Hi Subscriber First Name,

I’d like to start today where we ended last week.

I'd left you with a reflection: Where can you be daring this week? Or maybe willing to be naive? Or maybe even finding other people to nurture your courage together?

I've been wondering how that landed? It's been sitting with me too.

Looking back across my life, I can see how many moments have asked me to choose courage. And the shape of that courage has almost always been the same - going with the truth, even when it was painful or destabilising.

It's what led me to walk away from a big corporate career and to accept the financial compromises that came with that. It's what led me to speak up when people around me were going along with the status quo and it's what's led me to turn down work with clients whose values don't align with mine.

There were times I questioned whether I was doing the right thing but I've come to understand that I don't really have a choice. My deep principles around justice and inequality mean I have to act from a place of care and compassion. It's just who I am.

And I think, at these times of volatility, division and harm, it's on all of us to understand where we stand. What our principles actually mean in practice.

It's something I explored in a recent conversation with the wonderful Philippa White on her TIE Unearthed podcast. Listening back, I found myself reflecting on the moments in my life when I had to step into courage just to keep moving, to find the next step.

There's a Buddhist proverb I shared in the podcast “the lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest and thickest mud”. I love the feeling that even when we feel stuck, e can trust that it’s all part of the process.

I'd love for you to have a listen on Spotify and let me know what you think.

I've been really humbled and enjoying the growing number of invitations to be part of podcasts. It feels good that my journey is interesting to other people and I've noticed that the more I speak from my own truth, the more it seems to land. If there's an ROI on honesty and transparency, maybe it's this - when we speak from where we actually are, people can see themselves in it. The path becomes less lonely for everyone.

Something else I've been sitting with is how, for many years, I was failing to see (and therefore failing to name) what was holding me back. I knew I'd had some heavy experiences in my life. What I hadn't seen was the compounding effect of a lifetime of knocks, absent support, and trying to build something while torpedoes kept coming my way.

My healing journey has helped me see how trauma shaped the conditions for my beliefs and my worldview. And it's something we need to be careful of right now, because our so-called leaders seem intent on manufacturing exactly those traumatic conditions that are bombarding our nervous systems. Volatility, division and fear.

So I think it's on us to find the antidotes. The spaces, places and people that nourish rather than deplete us. That's become a central part of my work - creating opportunities and communities where people speak with truth, compassion and genuine love for each other and the world we're part of.

Which brings me to next week. We have a double offering from The Natural Network.

On Thursday we're at Patch, coming together to share where we are, hear each other, and nourish our roots.

On Friday we're back at Four Acre Farm for a half-day workshop. At this midpoint in the year, we'll be navigating what we're calling ‘The Full Self’. We’ll be looking at all parts of our work and life, sensing where we're in alignment and where we might need to direct some energy before the year turns. It's a blend of business insight with soulful enquiry. We'd love to see you there.

Upcoming Events

I’m lucky enough to be involved in some wonderful events soon. You can find the full calendar here.

And that’s not all. We also have the second of our dinner events:

The Longer Table At Four Acre Farm

10th July: 7pm - 9.30pm. Tickets here

We’re back for our second dinner at the farm. This time our theme is related to our perception of ‘enough’ and why we sometimes buy things we don’t truly need. What might happen if we sat with the question with others?

Wrapping up

There’s something I’d like to leave us with.

Despite everything that's hard and heavy in the world right now, there's so much that's alive. People finding each other, conversations that go somewhere real and small acts of beauty that don't make the news but matter enormously.

I think that's what we're sensing. That we can keep moving and that the next step is available, even when we can't see very far ahead.

So I'll leave the question with you this week. Not about courage but about beauty. Where are you finding it? In the people around you, in the work you're doing, in the smallest corners of your ordinary days?

Because I think that's where it lives. And I think you probably already know where to look.

And if you don't, let's have a conversation. I love walking alongside people in my work, finding the inner wisdom that can sometimes get lost in the mud. The lotus is waiting to break through. Maybe I can help.

As always, with compassion and curiosity,

Nick