Content Care Package: Edition 2
With much of Europe back in Lockdown and the US both celebrating and resisting the outcome of the recent election, we’ve pulled together our second Content Care Package. We’ve searched for the podcasts that make us run a little further just to keep listening, the online and offline initiatives that give us ways to feel better, the neuroscience that’s making us think differently about ourselves, the sources of support that have our backs through uncertain times, the books that capture all the things we’d want to say, and the big and small ways to feel more curious and less anxious. Let’s get lost together.
Connection & Community:
One of our favorite reads of recent times Together makes the argument that being with one another matters, though it was launched ironically at the beginning of a pandemic that found us locked in our homes and crossing streets to avoid one another. Now we’re excited that its author, Dr. Vivek Murthy has been appointed to President-Elect Joe Biden’s Coronovirus Task Force.
Already looking for something for post-lockdown life? Birch is the staycation you may be looking for (along with every creative in London)
Pop-up Magazine is hosting virtual suppers with recipes and chat. We sat down for the one with Cord Jefferson of The Good Place and the writer Jia Tolentino hosted by chef Priya Krishna.
Live in Bath and ready to enter The Dream Space. It’s an experimental project for sharing people’s stories around racism, the climate and ecological crises, and the social inequalities revealed through Covid-19.
Solitude: we all end up there eventually. Some willingly, some not.
“In these times of social distancing, business closures, and the constant questioning of why we live in this city at all, this is my weekly reminder that San Francisco is still somewhere special.” A Pop-Up Market in our beloved city taking us back to SF’s recent olden times.
Nature:
If you need a starting point to get back into nature, or if you are looking to deepen your knowledge of the greenery around you, we recommend Bloom Magazine.
Bringing greenery into our home is an act of conscious self-care. Having houseplants around us has been connected to a better sense of calm and well-being, reduced anxiety, and a happier mood. Our go-to houseplant shop is Frome’s Pilea.
Living Streets is finding ways to get us walking.
A Veteran’s Healing Farm opens in North Carolina.
Mind/Body Connection:
“I often say, the psyche as well as the body can, you know, stretch and come back into shape…But sometimes it doesn’t.”
The world’s first Vagina Museum is more than a display of gynecological anatomy. It’s dedicated to a serious discussion of women’s health, feminism, and sexuality
“We can use this medicine to start closing the health disparity gaps that exist because melanated humans in the United States live unnaturally stressed lives.”
Modern Life:
Esther Perel on The Sway Podcast brings her wisdom from relationships to the post-election world, the interpersonal costs of the pandemic, and finding freedom in confinement.
Are we allowed to plan ahead yet? If so, booking a slot at The Good Life Experience is high on our list of things to do for making 2021 nothing like 2020. In the meantime, you can participate in the new project Lockdown Radio and an All Day Communion, a partnership with writer Mark Shayler.
Watched The Social Dilemma? We did, with our kids, utterly terrifying. Sign up for the Center for Humane Technology to use technology more humanely.
Purpose:
This is all too familiar: “Many scholars, such as the psychologist Barbara Killinger, have shown that people willingly sacrifice their own well-being through overwork to keep getting hits of success.”
Work doesn’t have to mean competition. Creativity can play nice. Both your practice and your life may better from it.
Spirituality & Meaning:
The host of our new podcast find Unholier Than Thou, Philip Picardi is like a good friend holding your hand and bringing you along. He’s curious and open to all as he explores how faith can “fit into our lives today when the secular doesn’t feel like enough and the spiritual doesn’t always feel like a home”.
Looking to slow down and find new stories in these uncertain times, Emergence Magazine is a long-read for this moment that follows threads that link ecology, culture, and spirituality (the same interests of its publisher The Kalliopeia Foundation).
Mental wellbeing:
When a mid-life crisis doesn’t shape up to be the thing you believe it will be.
Having gone through this, we applaud this again and again and again. Make Birth Better
Preparing for the Holidays. Book Virtual Christmas Carols that support mental health charity Charlie Waller
Listening to the podcast Ten Things That Scare Me always reminds us that we’re not alone and that we all have fears, some of which we share. There are the tiny, seeming inconsequential concerns that stymie people, and the monumental, overarching themes of our lives that cause someone to catch their breath.
Recent advice from Headspace: Start your day with something positive (not the news). It will transform the rest of your day.
Awe & Wonder:
Our brains have two-distinct centers for beauty. Amazing.
Need more of Glennon Doyle. Or maybe Caitlin Moran. Or Deborah Frances-White. The How-to-Academy can bring them (or rather their insights) into your home.
When doomscrolling becomes too much, and the world becomes an even heavier burden than usual to carry, escape into stories, into time spent curled up with a good read, into the simple pleasures of holding something in your hands that doesn’t send push notifications.
Creativity & Culture
Seek out London’s Institute of the Imagination to let your imagination run free (even during a stay-at-home order)
Lionheart is a little gem of a magazine, something to sink into with a cuppa in hand (and a roar in that heart of yours). It’s been designed specifically to make you feel good, though it's more handmade than self-help.
Looking for creativity at home: workshops and kits from Stitch School (also loving their Supper Cloth for when the world starts back up again).
Ready to play in the analog world? Head to Berlin’s Clayground or purchase one of their clay kits to do at home, with all the tools and materials you need to get your hands muddy.
Doing Good:
Whether it’s for shopping small, shopping ethically, shopping cruelty-free, or simply for supporting some amazing people who work every day fighting the good fight, choosing Herbivore is a choice that makes us feel good.
Reading the magazine Positive News is reassuring: that the world isn’t entirely falling apart, that people aren’t demons in disguise running amok, that humanity isn’t doomed to endlessly flail (all thoughts that may have crossed our minds in the past curiosity of a year).
And leaving you with Obama and his enduring belief that America can become a place that aligns with the best of us.
We also wanted to let you know that our thoughtful guide to life is now back. Since March, we’ve hesitated on writing about places in the world as they close and open then close and open again, but we’ve come to believe strongly that in times of need we all need somewhere to go — even if it’s saved for later, or engaged with online, even as it can be bookmarked in the imaginary or supported from afar. The hope of bookstores, departments of make-believe, festivals, bakeries, cafes, museums, independent stores, maker studios, pop-up markets, school of emotions, sculpture parks, all existing still keeps us going. As our collective mental health is spiraling, the world out there, the collective world of our making, still has something to offer: ideas, nature, people, comfort, meaning, purpose, and wonder. We hope you enjoy our recent guide entries. We’re working on posting one a day and building out our guide, so we can truly make the mental health map that we believe we need.
One note: This platform is built by us but made by and for you. Let us know which sources of joy, wisdom, and connection you are looking to wherever you are by writing with us. Head here to know how to do this.
And also Schitt’s Creek is making the world a better place, still.
