Wonderbringers Newsletter with Monica Parker
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Hello, Wonderseekers!
I have never been a huge Valentine’s Day girl. A bit too much pink for me. But, I do love love in all shapes and forms, so if celebrating V-day is your jam, I hope this coming week brings you heaps of hearts and flowers and chocolates and love letters. So this Wonder Wednesday, the topic is the wonder of love!
Your audio moment of wonder:
Think of this as your mid-week moment of wondrous reflection. Close your eyes, put the phone on silent, and take just two minutes out of your day to be transported. I want your audio wonderbringers! Click here to contribute.
This week our audio moment of wonder is brought to you by Kerstin Sailer. Kerstin is a Professor in the Sociology of Architecture at UCL, as well as a consultant, speaker, and mum. Kerstin’s soundscape is a bit unusual, but it is one that communicates the everyday wonder of our own bodies that we so often take for granted.
Kerstin caught covid in 2021 and her health deteriorated to the point that she had to quit working. While long-covid has meant that her “world shrank considerably,” it brought her a new appreciation of her own wonderous body. “If you think about it, your body is one single amazing piece of wonder (when it works). Only when it fails us do we appreciate the work our body is performing every day, unnoticed, automatically. Every day, you breathe in and out about 22,000 times a day.”
Kerstin’s soundscape is of her practicing the breathing exercises she learned through a program of the English National Opera called ENO Breathe, specifically developed for long-covid sufferers. As Kerstin explains, “Essentially, you breathe in through your nose for a count of 4, hold your breath for 4, breathe out through pursed lips for 4 and hold your breath for another 4. By repeating this pattern, you calm down your autonomic nervous system, counter any panic mode and activate the parasympathetic nervous system. How cool is that?”
While this sound may feel a little odd listening to it, try breathing along with Kerstin and tap into the magic that is your intricate, mysterious, and all to often unappreciated body.
Some wonderbringers for me this week:
Wonder@work through empathy: The Case For Empathy As A Critical Skill For Leaders.
Physiological benefits of wonder: Visiting parks reduces prescription mental health drug use.
It’s a dog’s life, wonder-style: Dog eye view of the Y Gribin ridge on Snowdonia in Wales (Insta). (And twitter.)
In book update news, it’s less than two weeks until publication date! If you’re in the UK, you can pick up a copy of Natural Health magazine for an article about creating a wonder mindset. If you missed the Adoreboard webinar last month, you can now watch a recording of the session. And lastly, I am putting dates in the diary for my book tour. So far we know I’ll be in NYC in March, Atlanta and New Orleans in May, and my London book launch event in June with Miller Knoll. Get in touch if you’d like me to come to your city!
With wonder,
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