Hello my friends,

This week has been, well, going. I feel almost back to my regular grind (le sigh…), but I am still working to keep these new shifts in my day-to-day. I am still:

• Meditating in the mornings
• Limiting my smartphone use
• Filling my time and imagination with other things like reading, listening (to the radio and music), daydreaming, walking, noticing colours and shapes and feelings in the world

New for this week, I’ve also been trying to notice the different cultural groups where I belong and environments where I find myself.

That said, this has been a strange thing to try to observe in the depths of January in Toronto. We are going through a major cold snap. I know Winnipegers, Kenorans, and “real” northerners will laugh in my Toronto/southern face - and I also know folks to the south of me (the “real” southerners) are also having a shockingly cold January, with actual SNOW - but this week it’s been Ca-OLD (two syllables) at -15-ish Celsius.

This means I have been a social hermit. So it’s been hard to “collect data” on the patterns and activities of different groups I hang around, given I have not been hanging out in groups.

That said, I will reflect on my usual patterns over the past few months, in a “non-scientific” way. I am not publishing these data (lol), it’s all just for me to reflect on - so all good.

Generally, I notice that my main groups/environments these days are my workplace and my family home. I don’t go to church or synagogue, I don’t hang out at the bar. Sometimes I go to the art gallery, a friend’s backyard when the weather is good, or maybe a show.

That said, what do my current environments and cultural groups and spaces look like?

What are our practices, and what does that say about what we value?

I won’t go into specific minutiae of these reflections - this is a short and snappy email newsletter, after all!

But I will say that technology use is pervasive.

Both in useful ways, and challenging ways.

For example, sometimes people will hold a team meeting when in the office, but folks on-site will call into the meeting from their desks, not bothering to book a meeting room to sit together. Or at home, the default ‘chill’ activity seems to be phone-scrolling.

This makes me reflect on how I might help to shift things in my groups and environments to re-focus on human connections and non-digital activities. Are there ways to re-build patterns and ways of working that focus on connecting in-person, or off-screens? Can our at home patterns shift so that the default chill mode is listening to music or reading?

Next week (January 27 - 31) I will focus on maintaining these different observations and shifts:

• Continuing to meditate and limit personal phone use
• Fill my time and attention with things like reading, listening (to the radio and music), daydreaming, walking, noticing colours and shapes and feelings in the world
• Suggest and practice cultural/group/environment practices that focus on human connections and non-digital activities

What do you think? Have you been able to try any of these practices and activities, either yourself or in groups? Or other things?

I’d love to know!

Julia

p.s. let me also add briefly that I am holding off on saying anything about this week's American events, and the inauguration. I am processing. But as a writer, I know that we writers are witnesses. We don't work in a vacuum. Part of our job is to witness this moment, and help make sense of it through words... Writing is analysis. More at some point.

Julia Gray, PhD

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• award-winning writer, researcher, teacher
• mentored hundreds of students & clients
• playwright, theatre creator
• chocolate devotee, Mum of 2, ex-bun-head

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