Not going to lie, I was freaking anxious when leaving. I kept on waking up on the plane and having a mini freak out when registering that I was in fact on a plane, going to India, to train to be a yoga teacher. How the hell had this happened?!?! EEK!
I had all these negative thoughts dart about my head which I knew were all stupidly irrational, but I just couldn’t shake them and it was annoying. (This was probably the result of that little big leaving party… woops!). In order to tune out of myself, I started chatting to this guy Stephen whilst waiting for my connecting flight at Mumbai airport. Now it turned out that Stephen used to make music with Martin Cole from Wieden’s (my old job). He was super chatty and lovely and kitted me up with so much music and DJ software. We chatted ‘advertising’ and decided amongst us that I should definitely be a yoga teacher which made me feel loads better.(Thanks, Stephen)
On a bit of a chat role, I looked about for some other folk to vibe off. At the back of the transit bus, I saw a kind looking couple I clocked from the London flight.I popped my sleepy self next to them and said a cheery “hiya”. We shared our story of where we’re all off to and it turned out, the EXACT same place! This is how I met Stuart, the lovely gentleman who is now teaching me Anatomy at yoga school.
Synchronicity strikes! Time to relax…
Two weeks on I’m sat in my little yellow room with my own little garden writing this blog post. I’ve just returned from a social with my new yogini friends at a place called Bean Me Up (it’s a veggie restaurant for those that get confused). There’s about 16 of us yogalites; all different people united because of that special place that yoga takes us to. We all get it, and it’s simple scrumptious. It feels so good to be dedicating my days to learning about something I really believe in and with people who I can chat ‘hippy’ shizzle with. I don’t know where it’ll take me, but that doesn’t really matter to me right now.
So just to rub it in, this is my average day:
I start with a two hour Vinyassa Flow yoga class that’s been choreographed so strategically it fools my body into thinking that those painful tricky little numbers are merely acts of kindness. I then listen to the wonderfully wise Julie Martin wow me with the biomechanics of yoga and I end my day floating around Anjuna after a 1.5 hour meditation session (well often floating but also quite often tormented at this stage, but I’m learning!)
I seriously feel as though I’m living in a video game. I’ve failed my driving license four times yet I’m whizzing around on my moped where cows chill out on street corners as if they’re London teenagers. On the way back from yoga, I’ll pull up to Anish’s coconut stand for a daily dose of electrolytes and sometimes I’ll have a chat with an elephant whose standing right beside me.
I’m very much living in the Key of YES. I’ve pledged to spread this essence to those who don’t have opportunity to quit their jobs and jet of to another country,live off the exchange rate and write blogs about how stoked they are about it.I know I’m very fortunate to be where I am and I think it’s important to let gratitude spill out from my actions.
The past two days on the way to yoga, I’ve driven past a group of about 20 workers gravelling the road. Yep, they’d walk in single file for about 20ms with buckets of stones on their heads. They’d then throw these on the road and walk back to get more stones.Then a big heavy rolling machine would come along and compress the stones into the ground and ta daaaa, we have a Goan road. I’d smile to the workers as I’d drive past but never got any Indian toothy grins back. These guys had it tough.
So I got them all some cold drink.
le
But what's interesting is that the workers didn't even seem to get that something nice was being done for them. Before I went over I got a bit of a complex that they would think 'who the hell is this white girl and what's she doing bringing us drinks?'. Well, let's be honest, they did think that but if I as a loony grinning tourist can show a group of road workers that I at least SEE them, give them a drink and a little drama to their lunch break then great! I know I've not changed their life, but I'd like to think I changed a little moment.
Fx
p.s. How many times have I used the word 'little'?! Geez!
Sometimes everything in life slots into place so very nicely. That being said, getting to that place can be o so very tricky. At the start of this year, I had an amazing boyfriend, a lovely little flat and what I thought to be a stable job. Six months on, life did a complete 180. I found myself single, jobless, sleeping on a sofa bed and more surprisingly, brunette. It's been a rapid of a ride, with a big waterfall thrown in the middle but thankfully...
I can now sink back into a bubble bath of retrospect and feel grateful for all the turbulence.
I'm about to embark on an adventure which has been laden with so much synchronicty that even my step mum commented (with not even a smidge of a prompt), that it must be 'written in the stars'.
Yoga has been a big part of my life since university. Amongst all the potential career paths/ creative projects/ blog ideas/ book ideas/ travel trip ideas my head musters up, it's been a consistent thread. And I'm off to India to pursue it. My yoga teacher training in Vinyassa Flow begins on October 31st at the Brahmani Yoga Centre in Angura, Goa. Yes, Yes, Yes!
I found out about the last minute opening of the course just over a week ago and had acceptance a week ago today. I weighed up all the rationalities like timing and money – they even told me to go! I was planing to go to India in December and was going to use the next few months to save up. However, the off season timings of this course mean that everything works out about £1500 cheaper. No brainer really. And the timings? Well `my freelance job naturally came to a close and gave me the passport to jump on the plane. Perfect.
That being said, I'm nervous of leaving life as I know it all on my own. But the things that make you nervous are quite often the things that you should be doing. They're the things that you really care about. And at times like this, you've got to feel the nerves, turn them into success and say YES.
London life has been incredible. My frends blow my mind with their amazingness. So do the East London warehouse parties with bass lines that I just want to snog. Cycling around London with music in my ears watching people go about life always makes me feel like I'm in a film set with the soundtrack playing in my ears. The kind of film that makes you snuggle up to the person next to you and think 'yea, it's a pretty good world we live in isn't it?'. I'll miss that.
But with departures, come backs always loom. And on a day like today, with people celebrating ticket success for their come back gig, this is the perfect song.
YES.
So,I don't really know what to expect from next Friday onwards. However, I do know what to expect next Wednesday night; a lot of fun and goodbye hugs at The Old Queen's Head, Angel. Please join for a little farewell. From 7pm.
My lovely, blonde smiley Kiwi (who moved to Canada) friend Zoe Gapper aka Zapper, just posted this on my Facebook wall. I smiled for 3.16 mins; except for when the penguin got pushed in the sea as I wasn't sure if he was going to be ok. But he was. I then clapped and bounced on my sofa like a seal pup as I continued to watch the two loved up penguins resume their happy ever after whilst Avalanche sang LOVE, LOVE, LOVE in my ears.
This week, I discovered Improv Everywhere and I LOVE it. The people behind the website call themselves a New York based 'prank collective', whose goal is to create moments of joy throughout the City.
'Say Something Nice' is one of their stunts, and it's A----MAZING. The team placed a wooden lectern and megaphone holster and attached a sign that said 'Say Something Nice'. Then they sat back and watched the magic unfold.
Visit any ad blog and you'll soon be reading how with the rise of digital, brands have to be more transparent. They have to have conversations with their consumers; not talk at them or barge into their conversations. Brands have to become more human. They have to genuinely be seen to give a shit. I'm pretty big on brands acting with integrity and really hate it when I can see the strategy behind the action. But brands are always going to be trying to sell stuff and John Grant would say that at least they're now being coerced to do this in a way that's improving the world a little bit. And I agree.
I fell across this case study a couple of months ago. I've had a few job interviews lately and I was often asked 'what kind of brands would you like to work on?'. Randomly,Spanish airline, Spanair, was always the first brand that sprung to mind! And it's because of this little act of Kindness.
Today hasn't be great. I got soaked in the rain on my bike, forgot my purse, had to cycle home, got to work (so so wet!) and got a sore throat. But every black cloud and all that...
I was in Ibiza during the London riots. I returned home in the wee hours of Thursday feeling pretty anxious and not knowing what to expect. My lovely friend Roland picked me up from the airport at 3.30am and took me home. (Thanks, Roland.) The following day I immersed myself in the mainstream media, watched You Tube clips and read blogs to get a sense of what looted London was like. Mental. But this post isn't going to dwell on the destruction despite how horrendous it must have been. What the Key of YES is interested in is all the wonderful acts of kindness that stem from the madness. And these acts of kindness couldn't have been achieved without social media.
For instance, Twitter feed @Riotcleanup has accumulated over 80,000 followers since the riots broke out. The stream has connected volunteers to charities, informed people of organised clean up missions and perhaps more importantly, it demonstrates the forces of good that can stem from destruction, heightening moral in a period of insecurity.
The Guradian featured an article on Bristolian DJ Leon Piers. Annoyed with the inaccurate reporting of the mainstream media and gossip trails of other citizens, he took journalism into his own hands. Racing around Bristol on his bike (fixed gear, obvs), Leon tweeted bursts of looting. To ensure his feed stayed accurate, he refused to retweet Police messages and if given info from others, he required a picture.
This is Our London is a microsite set up by digital agency Dare. It aggregates tweets which comment on the action surrounding the riots. These are then juxtaposed against heart warming images of London citizens forming groups to embark on the Capital's great clean up mission. It's a simple little site which injects a sense of community and positivity back into London.
Similarly, blogs and microsites have jotted up all over the place in order to raise funds for independent shop owners who had potentially lost their livings. One case that I found particularly heart warming is that of 89 year old Aaron Biber, whose Tottenham barber shop was ransacked. Two advertising grads set up the blog Keep Aaron Cutting and have raised over 35k on Aaron's behalf. As you can imagine, Aaron's well chuffed.
What we see from the above examples is how social media can be used for social good. Yes, as David Cameron has stated, the internet did play a part in the organisation of the riots, but it's also brought communities together in new and empowering ways to act in the Key of YES. I'd like to think that this tool set has been brought into the conscious of society and perhaps next time, it won't take over 20mil worth of damages for these tools to be activated.
And now for a little philosophical reflection:
When looking at how these 'clean up' communities have formed as a result of the riots, it appears that the 'us' (cleaner up'ers) have a commonality with the 'them' (looters). That being that human beings are social creatures, and as much as we've strived for automy and individualism over the past few decades, what we really want to be is part of a group. (Philosopher Mark Vernon gives an account of this thought on the School of Life website.) Similar to this little blog post, the media have latched onto the beauty of our communities pulling together to help revive our Cities. And yes, it is beautiful. But the fact that we've become a society that sees 'pulling together' as 'beautiful' is perhaps also a little sad. It demonstrates that community is a novel, celebratory thing and not an everyday aspect of living. So when looking at our looters, we can ask the question whether it is the want for Adidas trainers or widescreen TVs (or carpets!) that drives them, or is it the need to feel part of a group and connected to something? In all honesty, this discussion is far more complex than an either/ or question, but I think it's a good benchmark for discussion.
Like I mentioned in my last post, I was recently made redundant. Rubbish. I had been working at creative agency Wieden and Kennedy for nearly three years, since graduating from university. It was a sad time. However, I really surprised myself and saw my redundancy in a really positive way. I loved my job and the people I worked with, but felt that there would be an exciting adventure on the horizon. I just had to keep my spirits high. Law of Attraction etc.
See what bothered me the most was the taboo of redundancy (and that I wouldn't get a leaving card or a chance to say goodbye!). So I decided to take matters into my own hands and rap a redundant goodbye to W+K, London. Why?
1. I wanted people to know that I was fine with things, despite the abruptness.
2 I wanted to spread a little positivity. Redundancy is shit for everyone, not just the redundant.
3. Rapping was therapy. When I did felt down, I literally just rapped my little rap and laughed at myself for having a little rap about my redundancy. (Seriously, more fun and cheaper than a therapist. I recommend it.)
So last day of work, I sat at my laptop with my goodbye email written and the YouTube link embedded. Should I? Shouldn't I? Should! I pressed send, put my head in my hands and anticipated how a redundancy rap would go down. Eek %£@%$Y%!!! And then my inbox was saturated with messages of respect, love and just such niceness. Rapping Redundancy felt good. Here's the rap.
The timing of my redundancy was pretty perfect really. In the evening of my last day, I held a fundraiser for our neighboring ukulele shop (ultimate feel good) and then flew on a girly holiday to Ibiza with my friends. Now W+K had posted my rap on their blog, and as a result when I checked my Twitter a couple of days into my holiday, I had so many positve messages commending my attitude (and even a few job opportunities). I felt great, if not a little embarrassed knowing quite a few people had seen my modest rapping skills!(It has something like 1500 views on YouTube now. Gulp.)
However, not everyone was so supporting. When I arrived back from holiday, I was told of Campaign Magazine's snubbing article. They state it's'embarrassingly girly' and the 'worst middle class' rap in history. Booooo! But it's cool,I wasn't mad. I found it funny that the advertising 'bible' wanted to comment on my little rap. And I also found it a little scary that Campaign Magazine, of all publications, had missed the point entirely. But unfortunately you do get people like Campaign Mag in this world; people who are happy to pick at the negative unnecessarily. It's a shame. Still, sad or not, I wasn't going to let it slide. Hehehe!
Back to the rap board.
I filmed the following and tried to entice Campaign into a rap battle on Twitter. I was really careful not to be stabbing and to keep the tone playful. I really hope people get that.
W+K supported me on their blog and I anticipated Campaign's battle rap reply. Nothing. Instead, the article was removed from their online site and then replaced with another random article. This frustrated me more than the initial snubbing article. Rule number one of social media: If someone responds to content in a way that you don't expect or like, you don't back track and try to reverse the action. You reflect, respond and keep the conversation moving forward. Bad instincts, Campaign. But thankfully,they eventually reposted the article and printed a humble apology to me in this week's publication. I was so chuffed.
'Respeck' right back 'atcha'. YAY!
So what have I learned from rapping my redundancy? Well, quite genuinely, whatever life, people (or magazines) throw at you, always maintain positive. Sulking or getting angry is such a waste of time. Look at the cards that you've been dealt and play them, with a smile. (Geez, I sound like a Hallmark card.) But in all seriousness:
