Hub Lovin’ with London Love Is

Join us on the 14th February (Valentines Day!) at the Hub Kings Cross to participate in a new social art movement. Mindful Maps and the Hub Kings Cross are co-ordinating and hosting this event, which will be facilitated by Vipul Bhatti from London Love Is… 

London Love is … is a social art movement that forms ‘Stand with Us’ human chains across the city. The focus of this participatory campaign is to engage people to celebrate by connecting and sharing, empowering to build, and to create together for one other. Previous human chains have been held on public spaces, this is the campaign’s first enclosed event.

The Hub Kings Cross is a space open to sharing, one that connects and creates ideas and builds on a vision. This human chain event will increase interconnectivity in the space, exploring another way to find our places, re-shaping it to find other creative possibilities and even new collaborative beginnings.

London Love is… and the Hub Kings Cross hopes you can join us on the 14th to Stand with Us. The human chain itself will take form up-to 25 minutes. A short talk and creative exercise will take place before.

London Love is… is a partner of the global campaign Peace One Day, which aims to have one day every year of non-violence and ceasefire.

Venue: The Hub Kings Cross, 34b York Way.
Date: 14th February 2012
Time: 12.30-1.30pm

For more information, email: sarah.cook@the-hub.net

Starting up with soul; beginning the Mindful Maps journey as a soultrepreneur

Image: ‘Knowing’, painting by Deborah Ravetz.

Entrepreneur, start-up, small business – there are many terms for starting up your own thing. Although at a relatively early point in the Mindful Maps journey (it is officially 4 months since I decided to start my own practice), it quickly becoming apparent that none of these terms quite communicate the meaning of creating an artful practice which aligns with my heart’s purpose. However, the right word may have emerged!

About 8 months ago I met Noreen Blanulet of Be Amazing Today (one very focused and soulful lady), who works very much from a heart-centered place. Noreen had previously mentioned the idea of people being ‘soulpreneurs’ (via Clare Raikes) on her blog, which I think is the idea of being entrepreneurial, but in a way that resonates with your soul.

Mistakenly, I remembered the word as ‘soultrepreneur’ rather than ‘soulpreneur’ and actually prefer the former. It brings to mind the word ‘intrepid’, and us adventurous types know that following your heart and your art can be…kinda intrepid at times.

After this idea re-surfaced it echoed around my mind for a few days; so I emailed Noreen asking what she thought of the term soultrepreneur. She replied;

“A loose definition would be about being a heart-centred business person (i.e. communicating and doing all dealings with integrity, honesty and authenticity), and following your soul purpose – finding the joy”.

She went on to write these criteria for soultrepreneurship on her blog:

• you run or plan to run your own business
• you operate from your heart (as well as your mind – they’re on a par)
• you exercise honesty and integrity in all your dealings
• you communicate in a compassionate way
• you treat yourself, your business and other people with kindness
• you avoid people whose values are not aligned with yours
• you are authentic and true to yourself
• you follow your soul’s purpose
• you choose joy at all times
this applies to your personal life as well as your business life.

Yes. I would like all of the above to apply to Mindful Maps, thank you very much.

According to Noreen, there is a shift which is happening in human consciousness, and soultrepreneurship is that, translated for the business world.

So for now, soultrepreneur is the word I’m applying to Mindful Maps, because although yes–it is a practice and yes–I am setting up a business, it’s just me. One person. Mindful Maps has no plans to grow, and no plans for world domination. This is the process of a  woman following her heart to find out how she can truly serve others and herself – in a way that is creative, joyful, authentic and sustainable. It is a journey to align an artistic practice with earning a living. Sometimes it’s tough, but most of the time it is truthful, playful bliss.

And the great thing is that going solo doesn’t have to mean going it alone. Soultrepreneurs
are connected, collaborative and co-operative (not competitive). They embrace working with friends (rather than seeing it as a danger zone), forming mutual support systems. They form long-term, generative relationships with lovely clients and collaborators, and believe in trust. Some of us might be independent consultants, but soultrepreneurs acknowledge that we are all interdependent human beings who need a sense of belonging, as well as a sense of being free.

How do you live it? Tweet your reply with the tag #Soultrepreneurship or email us: emily@mindfulmaps.com or noreen@beamazingtoday.co.uk

Communicating Biodiversity Creatively

In November 2010 I went on a workshop organised by Wildwise about communicating biodiversity creatively. The workshop was facilitated by an artist who has a lot of experience working in nature with children and community groups.

We spent the first half of the day outdoors at the beautiful Sharpham Trust learning about different ways groups can experience biodiversity. This included an exercise which involved collecting natural objects and making a map or message communicating something you’d like to say to a particular animal, which I think in this case were mice.

We then went back indoors for the remainder of the day to create an image about what we’d experienced in a medium of our choice. The slightly blurry image below shows a fabric painting of a bird, a seed head and a hand.

Personal learnings from the day included reminders that not all maps have to be made on paper, and that many subjects have to be experienced in context before they can be communicated. Our verbal language does not stretch far enough to fully communicate something as complex as our relationship with nature, but art and lived experience can go some of the distance towards helping us define and feel what these things mean to us.