When challenged by threatening circumstances, evolution has programmed into us the tendency to want to protect ourselves and our loved ones at any cost. While this is a completely natural reaction, when so many of us begin to feel threatened all at once, we have a duty to work much harder to overcome our natural drivers in the service of a greater good…
Modern-day living has made us more connected and more aware of one another than ever before. But at the same time, there is a kind of deep loneliness that is taking hold of many communities. The kind of loneliness that sees many people spending time in close proximity to one another but feeling deeply disconnected and unseen. Given the importance of social connection for our wellbeing, the observation that the quality of our connections is dwindling is as worthy of our attention as almost all the other crises that face our species...
An understanding of how to be authentic is not always a given. Modern Western culture praises individuality and authenticity but there is little formal structure in place in our culture and our systems to help individuals to cultivate the ability to listen to their innermost voice. We have an innate desire for authenticity; being connected to ourselves, knowing what we feel, and being able to act on this understanding was a crucial survival mechanism for our ancestors. But cultivating this ability is a practice...
Navigating modern life, with all of its complexities, is not always easy. Modern day living demands a lot form us, often at a pace that can feel unsustainable and hard to keep up with. One of the challenges of our time is that our current culture often seems to assess our value as people through the amount of measurable success we have had in areas deemed worthy of admiration: money, prestige and fame, career. And while many of these achievements can be important contributors to thriving, they are but a small fraction of the abundance of diverse ways human beings can lead fulfilling lives...
Balance, and all the emotions of calm, contentment and centeredness that are so often wrapped up into its definition, has become an aspirational quality many of us pursue as an emotional goal above most others. The virtues of balance are self-evident and its merits apparent. As a counter for today’s hectic world, it is clear why so many of us crave this elusive state. But in spite of all of the obvious benefits of balance, do we ever stop to consider the potential benefits of the opposite? Might there be some merit in occasionally allowing unbalance into our lives?
With issues around ethical practices and sustainability increasingly on many people’s minds, we wanted to share a little bit about our own thinking on these issues with regards to our product curation and packaging.
There is a tension within modern Western culture between the hurried, busy state of the realities of modern life and the slow, meaningful pursuit of the experiences and knowledge that add up to a life well lived. Western culture values achievement: moving forward in measurable increments, tirelessly smashing goals then setting new ones, diligently striving for more. More money, more power, more recognition, more degrees on our wall. But so much of what we value in life is difficult, if not impossible to achieve within the restrictive confines of the desire to produce more, quickly. But things of value take time…
As the year draws to a close we reflect on this past year and what lies ahead.