It was a dim grey day in December that sparked a journey of exploration, inspiration and friendship.
I was in the local post-office when a particularly interesting set of Christmas cards caught my eye. They were fun, fresh and cheerful, represented some of the local landmarks of the Deans and to my delight, were painted by a local artist. I bought a whole stack and shared them widely.
Fast forward to spring. I am at my desk pondering on my disconnect to reconnect project. As the old expression goes
"a picture is worth a thousand words"
...so I wanted to create a relevant and visual expression of my ideas, but how?
My mind was wandering when something fell off of the shelf. I picked it up. It was one of the cards I loved so much from Christmas. There and then I decided to call the number at the back of the card. Shirley and I had a lovely long chat. She was interested in my project and was happy to work on some illustrations with me but first she needed to understand what disconnect to reconnect was all about!
The days that followed were a powerful exercise of articulating my vision so it could be produced on paper! Shirley asked me some great guiding questions that made me think deeply. She offered kind, grounded, attentive listening, reflected back what she heard, asked further clarifying questions and finally did her magic with colours and paper.
What came out of those conversations and the space in between is that I am most happy and at my best when I am sparking awareness and helping people re-activate their wellbeing by making choices that serve them when using technology.
We use technology in almost every aspect of life and disconnect to reconnect is an invitation to enjoy a less-tech more human-connected lifestyle.
disconnect-ing temporarily from our technology and stepping back (it can be just 5min at a time).
reconnect-ing to our body, people who matter to us, nature… reconnect-ing to our technology with fresher eyes, perspective and a more mindful and balanced use of it.
by doing so, our wellbeing ripples out and inspires others to do the same.
What was also born from these conversations is a set of 3 illustrations which I absolutely love and share with you here.
To know more about the disconnect to reconnect 7-day series, you can read more and get a sneak preview here. It will be short and sweet and won’t keep you online for more than 5 minutes a day.
For more information on Shirley and to get a glimpse of the Christmas (and other) cards I enjoyed so much, explore www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk.
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