Solar return, synchronicities, and announcements
Solar return, synchronicities, and announcements
Hi
Today is a 90 degree summer-like day in early autumn here in Los Angeles and my solar return aka birthday is tomorrow, October 2nd. I will be demarcating 38 trips around the sun.
A year ago I filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy due to my inability to manage my unmanageable debt amidst a global pandemic where my primary source of income was hosting in-person tea ceremonies for corporate team building.
Pivoting a tea experience entirely online can be done, but it wasn’t something I wanted to develop, naively hoping the pandemic would subside, we would take care of one another, and I could start pouring tea in person soon.
19 months later and things aren’t that much clearer or certain than they have been previously. How do we maintain perspective while we’re all burnt out on pandemic life? Where does our individual and collective resilience apply? I’ve asked myself these questions repeatedly as I waited thousands of hours dealing with our states unemployment system for the very first time to firmly claim my eligibility for pandemic-related self-employment assistance (which ended abruptly for millions of us freelancers unannounced on September 4).
A year ago I also transitioned away from design and got certified as a digital wellbeing educator. Read more about that here
This is me at my most transparent, both aware of my privilege to be able to push up against a system and benefit from it while being cut off in a simultaneous see-saw.
On this eve of my birthday I do wish to share some recent updates:
Currently pursuing training to become a board-certified coach and mix in my digital wellbeing passion with emotional well-being coaching to form something new. I’ve started coaching fellow parents and remote workers on re-establishing a tech / life balance. More on that here
Started another training in parallel with The Trauma of Money to both heal my financial shame carried on by my family of origin as well as equip myself with as many relevant tools to support others on similar paths. Well-being is resolutely communal, not only individual.
Announcements
Partnering with Creative Mornings this month to host a free virtual field trip on October 18th at 10:00 am PST / 1:00pm EST
Event will be hosted on Zoom, involve ZERO slideshows, interactive, writing prompts, breathing techniques, slowing down, and best of all tea (or whatever you fancy BYOB). Join us.
My most recent podcast episode was published two weeks ago and am gearing up for many pertinent and timely conversations around tech, data privacy, education, social media silos, understanding AI, and much more thanks to new relationships with fellow members of All Tech is Human
You can stream all 40 episodes of the podcast here in substack or search ‘Wabi Sabi with Adam Yasmin’ wherever you stream your favorite shows:
You can watch my most recent podcast appearance speaking about digital mindfulness on the tech ethics show
You can find past interviews on my media page here
Currently reading
Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World by Daniell Sherrell
Rescuing the Light by Martín Prechtel
Current Sounds
Thank you for exploring this letter and hope you found it insightful and/or entertaining. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast or any relevant social media content, please consider a one-time donation for my birthday here: