A Mindful Week 40: The "Best of 2023" Issue
A dive into the best of the year, a reflection guide and an ode on the power of reflection.
Hello Makers,
Poet Audre Lorde sits down on her desk to write her poem “New Years Eve” in 1970.
Facing injustice at almost any level of her identity, the self-proclaimed "black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet” Audre pens those words:
“ I am deliberate
and afraid
of nothing.”
Those words carry more meaning than ever before.
Why?
Let us look at 3 big lessons from 2023*:
→ We collectively create results that nobody wants.
→ We can’t do more of the same (even though we keep trying).
→ The challenges we face require us to look into the mirror of the whole system.
We are stuck.
But we don’t know how to get unstuck.
We need to move from “our existing bubbles and silos (ego) to the ecosystem around us (eco).”*
But how?
What we need is what Audre talks about.
The 2 components of change:
Deliberation
Daring Action
In other words:
Dont wait.
Reflect on the world you want to see.
Dare.
In our leadership bakery, ForChiefs, we share a reflection booklet with the leaders we support (assembled by my talented colleague Vera).
With our reflection booklet 2024, we want to help you
→ notice patterns that kept you stuck
→ celebrate your proudest moments
→ craft your purpose for the following year.
As you sit down with a good tea to reflect the year I invite you to think about how to put things back into equilibrium.
This is what Nobel Prize-winning chemist Ilya Prigogine speaks of:
“When a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to lift the entire system to a higher order.”
To reflect, download our reflection guide 2024 and follow the steps
I wish you a week of reflection,
ニコラス (Nikurasu)
* MIT Professor Otto Scharmer
My favorites of the YEAR:*
My Album of the year: Stormzy - This is what I mean
This album feels so warm and human. It’s a testament to human growth and leadership: A rapper disclosing his most intimate fears. Here we find him shaping a sound of modern spirituality. And here, we find him stepping into leadership and sharing visions of where our culture needs to evolve (love, support, community).
My movie of the year: After Yang
It is not about what happens in the movie – nothing. But about how it makes you feel: Calm. Hypnotic. Inspired. I never knew how much I needed to watch Colin Farell drink tea in the future.
Series of the Year: Reservation Dogs
I never knew how much I needed this series following four indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma. I am laughing. Crying. And rooting for every beautifully flawed human being in this beautiful show about forgiveness, friendship, and tradition.
Book of the year: Tremor, by Teju Cole
Nigerian writer Teju Cole is the writer of our times. He suffuses music, storytelling, and art into writing that has me shaking my head in disbelief. With each book, Teju seems to give less fucks. Teju blurs the lines of what a novel should be while looking at trauma, identity, and consolation. Tremor knocks me down while inspiring me to pay closer attention to life around me.
* Quality beats recency: only the book was published this year. I made my peace with having a best-of-year list that doesn’t include things that were actually released this year😉.
Playlist: Soul Hip Hop
Smooth. Smoother. Peanut butter
一 Mind Travel I:
Application for next year’s meditation retreat is open. As usual, it will be an intimate group of fewer than 12 participants, which is unusual and rare in meditation retreats.
I will host a silent meditation retreat for leaders from 28.05. - 02.06.2024 (near Berlin). The theme this year will be “wise, compassionate leadership.” The retreat will start with a full day of leadership workshops and then enter a 3-day silent meditation retreat experience.
I wish to create a space of care, nature, food, science, and deep training. If you want to join, write me a message about why you should be the one joining.
に Timetravel:
If you are the nostalgic type, or if you are new - here you find the last „Mindful Week“ inspiration letters. Let me know what you want to read next.
Quote, I’m reflecting on:
"You never knew you lived in a third-world country until you put your ass on a heated toilet in Japan."
My little brother Alexis
Want more…
Here are some portals into the Nikolas Konstantin Multiverse:
Training the Theory and Art of Meditation: A Beautiful Mind Course
You asked me if I could pack the meditations and lessons of my workshop into a portable format.
Here is my clumsy attempt at distilling the feeling, models, and mental training into something that could work for the online world.
If you want to train your mind but also want to understand the theory from science and meditation traditions, this one is for you: So far, I have included The Guide to the 3 Styles of Meditation E-Book, 4 hours of theory, 10 + Meditations & Retreat Mode (create your own silent retreat with my retreat recordings). Join and let me know what to record next.
The Best of Management and Leadership: Founder Playbooks
As a founder coach, I scan the best of leadership literature, Harvard Business Review, and mindfulness so you can focus on what matters most—building a thriving organization.
Some of that theory makes it into my library, featuring the best of management and leadership theory. So far, I have made those "Founder Playbooks" only accessible to my coachees. But I decided to open it for you. Join the club and tell me what I should write about next.
About
A Mindful Week is an almost punctual newsletter about living a reflected life curated by executive coach & meditation teacher Nikolas. If you like what you read, share it with a friend.
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Nikolas, thanks so much for the inspiring guide. Enjoyed it a lot 🤍