Love this Emily. You put into words the many things I've been mulling over - about the inevitable cycles of burnout I see in the design world each year. A friend of mine once talked about planning an exhale period for each inhale - which I love as a metaphor. And it made me realise how we/I never seem to plan for exhales as a culture. Is it any wonder that we are always out of breath :)
As to the February start - I love that. I've been considering going back to the traditional lunar calendars I grew up with - the tamil new year according to that, is in mid-April. That always seemed pretty wild as an idea but hey - maybe it makes sense to start the year with spring.
Also LOVE that you're sharing what you are cooking. Cant wait to try some of those.
Thank you Sesh, and I love this -- an exhale for every inhale, beautiful! It became chronically ill five years ago, and it has been a big learning experience to build in those exhales to my year. It's more natural to me now, but it's still difficult when most people, and dominant culture, are in a rush! Rest is radical etc etc...
I've now added Tamil new year too, and would v much appreciate any recipes or nudges about what to cook? Google said "a vegetarian feast", which sounds incredible, but would love ideas for anything specific!
Thanks Brian, that means a lot from you, writer of one of my favourite newsletters! Clearly there needs to be some kind of meta-category for professional community thinkers and doers such as yourself :-) I agree, the role question is not easy at all. Nick does a lot of work with Cassie around this issue in UK civil society, I recommend his other posts on collaboration https://medium.com/digitalfund/conditions-for-collaboration-part-1-when-its-really-hard-ad8ef7e20187
Thank you for putting out that article about long covid along with all the other bits. A really useful approach for spreading awareness to people who aren't primarily interested in chronic illness. I didn't know there were many more people with long covid than ME/CFS but it doesn't surprise me. I think I heard it was 10% of that which could become long term but don't quote me on that... If it is 10% then that would be a significant jump in the amount of people who have ME/CFS - globally. Really upsetting.
Anyway, I love the food section. That's original. Lovely newsletter. xx
Thanks lovely, praise from Lior is high praise indeed! Yes I think if you have a platform (even a little baby one!), why not use it...? You are right, it is 10%. The 300,00 are the 10% who have Long Covid currently, but of course, not all of those will become long-term sick like us. Many will recover in the first year/ first few years. You're right though that there will be a significant jump in the number with ME/CFS. I find it really unbearable to think about. But it will have such a significant effect on society, because nearly all of the long-termers will be aged 20 - 60 or so, and will become missing from their careers, their families, their social circles. So, I try to talk about it where I can.
I think the Zoe study said that it was 1 out of 50 people with covid that suffered for longer than 12 weeks... I guess it's too early to have a really accurate picture. But even if it was 10% of the 300,000 that got ME/CFS, that would still be a significant portion of all ME/CFS sufferers having got it through long-covid.
The ONS data is the best current prevalence data (they say 10%), the ZOE data is not very good. They still don't have all the longcovid symptoms listed, so it's not possible to log many of them, so you look like you've recovered, but actually you just can't report your symptoms. Useful thread here from the Long Covid patient group https://twitter.com/ahandvanish/status/1317539608150900743
loved the Martin Eriksson piece in particular - thanks Emily. Found myself nodding all the way through his slide pack - so was probably no surprise that 2 of his 5 suggested strategy books are two of my go to books!
Today, 1st Feb, I went back to the yoga studio for the first time since March (very lucky to be able to do that in covid-normal Melbourne) and felt great about a new year starting today! What a delight to read this over my morning coffee afterwards. I was thinking how the summer rhythms influence my end/start of year, I find there's exhausted reflection end of November, reset and rest between 21stDec-5th Jan, then a sun-fuelled-wild-abandon of testing out what the year will be in Jan, then Feb = start to ease into the things that stick. Thanks for the newsletter, it is a great read :)
Thanks so much for your comment, Nicole, it's lovely to hear from someone who's already had their 1st Feb, especially when it involved a yoga class! Oh, to be in Melbourne... I love your observation of your southern hemisphere seasons and how they affect you! Very much a fan of your sun-fuelled-wild-abandon January :-) Thanks for reading!
Boy do I relate with seeing other people’s resolutions and adopting them as my own, without even reflecting on if that’s even something I want to focus on 🙃 really love the idea of starting the year in February and looking at energy levels to work with them!
Every year, like clockwork! My strategy for January is to eat nice things, rest, observe but don't act, and then I become more normal by February. I'm really curious if there are any patterns across the rest of the year! This book is really nice for tapping into seasonality https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-almanac-a-seasonal-guide-to-2021/9781784726348
Love this Emily. You put into words the many things I've been mulling over - about the inevitable cycles of burnout I see in the design world each year. A friend of mine once talked about planning an exhale period for each inhale - which I love as a metaphor. And it made me realise how we/I never seem to plan for exhales as a culture. Is it any wonder that we are always out of breath :)
As to the February start - I love that. I've been considering going back to the traditional lunar calendars I grew up with - the tamil new year according to that, is in mid-April. That always seemed pretty wild as an idea but hey - maybe it makes sense to start the year with spring.
Also LOVE that you're sharing what you are cooking. Cant wait to try some of those.
Thank you Sesh, and I love this -- an exhale for every inhale, beautiful! It became chronically ill five years ago, and it has been a big learning experience to build in those exhales to my year. It's more natural to me now, but it's still difficult when most people, and dominant culture, are in a rush! Rest is radical etc etc...
I couldn't in good conscience write a newsletter without food (my utter obsession). I've added lots of cultural holidays and events in my diary for the rest of the year from this book, and I'm intending to cook something for each one! https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-almanac-a-seasonal-guide-to-2021/9781784726348
I've now added Tamil new year too, and would v much appreciate any recipes or nudges about what to cook? Google said "a vegetarian feast", which sounds incredible, but would love ideas for anything specific!
Congrats on the newsletter debut! On social networks: I'm a convenor of brokers with expansionist tendencies :-)
Thanks too for the role piece; resonates, and requires more thought.
Thanks Brian, that means a lot from you, writer of one of my favourite newsletters! Clearly there needs to be some kind of meta-category for professional community thinkers and doers such as yourself :-) I agree, the role question is not easy at all. Nick does a lot of work with Cassie around this issue in UK civil society, I recommend his other posts on collaboration https://medium.com/digitalfund/conditions-for-collaboration-part-1-when-its-really-hard-ad8ef7e20187
Thank you for putting out that article about long covid along with all the other bits. A really useful approach for spreading awareness to people who aren't primarily interested in chronic illness. I didn't know there were many more people with long covid than ME/CFS but it doesn't surprise me. I think I heard it was 10% of that which could become long term but don't quote me on that... If it is 10% then that would be a significant jump in the amount of people who have ME/CFS - globally. Really upsetting.
Anyway, I love the food section. That's original. Lovely newsletter. xx
Thanks lovely, praise from Lior is high praise indeed! Yes I think if you have a platform (even a little baby one!), why not use it...? You are right, it is 10%. The 300,00 are the 10% who have Long Covid currently, but of course, not all of those will become long-term sick like us. Many will recover in the first year/ first few years. You're right though that there will be a significant jump in the number with ME/CFS. I find it really unbearable to think about. But it will have such a significant effect on society, because nearly all of the long-termers will be aged 20 - 60 or so, and will become missing from their careers, their families, their social circles. So, I try to talk about it where I can.
I think the Zoe study said that it was 1 out of 50 people with covid that suffered for longer than 12 weeks... I guess it's too early to have a really accurate picture. But even if it was 10% of the 300,000 that got ME/CFS, that would still be a significant portion of all ME/CFS sufferers having got it through long-covid.
The ONS data is the best current prevalence data (they say 10%), the ZOE data is not very good. They still don't have all the longcovid symptoms listed, so it's not possible to log many of them, so you look like you've recovered, but actually you just can't report your symptoms. Useful thread here from the Long Covid patient group https://twitter.com/ahandvanish/status/1317539608150900743
loved the Martin Eriksson piece in particular - thanks Emily. Found myself nodding all the way through his slide pack - so was probably no surprise that 2 of his 5 suggested strategy books are two of my go to books!
Yeah it's a good'un, a great strategy de-mystifier. I stand by my belief that we need better frameworks for civil society orgs though!
Today, 1st Feb, I went back to the yoga studio for the first time since March (very lucky to be able to do that in covid-normal Melbourne) and felt great about a new year starting today! What a delight to read this over my morning coffee afterwards. I was thinking how the summer rhythms influence my end/start of year, I find there's exhausted reflection end of November, reset and rest between 21stDec-5th Jan, then a sun-fuelled-wild-abandon of testing out what the year will be in Jan, then Feb = start to ease into the things that stick. Thanks for the newsletter, it is a great read :)
Thanks so much for your comment, Nicole, it's lovely to hear from someone who's already had their 1st Feb, especially when it involved a yoga class! Oh, to be in Melbourne... I love your observation of your southern hemisphere seasons and how they affect you! Very much a fan of your sun-fuelled-wild-abandon January :-) Thanks for reading!
Boy do I relate with seeing other people’s resolutions and adopting them as my own, without even reflecting on if that’s even something I want to focus on 🙃 really love the idea of starting the year in February and looking at energy levels to work with them!
Every year, like clockwork! My strategy for January is to eat nice things, rest, observe but don't act, and then I become more normal by February. I'm really curious if there are any patterns across the rest of the year! This book is really nice for tapping into seasonality https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-almanac-a-seasonal-guide-to-2021/9781784726348