of people are successful. So which is it? Being financially independent by age 65 or progressively realising a worthy ideal? Those things are not necessarily linked. An artist, a teacher, a carer, or a community organiser, and anyone who does something despite the lack of guaranteed financial reward. By Nightingale’s own definition, these people may well be successful. They are realising a worthy ideal. Yet his framework shifts from an existential definition of success to an economic one, where in reality, a person can only be deemed successful if they make lots of money. Self-Help Tropes Nightingale’s talk conforms with many of the self-help tropes we are becoming familiar with on this journey. The Secret “If you understand completely what I’m going to tell you from this moment on, your life will never be the same again. You will suddenly find that good luck just seems to be attracted to you. The things you want just seem to fall in line and from now on you won’t have the problems, the worries, the knowing lump of anxiety that, perhaps, you have experienced before. Doubt, fear, well they’ll be things of the past.” The idea of a secret runs through the history of self-help. There is always some missing piece, some hidden principle that, once understood and applied, will change everything. The details vary slightly from book to book, but the structure remains remarkably similar. The reader is invited to believe that happiness, peace, prosperity, confidence, healing, or fulfilment are all waiting on the other side of a single insight. It’s a compelling promise. Nice if true. Metaphor As Evidence Self-help authors often lean on metaphors in ways that make them seem like evidence for a position. Nightingale says, “People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going,” and compares successful people to ships sailing towards a predetermined destination. He then imagines a ship without a captain, crew, or destination and concludes that it will drift aimlessly. The comparison sounds persuasive until you stop and think about it. A ship is designed for a destination. Human beings are not. Some of the richest experiences in life emerge through experimentation, curiosity, accident, and changing direction. A ship without a crew and a destination isn’t fulfilling its literal purpose and reason for existing (built by humans as a logistical tool). A human is not the same. There are many reasons people choose not to structure their lives around the pursuit of goals. “The man who has no ...
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    30 mins
  • Why These 4 Questions Shape My Daily Journaling Practice

    Why These 4 Questions Shape My Daily Journaling Practice
    Jun 23 2026
    I’ve been journaling more or less daily for the past fifteen years. As much as I love the romantic vision of pen on paper, I’ve always done it digitally because I could never keep up with a handwritten journal. I tried, but it never really worked. Over the years, I’ve come across plenty of advice on the best ways to journal, the best techniques, and the best prompts. I always think it’s worth bringing a bit of nuance to these conversations because, as far as I’m concerned, the best way to journal is whatever way means you actually do it. And that depends entirely on who you are, what you want your journal to do for you, and how it fits with your life circumstances. In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I discuss something I recently noticed about my journal practice that I’d never considered before. https://youtu.be/mSpRvfmqW9A Since 2021, I’ve been answering the same four questions most mornings: What did I do yesterday?What was the best thing that happened yesterday?What are today’s news headlines?What are my plans for today? What struck me is that all four questions are surprisingly objective and focus on facts rather than feelings. They’re concrete, and none of them explicitly probe beneath the surface. They don’t want me to go searching for deeper meaning. Just record, archive, and document. If I’m short on time, I can answer the questions in less than five minutes (once I’m able to recall what happened yesterday). They are simple, easy, and objective. But more often than not, I go deeper and longer. Especially once I start thinking about the best thing that happened yesterday, today’s news headlines, and what I have planned. Recording and Processing The reason I started thinking about all this was that I saw a post on social media titled “How Journaling Actually Works.” It suggested that people get journaling wrong by recording events like a diary rather than finding the meaning in them. It caught my attention because it was the opposite of what I’ve found to be true. He suggests asking yourself questions like: What does this situation actually mean to me and why does it feel the way it does? Whoa, where do you start with that? What am I avoiding thinking about right now?What am I pretending is fine when it’s not?What would I do if I were not afraid of the outcome? These are reasonable coaching-style questions for addressing specific situations. But they demand a fairly high cognitive and emotional load and likely require more than the five honest minutes he suggests for meaningful insight. If those are the kinds of questions you’re asking every time you sit down to journal, it can start to feel like a pretty heavy-duty habit. I don’t know about you, but I would feel resistance to picking up my journal if that was what confronted me. My experience has been quite different. Over fifteen years of journaling, I’ve found that recording often opens the door to processing. The simple act of documenting what happened yesterday gets my mind moving. It gives me something to work with. And sometimes, while writing about ordinary things, I stumble into something much bigger. Recently, during one of our Haven Journal Circles, I responded to the prompt: What brought me peace this week? My answer was having the brakes replaced on my car. A fairly ordinary response. But when I wrote a little more about it in my journal the next morning, it opened up a whole bunch of things I wanted to explore, not least of which was putting off doing something I know needs doing. It prompted me to stop procrastinating several other things that have been draining me in the background for a while. I didn’t sit down intending to write about avoidance, and I wouldn’t have thought about it in relation to those other questions. It was when I considered something present for me (peace) that I could see what was missing. That’s one of the things I love about this style of journaling. I never quite know what might occur. Why These Four Questions Work For Me in My Journal Practice Interestingly, I used to have more reflective questions in my daily practice. For a while, I asked things like: What am I thankful for right now?What does this make possible?What one thing that is not urgent but important will I do today? These aren’t bad questions. But over time I found them difficult to answer consistently. My engagement with them became repetitive, and they started to feel a little burdensome. What did I do yesterday? This question is a helpful anchor. It’s shocking how easily I forget what I did just twenty-four hours ago. I regularly underestimate how much I’ve done and how far I’ve come. I adapt to changes quickly and can lose sight of progress that would have seemed significant only a few days or weeks earlier. Recording what happened yesterday helps me notice that movement. What was the best thing that happened yesterday? This question was an iteration of “What am I ...
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    16 mins
  • The Prosperity Lie of Positive Thinking

    The Prosperity Lie of Positive Thinking
    Jun 19 2026
    How did Norman Vincent Peale’s book, The Power of Positive Thinking, pave the way for the prosperity gospel and the law of attraction that still has its claws in today’s culture? That’s what we explore in this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast. Part One explored Peale’s foundations in the New Thought Movement of the nineteenth century and its theological departure from Puritanical Calvinism. Part Two linked Peale’s version of Positive Thinking with the corporate culture of the twentieth century. We saw how it provided bonus benefits to companies laying off workers. In Part Three, we look at links between Positive Thinking and the Prosperity Gospel, and its potential to exploit vulnerable people with promises of great wealth in exchange for willingly giving their money and going into debt because of promises made by those in power over them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJaPrhOSnxw&feature=youtu.be The Prosperity Theology of Positive Thinking This brings us full circle to the ‘theological’ dimension of Peale’s project. One of the most common complaints in reviews of The Power of Positive Thinking is that it unexpectedly contains so many references to God and the Bible. But this is the point of it. Peale builds on the New Thought tradition, using Bible verses to support the law of attraction he proposes, driven by a god who “rates you according to the size of your prayers”, and rewards you if you dream big and visualise having already received the objects you desire. Norman Vincent Peale was a minister who used his position to gain credibility and status in the eyes of his followers. As God’s spokesman, he was taken seriously when he preached. But as we saw in the first part, he was an expert at cherry-picking Bible verses to suit his purposes, stripping them of their narrower and broader theological contexts. The Formula For Peale’s Law of Attraction Peale turns basic psychology into cosmic superstition. As we saw in the previous episode, when he took the story of Job and interpreted his words, “What I feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me”, as meaning Job invited his fate BECAUSE he feared it. This conforms to Peale’s scientific formula for success (and failure): “Affirm it, visualize it, believe it, and it will actualize itself.” Whether it’s something we desire or something we fear, it will actualise itself if we think about it. “When you expect the best, you release a magnetic force in your mind which by a law of attraction tends to bring the best to you.” Of course, we understand that confirmation bias means that when we expect something to be true, we are more likely to find evidence to support it. As such, we might lead ourselves towards outcomes if we believe something has made them more certain. All Things Are Possible… Peale tells the story of a faith healer who helps a struggling baseball team on a losing streak. They were riddled with doubt and didn’t believe they could win. One day, the coach asked for the team’s bats and then disappeared with them. When he returned, he excitedly told the players that the preacher had blessed the bats. They now contained a power that could not be overcome. “The players were astounded and delighted,” Peale reports. “The next day they overwhelmed Dallas, getting 37 base hits and 20 runs.” “All things are possible to him that believeth”, Peale affirms, implying that God rewards faith. This raises the question: Is God needed in this equation, or is it just a belief in God held by those seeking a change of fortune? And if this is the case, how is this exploited? Televangelism and The Allure of Prosperity In Smile or Die, Barbara Ehrenreich writes about the televangelist and leader of a Texas megachurch, Joel Osteen. She cites a passage from one of his books in which he describes his initial resistance to his wife’s pleas to upgrade to a bigger house. Eventually, he was talked into agreeing. He said it was only because Victoria had used words of faith to persuade him to broaden his vision. This meant God showed him how much more he had in store for him. He presented it as self-sacrifice and obedience to God, rather than an act of indulgence. This is an application of Peale’s core message. It uses God as a justification for desire. The appearance of material wealth and success is presented as confirmation that you are doing God’s work. It is a reward for your faith. This extraction ecosystem encourages followers to give their resources to trusted spokespeople for God. The explicit promise is that doing so will trigger a transactional response from God. The God Complex of The Rich and Powerful Ehrenreich points to the God complex present in the executive mindset. Steve Eisman calls it ‘hedge fund disease’, which he suggests should be included in the DSM-5. It is conspicuous in the symptoms of megalomania, narcissism, and solipsism. It boils down to the more money ...
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    23 mins
  • Creativity and the Art of Unfreezing

    Creativity and the Art of Unfreezing
    Jun 17 2026
    In the wake of burnout, Tuula Ahde found herself unable to move through the world as she previously had. And she got busy looking for ways to unfreeze. Ironically, it was ice that gave her a route back home. She found herself instinctively drawn to photography, particularly macro-photography, which zoomed in on the mysterious details of her world’s enforced smallness. She photographed flowers, fungi, and whatever else she found around her, discovering that the act of taking photographs brought her closer to herself and to the often-overlooked details of her surroundings. Then, in 2016, the weather suddenly turned cold and stormy winds brought a crystal clarity to the lake by her cottage in Finland. She describes it as looking like a crazed glassblower had stormed through the landscape, freezing it into an unimaginable art exhibition. And that was it. She spent hours in the darkness, photographing the ice, desperate to capture as many images as possible before the snow buried the glassblower’s gallery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOI1oN5gGK8 Some threads that emerged from our Kota conversation: In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I share a few snippets from a conversation we had in The Haven over the weekend, after we watched a video Tuula and I created about her accidental journey into creativity through ice photography. As we begin our Photoyoga summer, the conversation offers a glimpse into the philosophy that sits beneath it. The course uses photography in an unconventional way, helping us notice more of what is happening around, within, and between us. Creativity Begins with Attention Creativity starts small and close in. It is about noticing what catches our attention, where we are, and capturing it with any means. Photos contain more than what we see. Macro-photography is an even more stark way to notice what is going on within and around us. Ice photos take us to different realms, into and through which we can travel. Even when our physical movement is restricted. Creativity Welcomes Mystery Ten people might look at the same image and see completely different things. It’s not about who is correct. It’s about having the courage and confidence to tolerate and embrace differences rather than trying to convince them that your perspective is the right one. Raven by Tuula Ahde (what do you see?) Art gives us the gift of mystery (something that can never be fully and completely contained, grasped, or known). However, we often engage with it as a source of secrecy (a single meaning that is withheld from you until it’s revealed). Creativity Changes Us as We Create There is symbolic and metaphorical power in the act of creating (and contradictions can be playful and fun). For example, the longer Tuula stays in the cold, shooting photos and turning blue, the more unfrozen her mind and feelings become. Creativity is not about the outcome. The process may sometimes feel like an obstacle standing between us and the finished thing. But it is also the source of whatever life that product contains. Perhaps this is why shortcut tools that focus entirely on generating results can leave us feeling strangely disconnected from them. Photoyoga is an iterative form of change. It doesn’t begin with a destination or a carefully defined goal. One photo leads to another. Over time, a gallery emerges, becoming a record of the journey itself. Technical skills, equipment, and expertise can all develop along the way, but none of them are prerequisites. They tend to grow naturally through curiosity, experimentation, and the desire to explore further. When we build our lives on deep foundations, we gain a broader perspective on the things we think we ought to strive for. Ultimately, this journey is about paying attention. It’s about noticing what happens within us as we create. We become curious about our feelings, motivations, and assumptions, and allow creativity to reveal things we might otherwise miss. Through that process, we gradually discover new ways to understand, express, and inhabit our lives. Fancy joining us for Photoyoga 2026? Learn more here.
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    24 mins
  • Life is a Walk of Art (with Amy Tsilemanis)

    Life is a Walk of Art (with Amy Tsilemanis)
    Jun 10 2026

    Walking art is a nice metaphor for the experience of experimentally oriented people.

    In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I chat with Australian multi-form artist Amy Tsilemanis. I’ve known Amy for a few years and was excited to talk with her about the naturally curious approach she takes to her work and life, as it resonates with much of what we regularly discuss here and on Serenity Island.

    https://youtu.be/frOHk7C7h1Q In our conversation, we explored:
    • What caused Amy to question whether she is really a highly sensitive person ten years after first hearing the term?
    • Why I believe the highly sensitive label is useful until it’s no longer necessary (and how I see this applying to Amy).
    • How Amy has made such a broad range of art forms work for her. She uses audio storytelling and podcasting, poetry, collage, walking art, participatory events, installation, archives, multimedia, and the creative activation of heritage places and collections.
    • Why having a lot of strings to her bow can sometimes lead to impostor syndrome.
    • What drives Amy’s relationship with art (and how she discovered her creative values).
    • Why the image of the flâneur caught her attention.
    • How curiosity about audio walks led to a conference in northern Greece, which turned out to be near Amy’s ancestral village, which connected her to a global community of walking artists, which brought her back to Australia to help start a walking art organisation. Don’t you just love how unexpected happenings become big parts of life!
    • And more…
    Noticing, Wandering, and Everyday Creative Expression

    Amy’s work gives a strong sense of anchoring in space and history. She is clearly driven by the power of human connection, bringing people into the creative process whenever possible. I was also keen to ask her about the impact of slowing down on what she notices in the world around her and within her.

    It was fascinating to hear her trace her joy in sharing what she notices with others back to messages her mum left for her in her lunchbox as a child. She learned to see these small creative acts as ways to tell people she was thinking of them.

    Amy is the embodiment of experimental and accidental creativity. Her life has often taken unexpected twists and turns, including her latest role as a model for a local charity shop. Listen to the end to find out about that one.

    The word ‘creativity’ can seem big, heavy, and even scary at times. But I hope this conversation paints a different picture and that you might feel encouraged by what we discuss.

    Links
    • Amy’s website: amytsilemanis.com.au
    • Walk Listen Create (global walking art hub): walklistencreate.org/
    • Australian Walking Artists: australianwalkingartists.org/
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    1 hr
  • Leave it There

    Leave it There
    Jun 3 2026

    This episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast is an introduction to “Leave it There”, this season’s theme. I share some of the initial topics it brought to my mind. I’d love to hear from you about what it brings to yours.


    What Does Leave It There Mean To You?
    • Is there something you want to leave behind?
    • Do you want to get better at letting things go? Or maybe, the opposite, persisting with important things even when others tell you to drop it.
    • Have you stumbled across something left somewhere, deliberately or accidentally?
    • Do you want to leave nice things for others to discover?
    • Maybe you’d like to get better at spotting and ignoring bait that others want you to react to.
    • Do you want to trust your preparation and know when something is good enough, rather than sabotaging it through over-preparation?

    This theme is open for exploring. I want to move through it in ways that reflect your curiosities, needs, and desires.

    Leave It There – A Train of Thought Mini-Zine

    I started off by jumping on the Train of Thought. I love using mini-zines to generate and explore creative ideas quickly, so that’s what I did.

    1. Old Hurt (leaving it in the past)
    2. Beliefs (recognising our ability to choose)
    3. The Point (avoiding over-explanation)
    4. Dropping It (letting go or standing firm)
    5. Surprises (discovering unexpected things)
    6. Gifts (subverting the myth that humans are driven by greed and self-interest)
    7. Blaming the Victim (was it my fault for leaving it there?)
    8. Objects in Unusual Places (there’s a story here)
    9. A Creative Process (germination, satisfaction, and courage)
    10. Exits and Quitting (knowing when and how to walk away)
    11. Bait (cultivating indifference)
    12. Conditions For Change (leaving things visible)
    13. Trusting Preparation (recognising when enough is enough)
    14. Offloading (sharing the burden)
    15. Setting Limits (running out of space)

    What would you add? Let me know!

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    Journal Circle Prompts

    This season’s Journal Circle questions are all inspired by the theme “Leave it There”. Whether you have a journal practice, you’d like to start one, or you simply want to play with some of the ideas we are exploring, here are some prompts to get you started…

    Coming To Our Senses – End of Season Zine

    This season’s issue of Coming To Our Senses will bring together our Leave It There explorations. We will watch the video version together at the listening party on Sunday, September 6th 2026.

    It would be great to have you involved in some way, big or small! I’m always looking for contributions to fill the pages.

    You can send something below, or if you would like help deciding what to do, use the form to get in touch.
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    25 mins