What if slowing down could speed us up?
What if we came from a place of feeling complete, whole and nothing needed to be added to us? What if instead of feeling broken, incomplete and like something is wrong with us we realised that we have everything we need to grow ourselves and rejuvenate our planet? What if we could slow down, tap into ourselves and the messages we so badly need to hear? What if we could quiet the noises, voices and influencers around us to hear our own voice more clearly?
“What if slowing down could reconnect us to ourselves?”
I believe that we are restless looking for the source of our problems. Trained as consumers, we often attempt to find inner clarity through the trendy, oversaturated ‘wellness’ market, purchasing product after product claiming to enhance stillness and self-connection. As we seek answers to this very problem, we can run around, panicked and restless, or we can connect within, remembering that we have all the answers within us. We are one with the universe, and I believe that if we listen to it, it will tell us what to do next.
In the studio at the moment, we are thinking a lot about biomimicry, and what we can learn from nature. Animals have many moments of stillness as they watch and wait. Things take the time that they need, and when we go with this flow, the result is much better: the owl sleeps during the day and is awake at night, and the rhythm of a cat is to nap throughout the day, always the watcher. We look at nature and make concerted efforts not to imitate, but to take inspiration- successful design often stems from the principles of nature. Take, for example, the skin of a shark, and how its structural complexities have been adapted by the textile industry to improve swimmer’s speed through improved hydrodynamics. Look also at the sweeping curves of a water mixer, and how they echo the delicate spiral of the Calla Lily.
Biomimicry in action; the Calla Lily and the water mixer.
Imagine this: as we walk around, we carry a glass jar full of water and mud with us. As we stress, as we fill our thoughts with doubts and questions, we shake it around violently in our quest to stay busy and occupied. As a result of this, the water is clouded and muddy; we can’t see clearly, we are confused. If we remain still, the dust settles to the bottom of the jar and the water becomes clear again. We listen to ourselves, and we are afforded peaceful clarity.
The current COVID pandemic is recognised to be a shared experience, as whole populations are required to self-isolate, and press pause on their daily lives. Pre-COVID, our lives revolved around external affirmations of our self-worth, as we judged ourselves and others based on professionalism and achievement. As the pandemic draws on, many people will recognise the negative feelings associated with the sudden upheaval of the systems on which we base ourselves, desperately searching for something, anything to do in order to prove our own efficiency and productivity, and thus, display our worth. I am reassured, however, by the new understanding and compassion that we are showing to each other for the difficulties that we are all facing within this period of crisis, whether that is working from home, childcare adjustments, financial difficulties, or mental health struggles. Here, we ask ourselves:
“How can I rebuild my sense of worth through the things that I am doing for myself?”
It is also within this pause on our lives that we draw our attention to the planet, and our effect on it. In this time, we can clearly see that we are one with it. When we pause, we let it heal itself, we let it rejuvenate. When we interfere with it, the water again becomes cloudy.
The hyper-obsession with optimising and attaining our own efficiency is blocking out our ability to hold space, and to simply just be. By constantly intellectualising our reality, we are in fact forgetting we are earth and dust, and have a body which we need to deeply connect to. We want everything to be sophisticated and complex because we have been taught this shows superior strength and advancement, but the truth is far simpler. There is no need to pay thousands for retreats or classes - we can take charge of our respective perceived identities, and accept ourselves for what we are. We can protect ourselves, and we can heal ourselves just as the bark heals over a severed branch or the skin heals a wound.
I am whole and complete
Only you can lift your feet to where they need to go
Only you can expand your heart to the size it needs to grow
Only you can melt away the pain and heal your fear
Only you can listen to the messages you need to hear
When you feel broken, no one can fix you
You are the pieces and you are the glue
You have everything you need to make you whole
You are not alone in this world, you are one with the earth and your soul
Along your journey there will be many kinds of support and love,
Where there is a hand, there is always a glove,
Where there is a nettle, a dock leaf will grow
But only you can walk the journey you choose to go
In this knowledge I can be exactly where I am
In this knowledge there is no secret map or hidden plan
In this knowledge I become rooted to the ground
In this knowledge I am safe and inner peace is found
By Kate Nafisi
What if we learnt to watch ourselves, slow down, find clarity, find peace and joy? How can we begin to observe our intuition, and use this to inform our own wisdom?
“When people connect to their inner wisdom they become limitless.”
Well firstly, we would improvise more and discard the norm. Improvisation is creating with spontaneity, allowing the emerging thoughts or properties of a material or process to tell you where to go next. This practise of connection and trust in intuition is at the heart of our work in the studio. When we make, sketch, sing, and dance, we create space to be still, to clear the waters of our mind and to create whatever comes to us. We trust that it is whole, perfect and aligned with the universe because we are one.
Iranian photographer Shakhavan Osmani’s photo “Dervish” improvised dancing
Sufi’s enter a trance-like state through improvised dance captured by photographer Kaveh Golestan
Do I suggest there is no time for planning? Goodness no, I am a designer. Design is creation with intention. I design experiences, which form habits, which then turn into people's behaviours. I am directly responsible for human behaviours. We need intention, we need to have a vision of what kind of world we want to live in, so that we can make it happen. On the other hand, in order to find out what our intention is, we need improvisation, spontaneity and stillness. The two opposites of intention and improvisation in unison create a successful circular economy. In polarity, lies balance; to create a magnetic field, for instance, there must always be both a North, and a South.
The circular economy is all about using the materials, opportunities and processes around us to inform what we build, rejuvenating natural systems and avoiding waste and pollution. With the vision set, the planning can occur, building upon it as a foundation.
The rugs of the Iranian Nomadic Tribes- Abdollah Nafisi
Abdollah first observed the ‘Art of Improvisation’ as he studied nomadic tribes in the deserts of Iran. He travelled with them, and saw how they foraged for the dyes and yarns of the local area to make rugs. Visually, the rugs told the story of the camp; where they had started and then when they had moved on through the changing colours of the rock and earth. The rug weavers took inspiration from everything around them, and had incorporated these as motifs into the rug pattern. The process was so circular, with no waste, and everything found was used. The overall impact was stunning. The colours were varied and eclectic, yet balanced- like nature herself. The time to discover and listen to what you or the earth really needs and wants is imperative if you wish to plan where to go. We often skip the ‘understanding’ part where we listen to ourselves or to others.
The rugs of the Iranian Nomadic Tribes- Abdollah Nafisi
Ultimately, I believe that stillness is the method that we can use to invoke true self-connection - I believe we are far more quickly aligned with the best direction for our personal journey when we are still, than running around looking for answers from others. Further than this, it is more important than ever to reject the optimisation of our own efficiency. We must create our own space for spontaneity and improvisation as an antidote to a relentless insistence on productivity.
What if we could combine trust in our intuition to create, the art of improvisation, and a space of stillness in order to reconnect to ourselves and the planet? Inner wisdom, intuition, and ultimate stillness will by no means look the same for everyone, so see this as a call to action: allow yourself the permission to be still, and let the clouded waters of your mind settle into clarity.