I'm thrilled to be speaking at the Kaleido Retreat in September, where this year's theme  is Reimagining Futures. 

I'll be talking about Flourishing through Wonder, and looking through the lens of wonder to imagine new futures for people and planet.


"When we look through the lens of wonder we connect with our imagination, creativity and resilience.

We open up the space to flourish in our daily lives. What we are present to in wondering, unfolds our future selves. This talk explores why, how and what we can wonder now, to create the possibility of new futures which align with a flourishing planet.

Wonder is a powerful, practical tool used in futures, design and systems-thinking to imagine, explore and challenge the status quo of the present and disrupt predictions of the future.

​Wonder creates a level-playing field for everyone to come to the table to share their unique blend of problem-solving creativity. It enables us to connect deeply to Nature and be inspired by it for innovative solutions. Wondering brings us into states of flow and deep play, triggering positive emotions which contribute to our wellbeing. What we wonder together, plants the seeds of change that we will take back into our individual lives and share with our communities of change." Elaine

#flowinaction #wonder #futuresthinking #reimagining #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #planetcentreddesign #nature #climateaction #hope #love #awe #kaleido

I was so delighted to work with Capacity Zurich again this morning giving an online resilience for entrepreneurs workshop, as part of their Launch programme. Capacity is a talent and start-up incubator for entrepreneurs of refugee and migrant backgrounds. It's always such an honour to spend time with the incredible participants and team; it's such a wonderful community to be part of. Can't wait to see you all face-to-face in the near future.

#flowinaction #capacityzurich #migrationmatters #capacityempowers #refugeeswelcome #purpose #purposedriven #flourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesign 

The tipping points we are at in climate chaos are calling on us to do things differently; to embrace being fully human.

As changemakers, if we are exhausted then we can’t arrive in each day with our problem-solving creativity to challenge the status quo of zero-sum economics. It is harder to show-up with fresh insights, innovative ideas and the capacity to take real climate action.

Thus, the burn-out of leaders, entrepreneurs, impact investors, educators - concerns me greatly. I've been part of this tribe for 25 years, so I know how many of you have experienced, or are, experiencing it.

It bothers me when you’re lonely, tired, heart-broken, lost, jaded, fearful. And, most especially when you settle for a half-way house in your “one, wild and precious life” as Mary Oliver calls it in her poem, The Summer Day.

We are being invited to be braver than ever, not by pushing harder but by walking back into ourselves to design solutions around flourishing, to create a different, better type of nudge.

And what of flourishing personally? It is in noticing and creating the profoundly loving and positive connections that go deep and broad in the micro-moments of our everyday lives. Practice it so that you can build it.

David M Carter, describes how cultivating these positive emotions inspires environmentally responsible behaviours, so actually there is an even higher, useful purpose to you doing this:

“First, positive emotions expand and deepen our awareness that we are each a connected part of a much larger living system; the Earth. With greater awareness of this interdependence, our values, intentions, and actions become transformed. Second, positive emotions broaden our vision, resourcefulness, and capacity to creatively and effectively address environmental problems. And third, positive emotions help us to authentically connect with the things in life that are most precious. This authentic connection leads to greater happiness and well-being, and reveals indubitably that consumption levels in excess of what we need serve no purpose toward our overall life satisfaction.” (Carter, D.M., (2009) Cultivated Positive Emotions Inspire Environmentally Responsible Behaviours. University of Pennsylvania.)

The planet needs you to do things differently. Greta and a whole host of other advocates made a stand this week.

And it needs us to do differently so that we generate this connection to the ecosystems that sustain us. Whatever tidy plans you might have, with your back to back busy, I can guarantee that the Universe will send a messenger first, who will invite you to slip headlong into flourishing (the Arhuaco tribe have spoken); and when you don’t listen, she will unravel you to make sure you do, as described beautifully by Brene Brown.  

As changemakers, we are on this path of ‘wrestling with angels’, as Stephen Jenkinson calls it...

“If you wrestle an angel, you will grow muscle. There’s no doubt of that. You will also hurt in places that you didn’t know you had. There’s no doubt of that either. And you will lose, by the normal calculus of trying to engineer the life that you’re sure you deserve. It will not come out as you planned, wrestling angels. Your plans are usually the first casualty of the match. But here is that great secret of it: you will be able to boast of your defeat. You will be able to stand in the wreckage of what used to be your certainty, your creed, your way of doing life’s business, and you can tell wild, true stories about how it all came to ruin. Whatever is left standing - and there is always something left standing when you wrestle angels - is the thing that was true about you and your life all along, as faithful a companion as the Earth that will one day cradle you again.” 

To take this path is to commit to the revolutionary act of loving, to live those positive emotions that David M Carter refers to; as a way of opening up your deepest creativity and contribution for the planet, to decrease the suffering of others. This is what is left standing after you have wrestled with angels. The sum total of light in the world that you, being unprecedented, contributed.

I’m also one of those messengers extending the invitation.

So, I’m asking, what if you did things differently? What if you broke the routines of a lifetime that have made you content with safe discomfort? What if you chose ‘more’…given it’s in the interests of saving the planet? What if you designed everything around flourishing?
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Spoken word poetry is a powerful tool for change. 

​You might wonder what spoken word poetry has to do with making change happen. 

This is the ancient tradition of lyrical story-telling reinvented for an age of disruptive  social innovators.

What if you spoke about what moves you?

You might find yourself standing in the middle of an incongruity of messages: we want you to think but we don't like the democratic voice which thinking gives you.
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If you are there in that place, it's simply that they are uneasy that you might disrupt the safety of their significance and level the playing field.

The truth is that your unique perspective counts. Your creativity is unprecedented. 

As Audre Lorde said, "I began to ask each time: "What's the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?" 

What truth will you speak?