If it doesn’t include pleasure, it’s not sustainable.

Relationships.
Businesses.
Parenting.
Wellness practices.
Activism.
Social change.

We simply can’t build the world we want to live in without regularly experiencing pleasure.

There is documented research that shows when we experience awe - you know that goosebump inducing, teary eyed feeling we get when we interact with nature, music, and babies?

We become more prosocial, more apt to engage in behaviors that are helpful, generative, and friendly.

When we look up to the sky and are flooded with the awareness of how small and insignificant (yet here and worthy) we are, we are able to simply be part of it all, rather than getting caught up in the distraction and pressure of exaggerated self-importance.

Our smallness frees us up to take bigger action.

Our sense of insignificance inspires us to think less about metrics and more about speaking our truer truths.

Look at these brilliant birds, they stay in formation and on course, regularly changing who leads, not for self importance or even fairness but for sustainability.

They know in their bodies rest is essential if they’re in it for the long run (and they are).

They have somewhere to go and they know they need each other, they’re in it for something bigger than individual gain and they stay focused on doing their part for the greater vision.

That.

Look to nature, the plants, the bodies of water, the feeling of wind on your skin, the earth below you.

Seek out the stories of how the earth around you has been tended, and treated, how it survives and thrives. Notice, pay attention, learn, unlearn.

Talk to your friends, your family, your colleagues, your partners about your observations. Create culture and community around your experiences with nature.

There is pleasure and wisdom longing for you in every seed, every leaf, every tree.

Look to nature, move in ways that feel good, be moved by the arts, rest sweetly, stand under the sky until you feel waves of humility melt the weight off your shoulders.

Then do the next right thing.

Ps.

Interested in the Autumn Incubator? Find out more by clicking here.