Energy anyone?

Whether it’s covid, the grey short days, or simply a mood swing, if you need some quick energy just follow these instructions:

Copy and paste this link in your browser:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=justin+timberlake+just+dance

 A) Get yourself some space (adapt to what you have)

B) Take off your shoes

C) Up the volume on your device

D) click the link

E) let yourself go!

Join me for a happy hour – safely from home!

So here we are trying to fight one health concern, while at the same time impinging on another!  To clamp down on the corona-virus our health care systems, from the World Health Organization on down to our local mayor’s offices, are telling us to stay at home and avoid contact with people.

Unfortunately avoiding contact with people to avoid contracting the virus is tougher than we think, and has more impact than we might imagine. Much has been researched and written in the last decade around mental health and our social engagement.  Clearly the quality of that engagement plays a role, but overwhelming scientific research has shown the positive impact of social contact for our health and longevity.

“Adults who are more socially connected are healthier and live longer than their more isolated peers.”

— Debra Umberson & Jennifer Karas Montez in Social Relationships and Health: A Flashpoint for Health Policy

Luckily we have technology coming to our rescue by providing us with platforms which can foster social connection.  I have plenty of experience with keeping connected with my friends and family around the world, working with an international client via virtual meetings and learning through webinars and TED Talks. That has planted a seed that this might just be useful in dealing with the effects of social isolation as we surf the tsunami of the corona-virus. Thus, I decided to open up ‘Happy Hour’: a digital social gathering to share how we’re managing the situation, exploring ideas and supporting each other as we live through what is a historic, global effort to combat challenging pathogens. 

This is not a complaint fest! But rather a moderated group discussion. Most likely we’ll start sharing a bit of the overwhelm – but that will be limited to 2 minutes for each of us to explore what is hardest in adapting to this ambiguous moment in time so that we can spend the majority of our Happy Hour to sharing tips on what’s working for us and what we would like to focus on during our hour together.

So how will it work??

Sign up below and you will receive a link to our teleconference this Thursday at 18:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time).  Join us (a few minutes early to connect and test our audio and video systems) and then relax with a tea, sparkling water, coffee, beer, Aperol spritzer…. Whatever you would like to sip on while we chat and build a connecting exchange which helps us all to weather the continuing weeks of being  ‘socially distanced’ while we beat back the corona-virus.  Interested?  Questions?  Want to sign up? Contact me here!

WOW! I'm shocked to see how long it's been since I've checked in on my blog. Now's the time to pick up the loose threads and get back into communicating! Let me hear what's going on for you!

Mixing Worlds

I've been exploring the world of theatral improvisation, and discovering not only how positively constructive it is, but how much it can help us build the confidence we need to face the challenges of the global and multicultural world we live in. A comment I posted on The Cultural Detective website (a great source for seeing things through others' eyes) led to a request for a guest blog post on the subject of using improvisation in the intercultural sphere.

The crux of the matter, and of my blog post, is that by adopting the first precept of improvisation we can open up so many possibilities.  That first rule being a mindset of 'yes, and'.  Yes to what you are saying, and I could imagine taking your idea in such-and-such a direction... It is hard to fathom how powerful that can be, especially as opposed to yes, but or yes, and here is my own take on the situation...

Interested? You can find the blog post here: Cultural Detective: What will they think of me?