I’m writing to you from the Dolomites!
You may notice this piece of writing feels a bit different than usual. It’s because I’m in full holiday mode with the kids and Erik and out of my routine writing rhythm.
We’ve adjusted to the time change, thanks to long and active days outside and our sunrise walks.
I am the PR girl for the sun. Every morning back home I walk around the house with my morning chant of ‘kids, morning sun!!’
The sun just does so much for us. If you get the sun right, you can live a truly minimalist life when it comes to wellness. No faffy wellness routines needed.
This morning on our way back from our walk, we came across an old Italian man— he was getting the morning sun on his morning walk, while praying the rosary. His ‘buongiorno’ smelled like his morning ciggy.
We’re back to that sweet rhythm of knowing what time it is because of the church bells. I enjoy croissants and cappuccinos for breakfast without the voice in my ear of ‘protein. More protein.’
Ahh, this is what I’ve missed.
There is an aura about Italy that can barely be explained.
We haven’t been back to Italy for 3 years. This feels blasphemous for me and perhaps why I felt such an urge to book a trip with two weeks notice. Someone is renting our home in Northern Italy and so it also feels strange that we can’t go and stay there.
But we are loving being back in Italy. It feels so much like home.
I booked this trip on two weeks’ notice. You know those moments where it’s just full YOLO? We’ve been talking about the Dolomites for ages and so, why not?
I live for these moments because they collapse rigid, overly logical thinking and allow… life.
Rogue, wild, adventurous, exciting, beautiful life.
Booking a spontaneous trip to the Dolomites for my family was an excellent use of free will.
I honestly think we forget about free will. Even the most ‘free thinkers’ forget about their free will many times throughout the days, weeks, months and years.
We forget that we can just do things. We can change things. We can stop giving energy to things, or we can start.
The original gift God gave us was life, as human beings, with free will.
Sometimes we need to jolt ourselves alive by using it how we really wanna use it. Not waiting for a letter in the mailbox to validate every desire we have. Not measuring our entire life by someone else’s ideas of correct/incorrect.
We packed hand luggage for this trip, and I remembered back to a time when we used to pack for overseas and I’d have half a suitcase just full of wellness things. Over the years, as I have relaxed, and embodied what I call Body Luxury, I’ve become more of a wellness minimalist— less faff, more of the simple vitality maxing as designed by God— sun, movement, faith, good use of the mind and imagination.
The most important ‘wellness thing’ you can pack in your suitcase is this: perceiving yourself as someone who is vital and resilient and doesn’t need pristine conditions in order to thrive.
You can read all about it in my book here.
I’m going to write a whole post about the Dolomites for you when i get home— because it is really heaven when you want a family centred, nature based experience. Let me know if you’d be keen for this (or anything related to family centred travel).
Here’s your chance to ask your questions on the entire family-centered-travel before I do!
I will wait until our trip to be done before I share details etc too, naturally.
Which is the perfect segue to what I’m about to riff on, with the intention (always) of inviting us all into more freeing, calming, peaceful creative integrity.
Staying private while being authentic online is a dance many of us know.
Social media is becoming like Only Fans, only people are prostituting personal information, their most vulnerable moments, most tender beliefs in order to get views and engagement.
People assume they need to share their most controversial views and share very personal details of their inner world in order to be ‘authentic’…
But when does this become undignified, desperate and even dangerous to have thousands of strangers knowing and commenting on things that were not meant to leave your intimate world?
I have been on Instagram for 15 years, shortly. YIKES. I’ve been building a ‘brand’ for 13-14 of those years.
I have grown very slowly and organically— especially by today’s measures! I have had lengthy Instagram breaks, especially around the births of my children.
I married an amazing man who was the face of an enormous company back then (of which i was also apart)— which meant that I was highly scrutinised for many years.
Sometimes, my posts were reported to people within the company because my rogue Aussie voice was sometimes a bit … rogue. (I was young, ok?!)
I have endured online pile-ons from people in my home town and general pile ons that come from speaking about controversial things like, the covid Vax right when it was all going down. I don’t need to get into it all—all this just to say— I have had to learn the art of both having an honest and meaningful voice online while protecting what is sacred to me.
I have refined my voice over the years, stopped using swear words thanks to maturation and the Holy Spirit (for the most part at least— Aussies have a much higher tolerance for colourful language than Americans do. We don’t find all of the same words offensive and this is a legitimate culture difference. TRUST ME I KNOW).
But I’ve had to find my own way, establish my own boundaries, and be clear on what I’m willing to share/not willing to share.
I’ve also learned a lot about the dynamic of, say, when your art becomes monetized like with the paid subscription here on Substack— and how this model is amazing for some, but absolutely not the best for everyone.
Sometimes when we go ‘paid’, it ushers us from sharing high quality content, to high volume content. Both are perfectly fine models according to your goals… but we’ve got to be clear inside about what we’re actually doing and why.
I’m going to riff on this here .
Also, I’m going to share:
— boundaries I have regarding who and what I share
— thoughts I have around the current state of social media
— how to make sure authenticity is not a performance
— how to keep your corner of the internet original and life giving
— how to not become a prostitute of your most personal information for validation, and how this is similar to OnlyFans, just emotional (yes, it is)
— some questions to help you decide whether it’s time to get off IG or stay on because I know many wrestle with it
Ok let’s go.