End-of-Year Update on My 33 Questions
An annual report to the Resonance Council.
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Resonant World #121
The intention driving Resonant World is to catalyse exponential advances in the healing of individual, inter-generational and collective trauma, at all scales.
The shadow cast by this overhang of unprocessed trauma is the reason our world is in crisis.
There are now a wealth of proven tools and social technologies for working with this trauma, including via large groups, which offers hope for a speed and depth of integration that would have been unimaginable even a few years ago.
We need media that understands this, can reflect the healing movement back to itself, including interrogating its limitations and growth edges, and steward a global conversation on how to land the evolutionary updates needed to make trauma healing spaces routinely accessible, for all.
This edition of Resonant World is intended as a 2024 progress report to the Resonance Council (paid subscribers) on this mission, riffing on the 33 questions I posed about Resonant World in January.
It would obviously be amazing if Resonant World evolved into a self-sustaining enterprise, supporting my imagined role as “global healing correspondent” to further evolve.
Until such time, I share the below updates to give the Resonant Council a clearer sense of the kinds of activities they’re supporting by investing in this newsletter.
This is not an exhaustive list, since it’s tied to the “walking questions” I spontaneously shared at the start of the year, but gives a solid overview.
As ever, I love to hear any reflections, suggestions, requests or resonance in the comments.
How to create an “emotional resilience for climate leaders” course, based on the kinds of principles I’ve been studying in the Timeless Wisdom Training, to use this work to support allies in the climate movement?
After some exploratory discussions with a nonprofit, this plan didn’t instantly take off. However, I’ve since been delighted to take up an advisory role at Passage, co-founded by my friend Jared Angaza, a collective supporting practitioners and change-makers, including climate leaders, to integrate Indigenous wisdom, spiritual teachings and science-based insights into their work. More scope for developing this and other offerings in 2025 — I’m open to new collaborations.
We are at a tipping point in the global trauma healing movement — which I believe will soon become far more visible and influential in mainstream culture. How could I write a book that could help galvanize this process, say in an analogous way to Silent Spring’s role in raising environmental consciousness?
I have decided to let this idea go — at least for now. My creative energy has found its smoothest expression in this newsletter and its sister publications
; with ; and in collaboration with on . I would love to write another book, but that process has not been flowing for a while now, so I’ll let Life lead on this one, and contribute as called.How best to deploy my networking skills to serve and integrate my core constituencies — the climate movement and the trauma healing movement?
This intention found its most powerful expression in the Climate Consciousness Summit 2024, staged by the Pocket Project, where I served as a co-host alongside Kosha Joubert and Sonita Mbah. The event — held in partnership with DeSmog, the nonprofit climate news service where I work — served as a focal point to connect the trauma healing and climate worlds, and was a personal highlight of the year. Keen to do more like this.
What practices can best help me dissolve more of my default level of resistance to the circumstances of my life? (My hunch: Lots and lots of meditation).
Happily, I can report that a lot of the resistance I was experiencing at the start of the year has dissolved. I put this down to a range of factors, including meditation (and the lasting impact of the silent retreat I attended in September); other practices associated with collective healing work; and the Gene Keys (more on this in a forthcoming podcast).
The business world has the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. Where does the global trauma healing movement go for its news? What kind of new media platform is needed to support the global healing movement?
I gave a talk on this question at Kairos in London in April. Plenty of scope to further develop these initial ideas, and explore how to implement them.
What principles should inform much-needed initiatives to bring trauma-informed perspectives to the news?
I want to recommend this incredible article in the Financial Times by Zahira Jaser on the experience of being Palestinian, which a friend sent me months ago but which — to my shame — I’ve only just read. When I did, I was blown away — it’s a model of a style of writing that takes the reader inside an individual experience of collective and inter-generational trauma, with nuance, depth and impact. We need much more writing like this, from all corners of the world.
Where to focus Resonant World? Interviews? Podcasts? Reported stories? My process? Something else?
I’m planning to create a season of eight audio podcasts, which I intend to begin publishing in February, exploring the question of “What is Collective Healing?” (A big thank-you to Resonant World reader Morgan Childs, a writer, editor and podcast producer, for her wise and invaluable advice on this project).
How to exponentially grow Resonant World’s subscriber base?
When I published my 33 questions, Resonant World had 939 subscribers. Now it has 1,622. I’m hoping a regular podcast will generate greater reach. I’m also hoping to deepen my collaboration with other platforms, such as
, and explore new partnerships to help spread the word. I’m also excited to have been invited to appear on the Gifts of Trauma, a podcast based on the Compassionate Inquiry method developed by Gabor Maté, which I hope will introduce more people to Resonant World.How to find ways to write about healing work that cuts through to a more mainstream audience?
An open question. Suggestions welcome.
How to spread the word about our monthly men’s group more effectively?
The Resonant Man initiative has cohered a nucleus of dedicated participants.
and I are continuing to create podcasts, write newsletter each week, and seek opportunities to bring our work onto other platforms. Any ideas and referrals of potential candidates to join welcome! (What Is Listening?)
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