With now four children aged 1-12, I am well tested regarding my mental health. I would like to share my top three tipps that keep me healthy and sane.

#1 – Moving in nature

There are only 500 meters (less than half a mile) between my house and the woods. I go there everyday. E v e r y d a y! Also when it’s raining. And when it’s already dark outside as well. The movement is important. So is being in nature, breathing fresh, crisp air directly from the woods who generate the oxygen.

#2 – Gratitude

What are three things that I am grateful for today?

1.) my face is burning from the wind and sun that I was exposed to the whole day today. (We are at the beach, it’s in the middle of fall.)

2.) I am grateful for my four boys and husband – all of them sitting on the sofa as I type these lines. They are munching on some potato chips and are watching an old Spiderman DVD.

3.) I am looking forward to an online call I am about to participate in less than 15 minutes, organized by the American Psychological Association (APA) on „Becoming a strategy Leader“.

If I were really strict, the third aspect wouldn’t count as it is something that I should not be grateful for already because it hasn’t happened, yet. However, also looking forward to things is a way of gratitude, right?

#3 Being present with your loved ones

That one is a powerful practice, and it’s my toughest practices as I tend to zoom out real quickly, thinking smart and not so smart thoughts while something else (something real) is happening in the real world. We all know when we are truly listened to. We all sense when someone is not present. So the basis of long-lasting deep relationships with a handful of people, is to grant these people the gift of your presence.

After three years of sensing that I should put my self-healing journey into writing and two years of actually writing it, my book is out NOW.

The Turtle that was almost dead

A self-transformation guide for all who know that we will never be truly done healing.

Get the book on Apple books

https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-turtle-that-was-almost-dead/id6446814667?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1

Ich hab einen Beitrag aus meinem Studium #culturalengineering wieder entdeckt.
Er ist Irving Borwick aus Fatzer, G. (1990) und handelt vom systemischer Beratung von Organisationsentwicklung.
Super spannend, dass nach 10 Jahren nochmals zu lesen.

Ich hab mir die wichtigsten Punkte mal rausgeschrieben und ein Sketchnote-Video draus gemacht. Ihr findet es hier:
Viel Spaß damit

In German, there is always a female version of a noun. That creates the impression of talking about male people when we keep using the generic masculine nouns. That is why I have started using female and male versions of nouns a couple of years ago.
Meanwhile even in my private spoken conversation I have adopted a gender inclusive language.

How?

By saying the noun_then having a short break_and then adding the female „in“-sound which indicates the female genus in German. The short break between the male and the female nouns indicates all other genders: inter gender, trans gender, third gender and all other ways of gender on the spectrum.

How is it with you? Have you noticed how language has been changing towards more gender inclusive forms? If so, have you adapted your usage of language in such a way?

In 2020, my husband and I have only had one single glas of champagne on June 12th, dedicated to our 10th anniversary. Other than that we have been faithful to our zero alcohol rule since New Year’s Eve.
And I doubt that we will ever be going back to drinking alcohol again.

Why?

Because I have been able to relax…

And for various other reasons. Let me take you along a couple of them

1. I can eat without needing to restrict my calories. Alcohol has a lot of them. And simply drinking tea, water, coffee and some juice saves a lot on the calorie intake side.
2. With that comes the feeling of not having to do so much sports all the time. Although we have had only very few drinks during the time that we were sill on alcohol – I am talking about a two-glasses-of-white-wine on three nights a week – I always felt the urge of going on a run the days after. For the past nine and a half months I was easily skipping work outs without feeling bad about it.
3. Our three boys are testing my nerves. They have been testing my nerves the previous years just as much. The only difference – and it’s a huge one for me – is that I can deal with the stress they are causing much better. I still yell at them for awful behavior – but my threshold of what I think is awful behavior has risen. I associate this with our zero alcohol policy.
4. My skin has improved. I am still 35 years, so I don’t look like a 25 year old. But I do look „better“ in the sense of healthier. Can’t really explain it.

Disclaimer:
At the same time as the zero alcohol policy we also started our vegetarian diet. Sometimes I even manage to stay vegan. So not all these great effects necessarily correlate with the zero alcohol-policy.

The take away message: stop drinking alcohol and stop eating meat 🥩 🍖

Es geht wieder los:
Innovation zum Frühstück – ein Muss für jede*n, die*der in Gö nach frischen Impulsen lechzt. Tanja und ich hatten genau diese Idee im Kopf, als wir das Event geboren haben: Austausch, frische Impulse und ein leckeres Frühstück – Alles unkompliziert, einmal im Monat stattfindend. Toll, dass wir mit dem Startraum Göttingen einen neuen tollen Partner gefunden haben. Meldet euch hier an.

Yesterday, it was my 35th birthday. Given the life expectancy in Germany, I assume I have another 35 years of life ahead of me. If nothing gets in the way – illness, accidents, the end of the world.

I notice, that with approaching my 35th birthday, I became more aware of my state of health: my husband and I started a „no alcohol“-challenge on New Year’s Eve, and we haven’t had a single drop of alcohol since then. It feels so good that I will stick to that.

Also I started going from a „we eat everything: meat and vegetables“-diet to a vegetarian diet, now aiming at going fully plant based. This is mostly motivated by climate change and the ecological foot print of consuming meat. But as we go along I feel so much better – I enjoy cooking more. And shopping has started to be an exciting entertaining adventure lately – we are discovering dishes with ingredients we have never even heard of.

That my 35th birthday and these endeavors associated with healthy lifestyle and wellbeing cannot be a coincidence. I think I subconsciously compensate for knowing that I have grown older and that the quality of the second half of my life will heavily depend on my lifestyle and dieting.

Ich bin – in Lumina Spark gesprochen – gelb und grün. Das heißt, Strukturen brauche ich nicht, alles kann zu jeder Zeit, nichts sollte müssen müssen, sonst fühle ich mich eingeschränkt. Und weil ich eben so innovativ, visionär und zuweilen auch hyperspontan bin, mache ich einfach drauf los, ohne drüber nachzudenken, was für Konsequenzen das am Ende des Tages haben könnte. So auch mit dem Pionier-Teams-Barcamp, das die wunderbare Gruppe um Julia Wieland auf die Beine stellt:  

#teamsbc20

Da mache ich einfach mal mit!

Naja, und wenn ich schon dabei bin,… Ach guck, der Simon Dückert hat auch eine Session gepitcht…. ach und guck, das ist ja interessant, die haben ja was zu Design Thinking vor….

Mensch, denke ich mir, vielleicht interessiert die Teilnehmer*innen ja auch was zu meiner Kreativitätsforschung? Ich mein, 20 Jahre Forschungsergebnisse hab ich zusammengefasst – da ist doch bestimmt für die eine*den anderen was dabei, oder?

Gedacht, gezeichnet, hochgeladen. Noch ein paar Sätze dazu und iPad aus.

Am nächsten Tag trifft mich der Schlag – wie, schon 10 Likes?
Oh Gott, was ist, wenn meine Session tatsächlich zustande kommt?

Nun hab ich den 🥗

Aber ohne Stretch kein Lernen, oder? #Komfortzone

Was mich an diesem Buch so fesselt, ist das Modell zum Verhältnis der inneren Struktur und äußeren Struktur von Breidenbach & Rollow. Sie gehen davon aus, dass der Bedarf der Menschen an innerer Struktur wächst, wenn die äußere Struktur aufgeweicht wird. New Work heißt Selbstorganisation und Agilität, heißt also auch: weniger bis gar keine vorgegebenen Strukturen im Äußeren. Damit wächst aber der Bedarf an „innerer Struktur“ – also so verstehe ich die beiden Autorinnen jedenfalls. Wer sich innerlich nicht seiner Identität bewusst ist, nicht „gefestigt“ ist, der braucht feste Strukturen im Außen: mehr Hierachie, jemensch, die*der sagt, was zu machen ist. So habe ich das noch nie gesehen und gehe seit einigen Tagen mit der neuen These „schwanger“. 
Menschen danach zu fragen, wie viel Struktur brauchst du im Äußeren?, ist zumindest schon mal ein guter erster Schritt.