CreativeMornings/Cape Town

Hey there, Cape Town creatives! We’re stoked to announce that CreativeMornings is back in action, bringing our monthly dose of inspiration and good vibes back to the Mother City.

After a bit of a hiatus, we’re beyond excited to gather once again and dive into all things creative. We’ve missed those face-to-face connections and the buzz of sharing ideas in person, haven’t you?

Get ready for a laid-back yet lively lineup of events, featuring awesome speakers, cool collaborations, and plenty of opportunities to mingle with fellow creatives. We’re talking about those mornings where you leave feeling energized and ready to tackle your next big project.

We end off the first half of this year with the most wonderful reminder to continually strive towards a more balanced, peaceful and equanimous society.

 As we journeyed the topic of Matriarchy, we are reminded that many female-led cultures continue to exist in countries like China, Indonesia and India, where women are comfortable in leadership positions and actually assume these roles in their communities.

As our inspiring speaker and female business leader, Audrey Cheng, pointed out, to her matriarchy meant being treated as an adult by her family, while being met where she was at in her life, with respect to age and phase of life. 

We can not add, nor would we want to, to Audrey’s eloquent words as she most beautifully and poetically described what she imagined the world, in which women took the lead, to look like. 

And so we present it again here in writing as this month’s blog. 

Enjoy! And keep warm! Till next time….

When I imagine a world in which women take the lead... by Audrey Cheng

I imagine a world where daughters and sons are peers to their parents. I imagine a world where there is accountability, ownership and responsibility. I also imagine a world of creativity, colour and self-expression.

I imagine a wise, compassionate and balanced world. I imagine a loving kindness that pervades all actions, words and thoughts.

I imagine a world in which women strive for equality. I imagine a world in which women are respected as much as their male counterparts. I imagine a world in which humility and servant leadership is valued.

I imagine a world that values true intuition that holds the knowledge we have accumulated in our past and current lives. I imagine a world which is focused on curiosity and holding space for uncertainty instead of driving for clear answers in a world that doesn’t truly happen.”

I imagine a world that spends more time listening than judging or concocting an answer. I imagine a world that harbours gratitude and one that focuses on discovery and exploration.

I imagine a world that is practical and realistic about financial value, cares about adding value and is deeply committed to solving big problems in a collaborative way.

I imagine a world that is full of questions. I imagine a world that is growth oriented and has a desire for building for self-awareness because the real growth work is internal, not external.

I imagine a world that is reflective, allows for multiple journeys and pathways. It allows for time to slow down. I imagine a world that prioritises awareness and vulnerability over ego. 

I imagine a world that is patient and kind. I imagine a world that is accepting of others and each person’s journey and practices compassion for those that are going through ups and downs. I imagine an inspired world.

When I think of matriarchy, I think about all the amazing women who have come before me, who are with me today and who will join me in the future. I’m consistently inspired by the magnitude of heart, mind, body and soul that these women are bringing to each person they engage with in the broader world.

Let’s face it. Life is tough. 

But in June, you got this!

We often hear people saying: “If only…”

If...The word “if” examines realities that have not actually happened (past) or which could happen (future)...“If I do this, then…” or “If I didn’t do that, then…” or “If only I could do more of…”

Only...The word “only” examines one possibility...“The only thing that…” or “Only you…”

If. Only.

Together these two words examine the past or future within the framework of one possible scenario. 

It can be good to reflect on things from one perspective when exploring scenarios in our lives.

However, the danger is that we tend to actually expend energy not just contemplating it but boxing it neatly, owning it and building our present realities on top of it.

The box of one scenario based on our perceptions of the past or future can easily become the foundation of our next steps. 

“If only” does not seem like a solid present foundation. And so logic may lead us to wonder that stepping or jumping off an empty box is either going to flatten the box and leave us right where we were or make that jump a stumble.. stumble towards another spot we weren’t really intending to be. 

Florence School Schinn in her short yet deeply profound book “The Game of Life and How to Play it” states: “Man can only receive what he sees himself receiving”

What you see for yourself is what you end up putting into that box. 

And so here is the thing... A lot of us struggle to cope with the realities we build for ourselves based on our perceived wants. How then can we even contemplate steering our ship through moments which call for navigating uncertain waters? The situations we believe we “did not” want, raising the questions of 

“What do you want? What do you see yourself receiving?”

Florence wrote a very short book jam packed full of powerful truths about our existence in which she says it’s very simple really. Ultimately life is a game. 

You need to just know how to play it or it will play you.

That little white booklet with small black print in the board game box - the set of rules. 

These are designed to teach you 1) how to play the game and 2) how to handle the exceptions (the “if’s”).

We all start the game because if you are reading this, you were born into the game. You may be playfully enjoying it or feeling like you lost in the dark wondering how you ended up on real life Cluedo.

But either way, if you continue to choose to play the game, this will only be dependent on whether you are motivated to do so. 

Even when it gets tough. Especially when it gets tough. 

There are moments in which we feel like we are falling off the board, out of control and uncertain where to step next. 

Somewhere along the line, we rolled the high dice on life, we made certain decisions based on our fellow players’ recommendations when they didn’t feel right, we lived on the edges of the exceptions and in the process we lost sight of where our little yellow, red or blue figurine is on the board. 

We forgot the rules. 

We hear Florence again reminding us that “the game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy”

Such truth.

But Florence probably didn’t just wake up one day and feel this truth. She understood it. And in order to write a succinct book so powerfully as she did, she had to have felt the tough moments to explain how to get through them. 

It’s called RESILIENCE. 

Thank you Dallas for the theme that reminds us of a way of being that’s flexible and alive, bouncing with the stuff of survival. Persevering in the face of hardship is not easy.

And so that’s okay. It’s part of the game. You breathe, acknowledge that you played yourself into a difficult space and then let the wave ride you back onto the board and take stock of where you are, how far you have come and where you still need to go.

As Dallas described it: To heal, to grieve, to bend but not break? It requires time and dedication to build these muscles of resilience. “It’s a skill set we work on throughout our lives.”

It calls on us to be emotionally aware and not just understand that life has challenges, but be willing to accept them to overcome them. It calls on us to ask the right questions of our history of boxes and what we put in them. 

Friedrich Nietzsche said: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

And so, as you find yourself in the episode of June 2021, are you finding yourself flattening right back to where you were? Or are you building solid present and purposeful foundations from where you can launch to play in this beautiful and fun game?

Flex those resilience muscles and launch yourself into a new future - whatever it might hold!

Monday. Write CreativeMornings Cape Town blog

Tuesday. Write CMCT blog

Wednesday. CMCT blog

Thursday. CMCT

Friday. Just write something... Also buy strong coffee.

Friday night.

“Procrastination. Pro-cras-ti-na-tion. A Latin creation. Pro\(forward)-crastinus\(of tomorrow). The act of forwarding or deferring something to belong to a tomorrow.”

Wait...what?! The Romans thought of this. Man, I need to ponder this...no, actually sleep on it. 

This coffee has me completely zonked. I’m going to bed.

There are 24 hours in a day. That’s a whole lot of minutes of opportunity right there. And yet, often we just watch the hours float past us without doing the things we tasked ourselves to do. 

Is that a bad thing? Instinctively we want to scream “Yes!”

But let’s think this through...Honestly, if the Romans, who did a lot of profound things, felt the need to fling together a lengthy word to describe the intentional avoidance of a critical task … Who are we to be so critical of something they recognised as being part of daily life? 

Is it possible that generating negative, critical energy within ourselves, at ourselves, is just pushing the completion of what is actually an important task (otherwise you wouldn’t care about just doing it) further away from being done? 

Yes, go ponder that one for a bit... (coffee break!) 

Okay great, you made it back. 

Listening to Dr Anja (Nanna) Venter’s talk, we are struck by her statement that the first step to understanding and dealing with procrastination is the act of acceptance. 

This simple truth is a reminder that we are first and foremost here to experience being human. We are not robots that will execute Task X at Date Y between times A and B. And so, the idea of “delay” exists within living things. Things with soul. 

Spring does not always, like clockwork, start on 1 September. Well our Johannesburg chapter might disagree but in Cape Town we are a lot more flexible with our four seasons in one day vibe. Even so, we do not criticise Spring for being late or delaying its arrival. We accept that the weather will change in time. 

In time...A concept that most of our Western society does not digest well. However, any creative, no matter where they are socially situated in the world, has to learn to embrace the human ‘creative’ process.

What does this process look like?

Julia Cameron (one of Nanna’s favourite authors) in ‘The Artist’s Way’ explains that “In order to create, we draw from our inner well.” 

Basically, the act of acceptance of procrastination is the acceptance that we are not superhuman. Oh but of course, we are super in our humanness. But that’s the key. Our humanness. We need to take responsibility for our energy which means - You create your reserves. You fill the reservoir. You will find your mojo.

Acceptance 101

So when we accept that procrastination is a decision to live in time and delay doing something, we recognise in ourselves that we just don’t have the mojo to do it right now. This flows into opening up time for another critical task which is discussing with ourselves two important questions:

1. Where on earth did our mojo go?

2. What do we need to do to find it again?

Losing your mojo can happen in so many different ways but it never quite just falls out your pocket on your way to the shop to buy a carton of milk. It rather quietly detaches and goes and hides in your blind spot corner, ready to be seen when you have found your way back. 

Dr Venter gave us five main reasons that we may have lost our mojo and some tips on how to find it:

We feel intimidated 

Let’s be frank that the big things you choose or the small things that choose you are all challenging in their own rights. And so we freak out a little. More at the internal confusion as our souls scream “Do it!, while our minds are nervously whispering “Oh heck..” and our bodies are like “So... what do you want me to do?” 

Allow yourself adequate preparation time to tackle the task. 

We feel overwhelmed 

Life never quite allows you the time and space to just focus on one thing at a time. Naturally, we all have a lot going on and each of those to-do’s are trying to win the race to priority in our minds. You will get to all of it but some tasks are chunky and feel too heavy to tackle. So we just don’t.

Frame each task into bite-sized, easily digestible bits. 

We lack confidence 

Another critical thinking dilemma. We all expect ourselves to know right away how to do everything. Julia Cameron also says that “In order to do something well, we must first be willing to do it badly.”

Learn how to fail and you will never fail to learn. So trust your soul (and Nike) on that one - Just do it!

We (think we) are bored or lazy 

Sometimes we just need a break and somehow when we procrastinate one task, we ultimately end up doing another thing. Nanna suggests that we practice externalising our to-do list by creating commands (tasks) for our future selves. The same way in which we would listen to a teacher or mentor tell us we need to do something. You just need to figure out how you want to create this “Commander list” in a way that works for you.

Schedule your procrastination and free yourself to just be.

We need (to understand) motivation

We can only manage that which we understand. So understanding why we are motivated to do one thing and not another is a key component in being able to tip the scales to tackling something with passion or shying away from doing something due to some kind of manifestation of fear.

We delved into this reason a little bit more and found that Nic Voge, a founding member of the Princeton Perspective Project and keen academic on the psychology of self-worth suggests that the reason we procrastinate is because we have been taught the mental model that our self-worth is directly linked to our performance and ability. 

This is quite a scary thought for those of us that procrastinate more than others. The idea that we have attached to our sense of self a condition that if we are not able to complete a task or perform excellently at it, then we are not worth even attempting it.

It’s like you sign up for the course in “How to set yourself up for failure and be okay with it 101”. 

Voge’s study of the Self-worth theory has led him to conclude that procrastination creates the perfect mental storm. If the ship sinks, well you didn’t have enough time to fix it properly. If the ship makes it out alive, or even without one broken part, then well, aren’t you a great builder of ships indeed. 

We need to break the mental model and re-wire ourselves to remember that our worth derives from who we are not what we do.

Create a motivations to-do list outlining why you actually do want to do the task, highlighting the positive energy, growth or opportunity that it represents. If you can’t find any motivation, maybe you need to ask yourself how this landed on your list of to-do’s in the first place.

And alas, when you do find yourself under pressure on a Friday night (because it happens) and you holding that cup of coffee waiting for the inspiration to strike, think of this beautiful quote gifted by our Turin chapter:

“When a window of opportunity shrinks, improvisation and spontaneity might unfurl like a flower in a time-lapse video blooming at super speed, a confetti cannon of petals bursting in full color.” 

"Write CMCT blog”. Tick. Well, till next month… 

A year has passed since the initial COVID and lockdown news…and looking back on it - oh what a ride it has been! 

Some months have felt like years and in some way the year has felt like one long month… It felt like time had collapsed and folded in on itself, fast forwarding the feelings and motions, although the hand on our watches was still busy counting the seconds with the same consistency it has for years.

This year has made us question who we are, what we want and what we are doing here on this strange earth. And our theme for March could not be more apt in exploring how what we think, believe, say and do impacts on the world. 

What is your ripple effect?

Our Tel-Aviv chapter asked us to be brave and take the time to explore the depths of our world. To dare to plunge below the surface and invite deeper connection in.

We are quick to forget that one voice can inspire a movement, a single act of kindness can save a life and that no matter how minuscule it may seem in the moment, what you do matters.

In chaos theory, we also learn of the butterfly effect where a dependency on conditions that may change minutely can result in massive differences over time given a nonlinear system. 

Our world operates on simple rules of life but as we all know, our universe and its workings is all but linear and predictable. But for one thing. 

In all the chaos, we at least know this... when you make a move, the universe shifts - internally and externally.

We may not always know how to change the world and we might feel like we are small in our efforts and contributions but when you think of the quiet movements of Mother Theresa and the profound impact she made on the world, her famous quote shows she deeply believed in the ripple effect.

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

Next time you are taking a bath and releasing the chaos of the world. Breathe in and let a drop run down your finger and watch the ripple effect in the body of water you are immersed in… 

Breathe out and allow yourself to feel the comfort of being part of this wonderfully intricate body of water we call life. 

And then smile knowing that in just being your beautiful butterfly soul in that moment of gratitude, you are making massive moves in yourself that ripple along for all other energetic beings to feel.  

We can hear the Beach boys bopping to “Good good vibrations” reminding us that if we respect that place of power in ourselves, we will see positively powerful things start happening all around us.

At CreativeMornings CT, we value community and we love celebrating it!

So pop the champagne and make those Mimosa’s (because oranje juice is good for you) and let’s clink to a brand new partnership!

A massive welcome to the NML Team, a specialist financial services software and design development company based in the Mother City, who now join our CMCT community.

NML opened their digital doors around 14 years ago and have built long term working relationships with some of the big financial services players on our Capetonian landscape.

CEO, Paul Cartmel has been a regular CMCT attendee and it is clear that the leadership at NML are passionate not only about design, but supporting personal development and the empowering knowledge sharing and education within the local tech community.

In 2012, they co-hosted the first ever Front-end Development South Africa (FEDSA) event and have continued to generously fund this non-profit organisation which acts as an “administrative umbrella for various types of projects that advance the sharing of knowledge between practitioner and aspiring practitioner within the industry.”

In an ever-changing digital and creative space, we are grateful for partners like NML who support our vision in sharing honest, open and inspirational content.

We blinked and February ran out the door…

But it left an interesting trail of thinking on its way out, opening our eyes to divergent ideas and challenging our mental models on not only where we are at but where we want to go. 

We have all found ourselves having to plan for future outcomes, or realising that the lack thereof had caught up with us along the way. And it seems that planning is a difficult thing for most people. 

Perhaps due to the human element of expectation and the pressure we place on ourselves and others to turn these plans into reality. 

Life happens. Things change. You have to be willing to pivot. Example 101: COVID-19. 

Our talented speakers, Dale Willams and Tim Willard, reminded us that you can’t necessarily know the future but you can plan in such a way to ensure that your future is owned by you, by shifting focus from being right to truly examining and understanding the current reality to ensure that you are almost never wrong.

This is encapsulated in this concept called “Scenario planning” which ultimately, as they explained it, takes a focal question and pivots it on an axis which allows convergent thinking about a divergent possibility of futures.

In the curious biographical drama film ‘A beautiful day in the neighbourhood’ starring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys, Hanks pipes up with some profound wisdom in one particularly poignant scene - “Anything human is mentionable and anything mentionable is manageable”.

It seems that using the tool of scenario planning allows you to think the unthinkable. It allows you to give a voice to uncertainty, to make it real in such a way that makes it manageable. As Dale and Tim said, in order for it to work, you have to be prepared to get it wrong, to unlearn and re-learn. 

And as Alvin Toffler said “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those that cannot read and write, but those that cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” 

It’s a beautiful thing about being human. We get to experience a multitude of diversities in one vessel. It is vulnerable but it is empowering because experience brings perspective and in turn, using that can lead to effective planning for more empowered decision making. 

It teaches us to read (the reality) and write (the story). Basically, going back to the basics. 

Dale and Tim used the data provided by our audience in response to the question “What will the future of creativity look like in 2025?” and found that from this group there was a whopping total of 300+ years of creative experience where the majority spend more than half of their time using this experience to further create careers and lead organisations. 

Inputs were grouped by theme and then categorised by meta-themes, depending on the importance and impact of each theme. Finally these led to the emergence of four key stories, balanced on the axes of “Openness of society” (individuals being distributed or controlled) and the “Development of technology” (being innovative or stagnant).

Take a listen to the recording for the detailed narration of the four stories and the examples of the indicators (flags) that lead to their eventual outcome. 

But in a nutshell, they go something like this:

The story of “Frustrated - Creativity Squandered”: The future is more of the same and although we have amazing technological capabilities, it is not being used to solve complex problems or take leaps of faith in creativity.  

The story of “Strangled - Creativity Constrained”: The use of technology becomes more restrictive since governing bodies are trying to control its usage and force transparency.. 

The story of “Paint by numbers - Competitive Creatives”: Technology is a competitive space where governments, countries and companies come up with incredible innovations but in the furtherance of privatisation and selfish interests. 

The story of “Roaring 20’s - Boundary Breaking”: Technological advancements merge with creativity in fantastic ways allowing virtual realities to emerge. The openness to collaboration and sharing of information acts as a catalyst to creating possibilities between the analog and digital worlds. 

We will have to live to see what the future holds for us but in the meantime, we get to use this wonderful tool of scenario planning in our own lives by taking the following steps:

Select your focal question;

Outline all the influences on this topic;

Plot out the different scenarios that could emerge; and

Identify the indicators or flags that would lead to each scenario becoming a reality.

Why do this exercise? Because “great minds think differently” and the world needs your perspective.  

Success stories are born out of individuals knowing themselves and knowing how to rigorously collaborate to grow together and learn to:

Challenge the mental models of the world;

Understand the environment and the factors at play;

Tell their creative story; and

Identify the blind spots that need some attention.

You will learn to unlearn, and re-learn. 

Is it a universal coincidence that while embarking on writing this months’ chapter blog, Spotify’s Discover Weekly delivers me the catchy tune of “Old Love” by the songwriter. Joe Hertler?

I think not.

‘And a promise is a promise, Will you finish what you started, I was born to believe that the change in the leaves could really mean anything, love’

January presents us with PROMISE.

A promise of a new year (Happy New Year by the way!).

A promise of new beginnings.

A promise of a new perspective.

What is a promise? It is the idea that we stick to doing something or not doing something because we said we would. But why? What is the value and impact of being individuals of our word?

I have found that discussions around this topic go in either one of two directions - love or politics (personal or external). Oooh yes! Enter Promise on the stage and the audience is usually already set for some hefty debates with whoever finds themselves the speaker. 

‘Why all the emotive listening?’ you ask. Well just perhaps it is because; as our Albanian CM community, who chose this topic for us to ponder on stated; ‘promises that are made and kept are exchanges of power’. Power 

Life is unpredictable. We are constantly living through change and so we find ourselves often ‘breaking’ promises. It’s become okay to do so in a way. Right or wrong. That is possibly why deeper, more binding oaths developed over time. That kind that you never break. No matter the circumstances. 

So, then in actual fact there are three discussions on this topic. The last one being the kind that protects you. It’s the family or internal code you honour in times of fear. 

Joe Tetler knew it too, as he continues to sing:

‘We met on the battlefield, Drank from the ladle by the moon

The blood expanded across the field, Like chrysanthemums in bloom

Is there really so much to fear, When we're all just taking sides’

Love. Politics. Fear. 

Seems like an apt grey positioning for politics to exist between those polarities. But that’s a topic for another day.

In the Albanian culture, they understood this oath of honour. It is seen as a divine promise. They call it ‘Besa’.

The word seems to be related to the medieval Latin we understand today as ‘faith’. To the Albanians, if you are faithful, you are ‘besnik’ - having an internal compass that leads you to conduct yourself in a way that is committed - to yourself and to others. Others that are in the inner circle. 

So why did the Albanians create this concept? 

This brings us back to the necessity of allegiance and the guarantee that when times get tough, you will have the unity you need to remain safe. Ultimately to remain free. 

The Albanian tribes swore besas to uphold alignment within their tribes in order to be united in their fight against the Ottoman government for independence and autonomy. And the Ottoman government even sealed agreements with the tribes using Besas. 

Basically, Besas equalled agreement - a central union of consent enhancing both political power and communal power. Something we could term today as: Public-people-partnership. 

Yes, indeed we need to keep those promises to enable a balance of power.

‘I'll go to the forest with a samurai sword, And I'll spill out all of my love’

So whether romantic or political or to save your butt - There is truth in the saying: ‘Choose your tribe, love them hard.’ 

‘Seal your Besa & Be Besnik’

We will be hosting our first speaker for 2021 in February. 

Our dearest CreativeMornings community, we made it to December… !

What a year it has been!

So, as the festive season count-down began and we could feel the jingle of hope and new-found courage in the air, our last speaker for 2020, Léon Kowalski, guided us through the front door and turned back the hands on the grand clock so that we could take a little peek into the history and makings of the interesting House on the hill, called RADICAL.

The concept of Radical was constructed in the 14th century with the intention of giving meaning to the roots and origin of the people of that time, however its meaning changed, well radically, with the shifts in consciousness in the centuries to follow.

It shifted mostly in the 18th century, where it became the buzz word of political reform and it would come as no surprise then that it was around this time that the liberal party was formed. Political reform spoke to the longing for change from the current state of affairs - an outcry for the government to transform and focus on what is essential - being the representative voice that truly served.

However as Léon mentioned, the shift in the 19th century was most ‘disturbing’ when Radical came to be seen as unconventional. Something that had once been described as natural and true to the rooted self, was now seen as different.

There was a clear gap between what the government presumed to be the voice of the people and the actual inner voices that felt normal. As Léon explained, true individuals in touch with their rooted selves, battled against this authority and conforming rules which would, if abided by, create dissonance within themselves.

Independent thinkers acted out, spoke up and expressed their beliefs in revolutionary ways - living on the edge of control. They were seen as unconventional and became the meaning of what it was to be radical - to be brave enough to stand up against the norm. Being radical became aspirational.

Being aspirational meant living a meaningful life. But how do we find meaning?

It requires some exploration of your own House of Radical. You have to open the front door and go on a discovery of each room. You get to appreciate each unique view, decorate it all to your heart’s content and decide how to share the feel of your inner walls. It is in building this foundational sense of self that we allow ourselves the time to understand our individuality and take the time to observe the light and shadow sneaking through the curtains.

Léon took us on a beautiful journey of his House of Radical Life and how learning to be open to change, new ideas, growth, making mistakes and feeling deep emotions like love and pain had given meaning to his life. It had made him realise that having meaning meant being true to your original self.

More importantly, he discovered that being Radical meant being quite the opposite of unconventional or aspirational because something is actually only radical based on someone else’ definition of what is different.

Radical is merely the self-expression of your true self in the world - to be in your root.

It is somewhat humorous how the norm has shifted from us being rooted self-loving, respecting individuals to self-knowledge and expression becoming a fearful task. We have become scared of ourselves and what we truly want. Society’s social pressure has created a norm of self-doubt and a quest to fit into the thoughts and feelings of other individuals.

Have we forgotten what being an individual truly means?

We need radical self-reform. We need to be brave enough to use ourselves as a tool in exploring our world for we are at our best when we are in our own power.

Enter the world of cryptocurrency which as Léon highlighted allows us to play in the ocean of decentralisation and steer ourselves towards self-empowerment and away from only having centralised bodies consuming us with control.

So during this last month before we enter a new year, may you be inspired to take the time to explore your rooms, to sit down in your favourite chair and from that place of inner strength and serenity, enjoy the view of being radically rooted in yourself.

Welcome to November! 

Yes, we can hear you asking the same question... “Where did October go?” 

It must have flicked past our window as we slumbered in the TRANSIT carriage on the 2020 train.

But don’t worry, while you were playing cards and perhaps dosing off to the stream-rolling motion of the wheels gliding over the tracks, we managed to capture a glimpse of the beautiful scenery for you. A glimpse that tells a story... 

”A story between the doings” as Arthur Attwell, our speaker for October, explained in his moving talk.

We had the pleasure of delving, with Arthur, into the unknown and strange space in time, where you realise that you are leaving behind where you were but not quite where you want to be. As Arthur reminded us, Dr Seuss’ had a name for it. The Waiting Place of life. 

Most of us run our lives controlling the controllables - constantly moving, from one station, one destination to another. Most of us buy a bus, train or flight ticket to somewhere specific or we stick to our routes - auto-pilot mode drive ourselves to our local spots on muscle memory without conscious thought. 

Imagine being stuck on this mode of transport with no knowledge of where you are going. For how long will you be in the same seat? How many fields, trees and stop signs will flick past you as you look out the same window? 

Arthur took us to that place to explore what happens to us when we sit down on this universal seat of “cosmic public transit”. That seat where you could land up anywhere because “in swirl of universe there is no such thing as being stationary”.

He shared some interesting experiences about his journey and the Waiting Place he encountered along the way. He realised that either you are moving yourself or the TRANSIT will move you. A wise old saying comes to mind...“The right train of thought can take you to a better station in life.”

Often in life when you feel like your hands have been taken off the wheel, you realise that there is merit in being the passenger for a while. You are able to enjoy the ride and notice things you haven’t seen before when you were concentrating on keeping your vessel between the lines of your old life. 

You are afforded the opportunity to get into the right mindset to be able to decide the what, how and when of your new journey and where it will take you.

So next time, you find yourself in this peculiar place, remember to embrace being the passenger and use the time graciously borrowed to you to re-charge, re-balance and create - for yourself. 

Sit in your waiting place and grab the glimpses through the window. Let them transform your thoughts into a wonderful story for your life. 

When that train stops at your destin-st-ation, you’ll be ready to step onto the platform of your new reality - to set yourself free and give back abundantly with gratitude for how far you have come.

“Our hearts were ringing - In the key that our souls were singing

As we danced in the night - Remember how the stars stole the night away”

Do you remember the month of September?

The month that marks the start of the sprint to Christmas, the smell of flowers revealing their inner blooming beauty, bouts of hay fever for some, a sense of love in the air and definitely a local lift of night-life-style with the announcement of lockdown Level 1 for us in South Africa.

So, after the most interesting few months of 2020, we decided that for CreativeMornings CT, it was time for a bit of a breather, to freshen up for our last exciting events of 2020. 

Of course we never leave you hanging without some food for thought and we still took a good look into Isaac Newton’s prism to see what colours it could reveal for us in SEPTEMBER on the SPECTRUM.

If we let our thoughts wander back to the days of 1672, one could imagine that the act of peeking through a triangular shape to see if just one source of light could produce an array of colours, must have truly been perceived as absurd. Wonderfully weird ideas always come with a sense of skepticism from society.

So what exactly did Newton discover on his light missions?

Well, a bit of a science recap will remind us that a spectrum is the range of colours observed due to light being bent (or refracted) by the angles and plane faces of a prism. Each wavelength of light energy is refracted by a slightly different amount, resulting in the light separating into individual bands with unique characteristics of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet and ultimately forming the image of a rainbow.

In short, spectrum is the conceptual tool we use to organise the physical phenomena of waves traveling through space at different frequencies. 

So essentially, Newton found quite a unique way to physically demonstrate the vibrations of "appearance" and “perception”.

The way in which things appear to be is highly correlated to the way in which we position ourselves to perceive them. And it seems the prism swings two ways. 

Light energy around us is constantly being refracted by the 3D bends and planes to show us objects of various shapes and colours. Meanwhile, light energy entering our cornea is also being refracted to reach the back of our eyes to let our brain make sense of what we are seeing. Each human being with a similar set of eyes and brains seeing the same world but yet unique in its angles and interpretations.

We are all on the same spectrum of earth, however, how we perceive is dependent on our position in the light. Interestingly, how we are perceived seems to be dependent on the same.

There have been psychological studies done which determined that there is a universal belief that a person’s physical appearance influences the way in which they are perceived and treated by others. It is termed The Attractiveness Bias or “what is beautiful is good” effect.

We can feel your knee-jerk reaction through the screen. Yes, what is termed beautiful in today’s society is not always good. But I can’t help wondering whether there isn’t some truth in the statement and whether Earth Wind & Fire were in fact secretly contemplating this phenomenon in writing the lyrics for their most famous song, September.

When we position ourselves in the light with a vibrational energy of self-love and we create a prism of connectedness in mind - body - soul, we will appear and be perceived as a rainbow of existence. 

We will emit outwards what is refracted inwards. 

“Our hearts were ringing - In the key that our souls were singing

Holding hands with your heart to see you - Remember true love we share today”

We might not have the refreshing Spring rains that await our Johannesburg fellow-CM community but in Cape Town, we sure have the most determined winter any chapter city has ever seen...it has been icy!

So the relevance of this topic couldn’t have been hotter and with Nic Haralambous as our speaker, we had just the person to raise the dopamine levels and heat it up a little on the pressure cooker topic of STRESS.

2020 has certainly been a stress-tester to most of us and not all of us have come out as PH-neutral in the turmoil of playing the waiting game in lockdown. Our bodies have taken a knock with the demands of work, relationships, financial and non-social pressures over the past few months.

Stress can be a key motivator, and a very important tool for us to survive but as Nic pointed out, it is easy to become addicted to the flip-side of that coin. And we’ve all felt it. That rush you get from being stressed for a test or a presentation, watching your savings in Bitcoin ride up and down or to meet a new person (or in person - especially in these times!). 

It is easy to constantly want that feeling and to thrive off the drama that your body experiences in those moments. It is an easy science and our brains know it. Our minds can learn (and actually physically alter themselves in the process) to create those situations within ourselves that keep feeding our internal dopamine dependency.

It begs the question - why do it? Because as human beings we are also wired to care and especially to care about what we understand success to be. Kelly McGonigal, the author of “The upside of stress” wrote “You don’t stress out about things you don’t care about, and you can’t create a meaningful life without experiencing some stress.”

This is true. We need to learn to embrace and balance it. Not avoid it.

Nic reminded us to move away from what he termed the ‘Sacrifice fallacy’. Oh yes, we have all fallen into that trap of thinking we have to give up our basic Maslow principles to manage stress and achieve wholesome, successful living. 

There is a reason that Maslow highlighted the basic physiological needs as the foundational pillars of being human and as the necessities in moving towards self-actualisation. 

Let’s challenge each other to the B2B (back to basics) of:

Sleep as much as we need.

Eat to feed our soul, not just fill our bodies.

Exercise in whatever way feels comfortable, but exercise!

So that we may reminisce on the things we tried and failed, but learnt from... rather than the things we failed to learn because we were too stressed or scared to try. 

Let’s flick the switch (even when there is load shedding)

Is July 2020 really a thing of the past? We’re just as shocked as you are that the winter solstice has come and gone and just like that it is time to say goodbye to another great month of this year.

We welcomed Imraan Samuels, a wonderful leader in our natural living community whose business has flourished in these unprecedented times where lockdown has asked of us to think differently about what we have and what we can do with it in small spaces. 

From Underdog to Leader on the sustainability front, Imraan made us stop and think about what is truly at our disposal in and around Zone Zero aka ‘home’. 

It was inspiring to hear about what he has accomplished as a permaculture designer, practitioner and facilitator and what he has brought to life through his ventures and passions. Most specifically, creating the urban permaculture training platform, Guerilla House and incredible work he has done with the SEED organisation.

Where most people see humanity as the burden of existence to Mother Nature, Imraan reminded us that looking after Her isn’t about alienating ourselves, but rather seeing our value in Her transformation. 

As the beauty of Spring approaches, let’s nourish our green fingers and home-grown souls and take his advice to learn through our bodies by embracing that we have everything inside ourselves and around us to live an abundant life. 

Happy cultivating those dreams!

In June, we explored the theme: INSECURE

What an interesting time to be talking about feeling uncertain and anxious within oneself with everything that is going on in the world. Especially since we find ourselves in a space where we are forced by law to sit still and face the silence within ourselves. 

This is not always the most comfortable place to be because it means dropping the masks we put on so quickly when we turn around and face society. And let’s face it, those masks are pretty handy most of the time in avoiding getting hurt, showing our sensitivities and just making it out there. 

We’ve all heard the coined phrase ‘Fake it til you make’ however this month we have pondered on the thought of whether following this kind of mantra is really powerful or helpful. Does it actually assist us in dealing with the root of what is going on internally?

We had the immense pleasure of welcoming to our virtual platform, Sarah Rice, who has had an incredibly interesting journey of throwing herself into the deep end and juggling between the polarities of hope and fear. 

She reminded us that it is so important to acknowledge that to be human is to see and appreciate the depths of our shadow, insecure selves, instead of constantly striving to fit into the shallow ‘instagram world of uber confidence’ around us.

It is true that most often we don’t feel worthy to tackle life in its fullness and we end up getting stuck in that familiar impostor syndrome. And yes, it is one thing to acknowledge it, but quite another to overcome the feelings and shake off the fears. 

Enter the ‘Insecurity Toolbox’. 

Thank you to Sarah for lifting the lid and giving us a peek into her experiential treasure collection. These are some of the tools we can make our own: 

Find your heart-friends: Foster strong and forceful relationships and allow these fellow humans to support you in climbing out of your head and avoiding the ‘land of always-never’. 

Outsource your confidence: Let the confidence of others in you remind you of your beauty and courage in tackling the unknown.

Separate feelings from facts: Pop that illusionary balloon floating in your mind so you can wake up to the reality of your true self.

Dance with your insecurities: Flow with your heart’s rhythm to know what you need to move on your life’s beat. 

Find your practice: Go back to basics and focus on the small and significant daily wins in your life that make you uniquely who you are. It’s the gratitude for what seems small that shifts big time.

So, when you find the hinges are a little loose or the screws need a bit of a tightening, remember the tools in and around you. You may be surprised at what other treasures you find along the way. And please do share them with us!

Well, it seems lockdown wants to be starting to say its goodbyes and we will slowly crawl back to what will be a new normal. 

Just perhaps, wearing an actual mask helped hold up the mirror for us and we can now be free and at ease to be our mask-less and vulnerable selves in the world.