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Celebrating creativity, imperfection

and life’s little pleasures.
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CELEBRATING CREATIVITY, IMPERFECTION AND LIFE’S LITTLE PLEASURES

A MAGAZINE
THAT TAKES
ITS TIME

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back
and realize that they were the big things.
ROBERT BRAULT
OCT/NOV18

Why Do We Want Bigger, Better,

More? Lessons from African
US$24.99 / CAN$24.99

Thinkers Tackling the Important

Stuff First What Would Jane Eyre
PRINTED IN POLAND

Do? PLUS: Postcards and a Booklet

IMAGE ©JAVIER PARDINA/STOCKSY UNITED ILLUSTRATION ISTOCK

THIS FLOW BELONGS TO:

 THRIVING ON LESS

‘Is it okay if it’s a bit more?’ We used to hear that question a lot: at the grocer’s when we ordered a
kilo of apples; at the store when we asked for 100 grams of our favorite candy; at the market when
we wanted 500 grams of cheese. But in today’s world, that question rarely needs to be asked,
mostly because we now shop in large supermarkets, serving ourselves and weighing our own goods.
Nevertheless, we’ve been thinking about that question quite a lot, because sometimes our lives
seem to simply revolve around the idea of getting ‘a bit more’. We walked into that trap straight out
of university: We started earning a bit more, added more to our wardrobes, went traveling a bit more
and wanted a house that was a bit bigger every few years, collecting more
and better furniture on the way.
Until one day, the realization struck us that it wasn’t making us happy. In
fact, it was starting to be disappointing. What was the value in more? To keep
up such a lifestyle, we had to work more, become ever more organized to it
everything into our homes, and say ‘no’ to so many fun things because we
didn’t have time for them all.
So we’ve started making more conscious decisions. We’ll never be true
minimalists—we’re just too fond of some things for that, truth be told. But
it’s such a liberating feeling to no longer feel the urge to spend Saturdays
shopping in town. It feels so much better to spend an afternoon walking in
the woods. Flea markets and garage sales? Once a wonderful way to spend
a Sunday morning—but now we genuinely prefer to stay at home and read
the newspaper from cover to cover.
The only thing that still bothers us is how focusing on less does sometimes Irene Astrid
have a pretty dull feeling about it. The excitement of inding some hidden
treasure buried in the piles at the lea market or coming home with bags of
brand-new clothes is now missing. Luckily, we’ve found other ways to experience that excitement.
Irene is practicing lowering her expectations (yep, especially in love) and Astrid is practicing saying
‘sorry’ less often and just doing what her heart tells her to. This is causing all kinds of shifts in
dynamics and funny situations, and we’d like more of that please!
ILLUSTRATION ISTOCK

irene@lowmagazine.com astrid@lowmagazine.com

You can follow us on flowmagazine.com, (Flow_magazine),

(Flow Magazine INT) and (Flow Magazine).

_5
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46

84
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 Flow 26

CONTENTS
Pages 11 to 18

L ES S PL E AS E
It was good to slow our lives down a little during the inancial crisis, but
how easily we forget. All too soon, we’re wanting everything to be bigger,
brighter and newer again. Journalist Jocelyn de Kwant looks into why.

- Pages 19 to 52 - - Pages 53 to 78 -

FEEL CONNECTED LIVE MINDFULLY

2 2 IDE AS & INSPIR AT ION 5 6 IDE AS & INSPIR AT ION

2 5 W H AT A R E YO U U P TO?
In every issue, we check in with people who are doing
what they love to ind out about their projects. This time,
we’re talking to an animator/illustrator, a baker and an
illustrator/graphic designer.
5 8 W H EN T H I N G S G E T TO O M U C H
Rest: it’s a highly underestimated medicine for when
you’re feeling stressed, overworked or suffering from a
burnout. Because when your body is relaxed, so is your
mind. And then all that stress often simply disappears.

32 TO O L I T T L E T I M E
How often do we lament that we have too little time, when
in fact it’s because we want to do too much in one day?
Is it possible to reduce that sense of constraint?
3 6 IN T ERV IE W
After years working as an editor, Meera Lee Patel realized
she needed to follow a different route in her career path,
by following her heart. Today, she is a self-taught
illustrator and author, and is embracing her new, more
fulilling, life.
4 6 T H E C O R R ES P O N D EN T
As of this issue, foreign correspondents tell a story that
would not be of interest to the news media but that, for
them, highlights something special about their home
country. In this Flow, we hear from Nina Jurna, who lived
with her family in the Vidigal slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
6 4 C L AS SICA L L ES SO N S
Apart from losing yourself in a totally different world or
time, reading classics is also worthwhile for the lessons
that can be learned from the wise words woven within
them. Journalist Mariska Jansen teaches us about some.
72 ZEI TG EI ST: S R I N I PI L L AY
Go for a walk, water the plants or listen to some music.
Just don’t focus on anything in particular as you do so.
Because, according to psychiatrist Srini Pillay, letting
your thoughts run free from time to time helps you to
concentrate better afterward.
76 TAKING NOTE OF THE GOOD STUFF
Relecting on the things that make you happy and grateful
is very beneicial. And you don’t have to just take our word
for it, as research backs us up on this. We’ve created a few
prompts to help you keep track of the good things in life.

Cover illustration by Holly Jolley _7

96
 Flow 26

- Pages 79 to 112 - - Pages 113 to 139 -

SPOIL YOURSELF SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE

8 2 IDE AS & INSPIR AT ION 116 IDE AS & INSPIR AT ION

8 4 W EB SH O PPI N G 118 BACK-TO - BASIC S YO G A

Products and goodies that you can buy with a click, from
anywhere in the world.
8 8 FAC ES O F T IM E
In his series, Faces of Century, Czech photographer Jan
Langer has photographed centenarians in the same pose
of a portrait taken 70 or 80 years earlier. By placing the two
side by side, and adding a short biography, Langer depicts
both the physical and psychological effects of aging.
9 6 U PSTA IRS D OW N STA IRS
Creative couple Winneke de Groot and Felix van Dam live
and work side by side in their home-cum-studio in Utrecht,
the Netherlands. We take a look inside their arty abode.
102 H OW TO
Dry fresh herbs.
10 4 INSPIRING LIV ES
She had an unhappy childhood, two failed marriages, and
was considered the black sheep of her family. Yet, American
art collector Peggy Guggenheim triumphed over her
misfortunes to become a legend in her own right.
Relaxed poses and really letting your daily thoughts go:
that’s slow yoga. No complicated, super-active postures;
just taking things slow and—if necessary—snoozy.
12 4 T H E B IG D EL AY
Why do we often ind small chores more urgent than the
big jobs that need doing? Journalist Fleur Baxmeier looks
into the ‘Importance Trap’; when something is so important
that you want to wait until all the signs are favorable and
everything feels right before actually doing it.
12 8 A FR ICA N PHILOSO PH Y
According to Nigerian philosopher Sophie Oluwole, in the
West there is an oppositional form of thinking: it is either,
or. In African philosophy, all is one, with two sides. We
take a look at this form of thinking.
13 9 G O O D N E WS FRO M…
In each issue, an artist shares their good news in the form
of illustrations. This time, it’s the turn of Lize Prins.

HOW TO GET YOUR HANDS ON A COPY OF FLOW:

Subscribe and get Flow delivered to you
anywhere in the world. See page 45.

Order a copy online from our web shop: FLOW EXTRAS

flowmagazine.com/shop. ✻ P O S TCA R D S O F
Find a copy in your local store. R E A D I N G WO M E N
Check flowmagazine.com/store-locator for (page 70)
stockists in the UK, US and Canada.

Missed an issue? You can also buy back issues

of Flow from our web shop: flowmagazine.com/shop.
✻ M I N I B O O K LE T
(page 122)

_9

BEHIND THE SCENES...
Peggy Guggenheim, page 104
GETTY IMAGES
“I have visited the Peggy Guggenheim
Collection museum in Venice, Italy, a couple
of times,” says Jolanda Dreijklufft, General
Managing Editor of the Dutch Flow. “It is
beautifully situated on the Grand Canal, there
are always wonderful exhibitions and also an
impressive permanent collection with great
works by Jackson Pollock. Every time I
walked around there, I realized that there was
once a woman who decided to create such
a place. And one that, despite having a dificult life, managed to do it.” Journalist
Liddie Austin went in search of more information about Peggy’s youth, her driving
forces and the (often tragic) details of her life, while photo editor Marjolijn Polman
compiled a visual ode of extraordinary images to go with the story.
Meera Lee Patel, page 36
NIKKI MCCLARRON
Olivia Gagan (right) is a British journalist who
lives and works in London, UK. She writes
about culture, relationships and sustainable
living, and interviewed illustrator and author
Meera Lee Patel for this issue. “One of my
favorite things about my job is interviewing
people,” she says. “It’s a privilege to be able
to have long conversations with people about
their lives, and why they do what they do. In
this case, we had a video call. Meera was
talking to me from her studio on a bright morning in Nashville, in the US, while I
was sat in my parents’ kitchen as it was pouring down with rain in the English
countryside. The wonders of technology!”
The Importance Trap, page 124
Libby VanderPloeg used a wallpaper from her parental home in the illustration on
page 125; you can ind the pattern in the tiles on the loor. “We had that wallpaper in
the kitchen of our home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US,” she says. “The funny thing is
that I just moved back to Grand Rapids, after
having lived in Chicago for eight years and ten
years in New York.” Libby was a graphic
designer and art director before she decided
that she only wants to illustrate, in order to tell
stories. She sketched her illustrations for this
Flow with pencil and then inished them in
Adobe Illustrator. “It took a lot of shifting and
trying before I was happy,” she says, “especially
the details and the color palette. Including that
wallpaper pattern from the ’80s!”
10 _
COLOPHON
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Managing Editor, International Edition
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Managing Editor Projects Caroline Buijs
Translation Erica Bass , Allison Klein , Elise Reynolds ,
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van der Haar-Peters, Mariska Jansen, Nina Jurna, Sjoukje
van de Kolk, Jocelyn de Kwant, Louise Lockhart, Anisa
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 During the financial crisis, it actually felt good to
slow our lives down a little. But how easily we forget
that spending more doesn’t make us happier and, all
too soon, we’re back to wanting everything to be newer
and bigger. Journalist Jocelyn de Kwant looks
into why we put so much value on growth.

_ 11
 ‘ Before modern times, profit was
suspicious; it was even considered sinful’
During the economic crisis, my husband and I were
inancially unable to move to a bigger house. And as it simply
wasn’t possible, we made necessity a virtue and decided
that our little house was actually good enough. I looked into
the Tiny House Movement and found lots of great tips in
video clips and blogs, and my husband enjoyed getting rid
of as much of our stuff as he could. We also started sharing
items instead of buying them: We shared an electric drill with
one neighbor, a cat carrier with another. It was pretty snug,
living with our two children, but when we stopped acquiring
so many possessions, it continued to be livable. It even gave
us a certain sense of peace, and was also better for the
environment to be less consumerist. And it it perfectly in the
‘simplify movement’ that I noticed happening around me.
RENEWED PURCHASING POWER
And now, a few years on, the crisis is over. We were able
to sell our house proitably and move to a big home (by
Amsterdam standards, where we live) with our own drill
and own cat carrier. But when my husband started waxing
poetic about the latest iPhone, which had just been
released to great fanfare, I suddenly got a weird feeling in
my stomach—a feeling of disgust. Are we back to square
one? The government constantly talks about ‘purchasing
power’, and on TV the generation after mine is bragging
about their new Rolexes and the money they’re earning.
It felt so good to tighten our belts during the crisis, so
why do we seem to be chasing what’s bigger, better and
newer again? While reading the book Sapiens: A Brief
History of Humankind by Israeli historian, philosopher and
author Yuval Noah Harari, the penny dropped. In one of the
inal chapters, Harari explains that growth is simply one of
the foundations on which Western civilization is built. In a
nutshell, before modern times, proit was suspicious; it was
even considered sinful. The thinking was that there is one
cake and it doesn’t get any bigger. So if I get a big piece of
the cake, it means that I’ve taken some from someone else.
People didn’t give each other things on credit, because
there was no expectation of growth. Without credit no new
businesses arose, so for a long period of humankind’s
history there was virtually no economic growth.
That is, until about ive hundred years ago, at the start of
the Scientiic Revolution. As new inventions appeared and
new ields of knowledge were being discovered, people
found out that the cake could actually become bigger. For
the irst time, people started issuing loans, because they
had the conidence that a company could make a proit
and the borrowed money would be repaid—with interest.
This conidence in the future generated real economic
growth and that growth opened the door to even greater
credit. Countries that understood this well grew at
lightning speed. Proit was not evil; on the contrary, proit
brought prosperity. But to keep that cake growing, new
inventions had to continue to appear constantly, and more
new ields had to be discovered. As Harari explains in
such clear terms, ‘Columbus would not have reached
America, James Cook would not have reached Australia,
and Neil Armstrong would never have taken that small
step on the surface of the moon’.
DE-GROWTH
And now, almost ive hundred years on, the philosophy of
progress and capitalism are deeply embedded in Western
culture. We know that unbridled capitalism also causes
exploitation and other abuses, but the conidence placed
in growth is practically sacrosanct. It’s mixed in with the
Western view on what is needed for peace, for a good life.
Except, as Harari puts it in his book, ‘The modern capitalist
economy must constantly increase production if it is to
survive, like a shark that must swim or suffocate. Yet it’s
not enough just to produce. Somebody must also buy
the products, or industrialists and investors alike will go
bust’. Growth is required to maintain the system, so
manufacturers deliberately design products to last for a
short time, and create endless new variations on products
that are already suficient.
And we’re all good little consumers. We buy gadgets
and things that we do not really need, to keep up with the
Joneses, or because they promise us happiness. We see
our friends doing it, and advertising and media seduce us
with a dazzling array of happy smiles. Did something
break? Buy a new one! New season? New clothes! >
_ 13
 ‘ We need an economic model that
promotes human flourishing in harmony
with the planet on which we depend’
Vacation time? Take the plane! Festive occasion? It just won’t
be complete without the best and most beautiful gifts. That’s
growth; we can’t do without. But are we really stuck in this
system? There are more and more signals that the cake—
here, read: planet Earth—is deinitely reaching its limits.
Natural habitats are being destroyed, felled or polluted; one
species after another is dying out and the oceans will soon
contain more plastic than ish. “We can’t have ininite growth
on a inite planet,” says Swazi anthropologist and author
Jason Hickel on BBC Newsnight’s opinion platform,
Viewsnight. “Scientists warn that the only way to prevent
ecological collapse is for rich countries to scale down their
MINIMALISM AS A LIFESTYLE
Minimalism: Isn’t that when you never buy
anything, or live without a car or TV? Not
necessarily, say American minimalists
Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus.
‘Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of
life’s excess in favor of focusing on
what’s important,’ they write, ‘so you can
find happiness, fulfillment and freedom.
Minimalism has helped us...
✻ Eliminate our discontent
✻ Reclaim our time
✻ Live in the moment
✻ Pursue our passions
✻ Discover our missions
✻ Experience real freedom
✻ Create more, consume less
✻ Focus on our health
✻ Grow as individuals
✻ Contribute beyond ourselves
✻ Rid ourselves of excess stuff
✻ Discover purpose in our lives’
(Source: Theminimalists.com)
14 _
consumption.” In the West, we are living as if we had
more than is available on planet Earth. There have been
calls for this to stop before, but Hickel talks about planned
de-growth. “De-growth is not the same as austerity. The goal
is to increase human well-being and happiness, while
reducing our economic footprint.”
It can be done, says Hickel. Like many other experts,
activists and scientists, he encourages inding new ways to
measure proit and growth, by demanding a price be paid
for the cost incurred by environmental and social damage.
Companies currently pay almost nothing for the damage
they cause, and governments don’t take it from their proits
because then what would be left? If we do make them pay
that price, it will soon simply become more proitable to
start producing sustainably. There are many other ways to
generate growth that need not come at the expense of the
planet. As Hickel says, “We need an economic model that
promotes human lourishing in harmony with the planet on
which we depend”.
OUTSIDE OF YOUR BUBBLE
As consumers we also have something to contribute. For
example, by supporting companies that make sustainable
products, and by buying less from companies that don’t.
And by generally just buying less. But honestly, I’m not
sure if that’s ever going to happen. My friends may not be
very materialistic, but I only have to take a very small step
outside of my bubble to see different behavior. A company
I occasionally work for as a freelancer is also only focused
on proit and market share as the bottom line. And because
I see a younger generation of YouTube stars and musicians
fully embracing consumerism, I don’t have my hopes
pinned on them either. But Dutch trend analyst and
zeitgeist expert Caroline van Beekhoff tells me this is where
I’m wrong. “What you’re feeling now is system pain, caused
by the transition from old to new,” she says. “You’re still
forced to do things in the old system, and that’s where
things are not working out.”
According to Van Beekhoff, the new generation is able
to embrace the new system without any problems. “From
what I see, younger generations are inding possessions >
 ‘ T here are two ways to be rich:
one is by acquiring much,
and the other is by desiring little’
JACKIE FRENCH KOLLER, AMERICAN AUTHOR AND ARTIST
 ‘ How can you find balance if you need more peace and
quiet, less stress and less stuff, but you’re conscious of
the fact that the outside world is still growth-oriented?’
much less important because they have not experienced
any shortages,” she says. “And because by now we all
know that having more and more stuff isn’t what makes
you happy. Possessions simply do not deliver what they
promise. It’s not just something that your hippie aunt is
saying; it’s become generally accepted. This is due to
a number of things: We know much more than before;
knowledge is available to everyone now. And because of
the enormous transparency, people and companies can
no longer proclaim innocence. Large companies are being
called to account morally more than ever. Consumers
know that a sweater from a high-street fashion store has
not been made under the best conditions. In short, the big
difference with the past is that we now know what the
problem is. And conscientious objection is increasingly
being allowed to play a powerful role.”
NEW SYSTEM
So we seem to be shifting toward a new system. The old
system was about bigger, having more, igures, proits.
The new system emphasizes sustainability, having less,
producing fairer, sharing. These are the two extremes,
according to Van Beekhoff, that everything is revolving
around in the coming years: We’re still feeling the
convulsions of an old system while we seek a new middle
ground. An automatic response apparently, also in myself,
and which I can easily still slide back into if I don’t pay
attention. How can you ind balance if you need more
peace and quiet, less stress and less stuff, but you’re
conscious of the fact that the outside world or company
you work for is still growth-oriented?
“It’s not easy,” agrees Dutch psychologist Robert
Haringsma. According to him, we have to look for a new
narrative. “During the crisis, many things simply lay
outside of our reach,” he says, “and then it became more
interesting to ind a different narrative. But once things are
within our reach again, we tend to take them.” In the West,
the main narrative focuses on who is successful, and that
is measured in terms of ownership and status. A nurse
who has cared for countless people is spoken of with less
admiration than a successful CEO. “You have to be very
18 _
strong to get away from it,” says Haringsma. “Or ind a
group that shares these values. I do meditation training,
and in that group we share the conviction that more
possessions are not what make you happy. That can help
as a kind of counterbalance to prevailing standards.” It’s
like a balancing act, Haringsma explains. “It’s not that nice
things necessarily make you unhappy,” he says. “It’s
wonderful to occasionally buy something beautiful and
spend your money on a luxurious treat. But stay in charge.
The Buddhist idea that much of our pain stems from the
pursuit of more, more, more is now well-supported by
research indings. I think more and more people are inally
realizing that they have to ind happiness in different ways.
The road to happiness does not go through materialism.
But that requires a huge culture change.”
PROGRESS THINKING
TEXT JOCELYN DE KWANT PHOTOGRAPHY ©ALEKSANDAR NOVOSELSKI/STOCKSY UNITED
Reading about it, and seeking out people who share these
new values, are all ways to help to break away from
status-driven culture. But sometimes it also might require
quitting your job and looking for a company that is
focused on more than just proits. Because they are out
there. There are plenty of alternatives, also for your
shopping needs. Many companies have courage and
vision, and are not stuck in the old system. Instead of a
new iPhone, my husband is now looking into purchasing a
Fairphone, which is as fair as currently possible and
recyclable as well. Isn’t this perhaps exactly what our
ancestors meant with progress thinking ive hundred years
ago? Now in a new and sustainable form.
WANT TO READ MORE?
✻ ’Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’,
by Yuval Noah Harari
✻ ‘The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global
Inequality and its Solutions’, by
Jason Hickel
Feel connected
 ILLUSTRATION ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THIS PAGE ANNE BENTLEY

On the dividers in this issue, you’ll find four

illustrations by Anne Bentley. The American artist
works in a variety of mediums, and says her art is
influenced by ‘vintage pottery, fashion, mid-century
architecture, and the colors and shapes found in
nature’. Dogs and flowers also often feature in her
work. Bentleyworks.us
Ann Wood comes from Minneapolis in the US and makes
beautiful flowers from paper (which she also makes
herself). One of her creations of an anemone seemed so
real and fragile that a bee landed on it when she
was photographing the flower outside.

Woodlucker.com; Instagram: @woodlucker

_ 21
 FEEL
CONNECTED
Get in touch with the people and
the world around you
Natural Self-Discovery
From lists of lora and fauna to ind and hikes to take or places
to visit, to recording sunsets you’ve seen and noting how a
moonlit walk makes you feel, Katie Daisy’s The Wildlower’s
Workbook is a guided journal that helps you connect with
nature. Stuffed full of Daisy’s illustrations, each page features
prompts to inspire you to pause and savor the wonders of the
natural world around you. And to top it all off, you can jot
everything down with her set of Wanderlust and Wildlowers
colored pencils, with each rich hue coming in a nature-inspired
barrel design. The Wildlower’s Workbook: A Journal for
Self-Discovery in Nature. Abramsandchronicle.co.uk
22 _
A SENSE OF TRAVEL
Need some inspiration as to where to go on
your next trip? Then why not choose your
destination based on how it will make you feel
as opposed to what you will see or (don’t) do.
The Place to Be published by Lonely Planet
presents more than 200 places around the world
to experience a particular emotion and state of
mind—from adventure, joy or passion to awe,
serenity and amusement. Each of the twelve
chapters explores a single feeling, with
destinations ranging from wild and natural
spaces to modern and ancient cities.
Lonelyplanet.com
POCKET MUSEUM
Gone are the days when you’re at a museum,
admiring a work of art but can’t read the blurb
about it because of the throngs of people
standing in front of you. With Smartify, you can
scan the piece, identify it and access a rich
amount of information, from its name, date and
artist to a full description and the history behind
it. The app contains collections from a wide
range of museums and galleries around the
world, and you can even create your own by
adding works to your personal collection. Totally
free of charge. Smartify.org
 BRIGHT IDEA
Through his PET
Lamp Project, Spanish
TEXT JULIA GORODECKY IMAGES ISTOCK (PENCIL SHARPENINGS/NATURAL SELF-DISCOVERY), SHUTTERSTOCK (POCKET MUSEUM, BLAST FROM THE PAST)

designer Alvaro Catalán
de Ocón has been
collaborating with
communities around the
world to transform plastic
Blast from the Past waste into unique and
Ever found yourself wishing you could functional works. Since
travel back in time and give your younger starting the initiative in
self some wise words or a good old kick 2011, he has worked with
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_ 23
 ORDER
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Opening a brand new diary is always a magical moment:
a new year ahead of you, with lots of empty pages that
remind you that everything is still possible. Soon, those
blank pages will no doubt be full of appointments, lists,
fun things to do, surprises, chores and vacations. But
ill in every hour of every day? Because, if you keep
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occasional empty page, of course. Good luck!
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wouldn’t it be great if some of those pages stay empty?

It might not always be possible—daily life tends to catch The Flow Diary 2019 is illustrated by US-based Dinara Mirtalipova,
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24 _
 INTERVIEWS JEANNETTE JONKER PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY THE INTERVIEWEES HAND-LETTERING VALESCA VAN WAVEREN

Hsinping
Shelagh

CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS.
THAT’S WHAT WE ASKED THREE
Saara

_ 25
 ‘A drawing
from my Have
a Nice Day
exhibition.’
‘“Alien friends” patches
for children’s clothing.’
Hsinping Pan
42 ANIMATOR AND ILLUSTRATOR
TAIWAN, WITH HER HUSBAND
Can you describe life as an
illustrator in Taiwan? Living in
Taipei is great. There are a lot of cool
exhibitions to go to and that gives me a
lot of inspiration. The city is pretty close
to the ocean and the mountains, so when
I want to take a break, it doesn’t take me
long to be in nature.
Where do you work? I have a small
studio that is near my apartment. Luckily,
a friend of mine works nearby so we have
lunch together almost every day. I like to
work alone, but it is really nice to have a
friend to eat with. When my deadlines are
tight, I sometimes work from home.
What are your little pleasures in
life? Lately, I’ve been making bread from
scratch. I like mixing all the ingredients,
observing how the dough rises, and I ind
the kneading process very soothing. And
I can’t help but stare at the oven while
the bread is baking. It is a very fulilling
thing to do. When I have a day off, I also
like to go to the movies, read a book, go
hiking, see some exhibitions and hang
out with friends and family.
26 _
‘My illustrations for the 2018 Candy
Dog Letterpress Calendar.’
LIVES IN TAIPEI,
HSINPINGPAN.COM
Can you describe the best thing
about your work? I love that I can
tell a story with my illustrations and
animations. It enables me to create
my own world and share it with other
people. It is so much fun to play with
colors, characters in illustrations, and
with motion and time in animations. It
makes me very happy if my work can
bring a smile to people who see it.
What projects are you working
on now? A children’s book written by
Susan and James Patterson. It is about
animals, and I have learned so many
new things about animals during this ‘I made this illustration for
project. I love children’s books. One day Live Happy magazine.’
I hope to be able to write my own story
and illustrate it. Also, I am working on
some greeting cards for Lagom Design.
Do you have a favorite moment
in the day? There are two: When I
bring my coffee to my desk and start
drawing, and when I have dinner with
my husband. >
‘ I love that I can
tell a story with
my illustrations
and animations’

_ 27
 ‘A friend reminded me
that I don’t have to
be “on” all the time.
He was so right’

28 _
 ‘Walking on my
favorite beach with my
friend Julie and our
pack of crazy dogs.’
‘Assateague Island
National Seashore. Wild
ponies and camping?
Sign me up.’
‘This is #clairescar, a 1970
Superfast Racing “Mini”
Matchbox Series No. 29, that
made the journey too.’
Shelagh Harvard
44 BAKER LIVES IN MAINE, US, WITH FOUR HOUSEMATES,
THREE DOGS AND TWO CATS
Before you lived where you do now,
you spent a year driving around the
US. Why? I used to have all the grown-up
things you’re supposed to have: a good
job, a decent car, a house and a long-term
relationship, but I was often miserable.
After a promotion at work and a lot of
relection, I knew I had to remove myself
from it all. I saved up money, sold the
house, left my relationship and asked
people to foster my dogs. After three
years of quiet planning, my journey was
in motion. So, I set the date and gave my
notice at work.
Did you have a plan? Initially, it was
to avoid the cold weather in the winter. I
wanted to go down the East Coast, across
the south, up the West Coast and then
back home across the top of the US. I was
afraid at irst. I had walked away from a life
where I was on autopilot. In the irst two
weeks of my trip I had to relearn everything
and create new patterns. A lot of crazy
stuff happened, like losing my keys over
and over every day and getting blown off
route by a hurricane. When I was forced to
let go of my plan, I started to enjoy myself.
Death Valley in
California, US.
TRACINGTHEEDGE.COM
What did you discover during the
trip? I felt so much pressure from myself
in the beginning. I was visiting these
incredible places and thought ‘I have to
write a blog’ and ‘I have to take pictures’.
But a friend reminded me that I didn’t have
to be ‘on’ all the time. He was so right.
Traveling takes you out of your daily
routine and makes you pay more attention
to the things around you.
How did you become a baker?
When I got back home I looked for a
non-corporate job, but I had a hard time
inding one. Then I met the owner of a
gluten-free bakery in Maine, and before I
knew it, I was the head baker. We make
cakes, bread, cinnamon rolls, donuts and
cookies for people who have a hard time
inding food they love.
And the little red car on your blog?
It is a matchbox car that my sister and I
have had since forever. She is called
Claire’s Car because it looks a lot like the
car owned by our friend’s mom, Claire. It
is always with me. I don’t know what it is
about this little car, but I really love her. >
_ 29
 ‘ Painting is an
essential and
natural way of
expressing myself’

‘My desk is
custom-built
from an old
architect’s desk.’

‘I use gouache
paint to create ‘Fall is my
my artwork.’ favorite season.’

30 _
 A bear inspired by old
Finnish folklore.
Saara Katariina
Söderlund
30 ILLUSTRATOR AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER
DEGERBY, FINLAND, WITH HER HUSBAND AND TWO DOGS
SAARAKATARIINA.COM
What do you like most about being
an illustrator? That I get to draw and
paint. I’ve always drawn. Painting is
something I rediscovered and started
to invest more time in a couple of years
ago. I completely fell in love with it, and
now it’s an essential and natural way of
expressing myself. One of the best things
about the illustration process is doing
research for projects. It’s so much fun
to read up on a potentially completely
unknown subject and igure out how to
make it work as an illustration.
Where do you work? I’ve discovered
that I need both solitude and creative
companionship, and I work best if these
two are balanced. I work from home, but
my husband is also a creative entrepreneur
and has his ofice right next to mine. I think
it’s a pretty ideal situation; I like to have
my space and quiet, but it’s also very
important for me to have someone to
bounce ideas off and take coffee breaks
with. I have a small and cozy home studio
with a desk that I use for painting, another
‘I’m deinitely
desk for my computer and a little couch for
a bird lady.’
Saara has worked
as a creative
entrepreneur for
seven years.
LIVES IN
our dogs. Most of the time I stay by my
painting desk, but when it comes to
inalizing my work I switch to my computer.
Birds seem to feature a lot in your
work. Why is that? Birds are so
fascinating: There are so many different
species, and the spectrum of colors,
shapes, patterns and sounds seems
endless. I also ind age-old mythologies
behind birds interesting. In so many
cultures they have been used as an
explanation for countless questions. I love
birdwatching, especially in spring when the
migrating species arrive back to Finland.
My favorite place to watch them is by the
water, so I guess that’s why aquatic birds
are the most dear to me, but actually I love
all birds. I’m deinitely a bird lady.
What do you do when you’re not
drawing? As well as birdwatching, I like
going to thrift stores, and to embroider.
Embroidery is so much fun; it has a lot
of the same elements I love about
illustration, but it’s something completely
different for my hands to do.
_ 31
 Feel connected
Insight

HOW OFTEN DO WE FEEL LIKE WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME? EVEN

THOUGH OUR SCHEDULES ARE FULL AND OUR TO-DO LISTS ARE LONG,

THE NUMBER OF HOURS IN THE DAY REMAINS THE SAME. JOURNALIST

MARISKA JANSEN EXAMINES HOW THE PERCEPTION OF TIME WORKS,

BUT MOSTLY HOW WE CAN MANAGE TO FEEL LESS RUSHED.

I recently realized I constantly have the feeling that I
never have enough time, such as in the mornings when
I’m rushing around trying to get the kids to school
before getting to an appointment on time. And then
later, once I’ve sat down at my computer, the hours ly
by again. When I look at everything on my daily to-do
list, I think a day should actually have 30 hours. But
the real problem isn’t the limited number of hours; it’s
the fact that I cram as many activities as I can into my
days, and underestimate how much time each will take.
Responding to emails, writing an article, parent-teacher
meetings, my book club and going for a run: I can’t
seem to get it all done in one day.
I’m not the only one who has the feeling of constantly
lacking time. It is a typical feature of our modern lives.
German philosopher and author Rüdiger Safranski says
that adults have actually gained more free time. The
six-day workweek is far behind us, but we don’t seem
to be capable of managing our time well. According to
Safranski, the percentage of time that could qualify as
free time is increasing, but it is mainly spent watching
TV or suring the Internet, and is dictated by the rhythm
of time that dominates these media. Instead of going to
bed early with a book, we watch our favorite Netlix
series and get so wrapped up in the shows that we
think, ‘Okay, just one more episode’.
OWN-TIME
For me, it’s usually during my vacations that I’m most in
tune with myself, and can really sense when things are
getting too hectic. That feeling of having too little time
suddenly evaporates. It’s a time when I don’t put any
demands on myself and don’t overstuff my days with
activities. My phone is turned off and my TV and laptop
are at home. Safranski calls this ‘the internal time that
people can experience provided they can move away
from the concept of how the general public deines time’.
One vacation that I sometimes look back on with a
sense of nostalgia was when we stayed at a campsite in
southern Italy. We had been invited by a group of Italian
friends who took turns cooking dinner. Because I don’t
speak Italian, we couldn’t communicate much. Our days
there were dictated by the rhythm of the meals. A day at
the campsite seemed endless, but I never got bored. I
felt like I was living in a bubble of timelessness. My
main activity consisted of waiting on the beach until the
meal was ready. I had never come home from a
vacation so well-rested.
IT’S YOUR CHOICE
In the day-to-day merry-go-round of available hours,
it’s all about the choices you make in the things you
spend your time doing. The fact that you choose to go
to your brother-in-law’s birthday party, for instance, but
turn down the invitation to another party on the same
night. It might also not be such a good idea to agree to
meet up with old friends who you like yet don’t have so
much in common with anymore.
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, the US-based author of
Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less,
says that when it comes to creative work, we actually
get much more done when we do focused work for a
short period of time and then structure time off for rest
and relection. In an interview with American author and
host of the Hurry Slowly podcast, Jocelyn K. Glei, Pang
says that the greatest minds usually work a four-hour
workday, and that they cultivate leisure so that their
minds have time to process that focused work.
When you look at it objectively, there is no such thing
as too little time. An hour always lasts 60 minutes; there
has never been an hour that only has 40 or 50 minutes.
In other words, a shortage of time is actually about
something else—making better or different use of the
available time. >

_ 33
 ‘PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
DON’T EXIST, PER SE. THEY ARE
ALL PRESENT IN THE MIND’
You could, for example, consciously try experiencing
time in the slow-motion setting every now and then
during a certain activity. A colleague once told me about
a 2,000-piece puzzle that she would put together with
her housemates on rainy nights. The mere idea that she
worked on a puzzle in this homey scene gave me (and
her, in all likelihood) a deeply peaceful feeling. I bought
a puzzle for myself not long after hearing her story, and
just allowing myself this little pleasure gives me the
wonderful feeling of having an overabundance of time.
SWITCHING GEARS
Dr. Stephan Rechtschaffen, co-founder of the Omega
Institute for Holistic Studies in New York, US, and author
of Time Shifting: Creating More Time to Enjoy Your Life,
writes that we all know, intuitively, that time bends
depending on what’s happening in our lives. ‘Everyone
knows that time refuses to it neatly into the even boxes
of the clock and calendar’, he writes. ‘Some days are
long, some short; some minutes go by like an hour; some
hours like a minute. You meet an old friend and wonder
where the years have gone since your last meeting, and
sometimes it seems you’ve never parted and time hasn’t
interfered with your feelings of friendship’.
In his book, Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientiic
Investigation, American writer Alan Burdick explores
a similar notion, pointing out that as early as the fourth
century, the Roman African philosopher St. Augustine
of Hippo found that what we call three tenses are
actually only one: Past, present and future don’t exist
per se’, writes Burdick. ‘They are all present in the
mind—in our current memory of past events, in our
current attention to the present, and in our current
expectation of what’s to come’.  moment. This one may need an urgent response at a
In other words, we are always in the present moment;
the future and the past don’t exist except in the fact
that we’re thinking about them. So maybe if we make
34 _
the most of the present moment, allow it to last a
little bit, the past and the future will seem to have
expanded too.
LESS PRODUCTIVE
So time is a question of perception and feeling, and
Rechtschaffen suggests that the feeling of ‘too little
time’ comes from the idea that our value as people is
linked, in this modern world, to our productivity: The
more we get accomplished, the better we are. ‘I’m
so busy’ has become a way of boasting. If that’s our
approach to our lives, nothing we do is ever really
making us feel like we’ve done enough with the time we
have. Rechtschaffen writes that, to give us a sense that
time is on our side, we should choose activities that we
might think are just ‘unproductive’.
Listening to some peaceful music between tasks,
daydreaming, leaving work early sometimes without any
particular agenda in mind, looking out the window and
watching the birds, walking in the woods or doing some
gardening are perfect ways to open up space in your
mind, to connect with nature and to feel a sense of
timelessness all around you. It’s all about allowing
yourself to ‘reset to a relaxed rhythm’ which will
ultimately help open up space and time in our daily lives.
When characterizing the process of timeshifting,
Rechtschaffen uses the analogy of a bike. ‘Timeshifting
leads us to shifting our rhythm to join the external
rhythm of the moment, or to tuning into our own rhythm
and choosing to stay with it,’ he writes. ‘Unfortunately,
most of the time, without awareness of the rhythm of
the moment, we are just swept along, marching to the
beat around us. [...] We must recognize the need of each
fast speed. [...] The next moment may hold an interaction
with someone wanting our understanding or support. A
slower moment is required, so realizing this, we slow
TEXT MARISKA JANSEN ILLUSTRATIONS LIBBY VANDERPLOEG ADDITIONAL WRITING NINA SIEGAL HAND-LETTERING VALESCA VAN WAVEREN

down and become present. Or having worked all day, we WANT TO KNOW MORE?
become aware of our internal yearning to slow down and
relax, and we let the external rhythms of the world fade Hurryslowly.co is a podcast by
as we come into sync with ourselves. [...] Timeshifting, Jocelyn K. Glei about how you can
like shifting the gears on a bicycle, is inding the pace of be more productive, creative and
everyday life most deeply nourishing to our soul as well resilient by slowing down.
as completing the myriad tasks and responsibilities at ‘Rest: Why You Get More Done
hand. In order to live well in modern society, we must be When You Work Less’, by Alex
able to switch rhythms effectively throughout the day.’ Soojung-Kim Pang
‘Time Shifting: Creating More
LOW GEAR Time To Enjoy Your Life’, by Dr.
I often ind myself secretly looking for that simplicity Stephan Rechtschaffen
and the elusive lower gear; back to a time that doesn’t ‘Why Time Flies: A Mostly
move as fast as I do. Sometimes I actually manage Scientific Investigation’, by
to achieve or experience one of these moments. Alan Burdick
Like when I was camping at the edge of a forest
for instance, and I heard the high-pitched call of a
long-eared owl. A long-eared owl doesn’t provide an
indication of the time but, instead, of timelessness:
this is what it has always done and there will always
be owls that make this sound. This made me realize
how I am just a cog in the immense concept of time.
It’s a good way to put the breakneck pace of our lives
into perspective.

_ 35
 Meera Lee Patel

‘I learned that
being different
was something to
be celebrated’
AFTER YEARS IN A DIFFERENT CAREER, MEERA LEE PATEL IS NOW AN
ILLUSTRATOR AND AUTHOR WHO WRITES ABOUT ACCESSING YOUR

INNER CREATIVITY AND EMOTIONS. SHE BELIEVES THAT EMBRACING

THE UNKNOWN WAS THE KEY TO LEADING A MORE FULFILLING LIFE.
Feel connected
Interview
 One of my first paintings. Seashells!

Me, my sister,
and my dad

Me and my maternal grandpa.

We always celebrated our
birthdays together
Me, age 2

My mom and dad on

Me and their wedding day
my true
love, cake

Me in a bucket!

NAME: Meera Lee Patel

BORN: New Jersey, US, 1987
CAREER: Inspired by nature,
quiet stories of everyday
life, and her parents’ native
India, Meera Lee Patel took
up drawing and writing in her Me and my older
teens. Her colorful artwork sister, O
has been commissioned by
clients ranging from Amnesty
International to Estée
Lauder. In her latest book,
‘My Friend Fear’, Meera
explores how fear can be used
to drive us to make positive
changes in our lives. She My paternal grandma, who lived
lives with her partner in with us for years and always
Nashville, Tennessee, US. helped take care of me

38 _

AFFLUENT TOWN, AND I WANTED TO FIT IN, BUT
BEING INDIAN DID NOT ALLOW ME TO DO SO’
I grew up by the coast in New Jersey in the
US, in a suburban town called Little Silver,
close to New York. It’s an idyllic, beautiful
town, full of trees and animals.
My parents left India for the US when
they were in their late twenties and had
just married. Both had grown up with very
little and wanted to build a better life for
themselves and their future family—me and
my older sister. Starting over with nothing,
and with no one but each other, was dificult,
and I can only imagine, extremely frightening.
My childhood was full of Indian
influences. My mom decorated our
home with nostalgic and practical
pieces of India—we had chilies drying
from the ceiling like little red chandeliers and
when they were ready, she would crush them
into chutneys and pastes. She hung bold,
patterned tapestries on the walls and illed
our home with elephants, which symbolize
luck and a peaceful journey. Plants were
everywhere too. Those plants—jade, ferns,
holy basil, mint, cacti—and elephants play
an important part in the work I make today.
When I was younger, though, that
heritage was something I pushed away. I
only came back to it as I got older. I grew
up in an extremely white, afluent town, and
I wanted to it in, but being Indian did not
allow me to do so. I’ve always felt like I’ve
straddled many worlds: my Indian world,
which has a lot of emotional inluence over
me, and my modern, Western world, which
informs many of the decisions I’ve made.
Growing up Indian in the US wasn’t always
easy. I wasn’t Indian, and I wasn’t American.
I was, and am, somewhere in-between. For
instance, we grew up eating the Gujarati
PAST
‘I GREW UP IN AN EXTREMELY WHITE,
food my mom made at home every day, school, but my parents were like, ‘What are
but as a child I preferred the tastes and you going to do after?’ and I didn’t really
convenience of American food. have an answer. So I decided to study
First- and second-generation children journalism and English at college, because
of immigrants are caught in this incredible it seemed more practical than pursuing
suspension—we carry with us the hardships creative writing or art. >
and emotional weight of our families while
attempting to carve out our own identities
and future, without feeling like we are
abandoning our culture and heritage. All
the while, we are searching for a sense of
belonging. As a child, I was always asking
myself, ‘Where is your place in the world,
who are you, and can you be more than
one person?’ Those were thoughts I
wrestled from a young age, which I couldn’t
quite put into words.
I was introverted because I didn’t feel like
I it in, and I didn’t feel conident in who I
was, which meant I didn’t feel comfortable
sharing myself with others, or letting people
see who I was. I didn’t feel understood by
others—often by my parents, who taught
me certain values and lessons that I didn’t
agree or identify with—and by my
surrounding peers, who weren’t caught
between two separate worlds. I was a
very emotional, moody teenager. I felt like
an outsider for many years, until I
learned that my difference was
something that was beautiful and to
be celebrated, not ignored or erased.
I grew up painting just for fun. It wasn’t
until later, in high school, that I started to
draw and paint more seriously. Even then,
as a teenager, I didn’t think making it as an
artist was remotely possible. The idea of
being creative for a living felt like a faraway,
idyllic dream. I really wanted to go to art
_ 39

‘MY SISTER HELPED ME REALIZE THAT THE FRUSTRATION
I OFTEN FELT WAS JUSTIFIED, BUT THAT IT SHOULDN’T
DETERMINE WHAT MY NEXT ACTION WOULD BE’
Once I got to college, I really lost my
creativity. I was so focused on having a
career and being able to support myself
that I wasn’t writing poetry or stories, and I
wasn’t experimenting. Writing changed into
an academic obligation and a path toward
getting a job; that’s all it was. I felt desperate
to be able to get a job and ind stability. Six
months after I graduated, I still had no job,
and I was panicking. I was thinking, ‘I
graduated, I’m supposed to be working
right now. Everybody else has a job. I’m
never gonna ind one’.
I eventually got an internship at a
company that publishes technical papers
by electrical engineers. I lived at home with
my parents and commuted to work in New
York City, and after about a year of this I felt
really empty, like a shell of the person I
used to be. The internship had turned into
a part-time position, then a full-time role.
I had a routine: wake up, go to work, come
home exhausted. I thought, ‘I’ve got
to do something to feel like myself
again’, and that’s when I picked up
a brush again and started painting.
I joined Etsy so I had a shop where I could
sell my illustrations, and I started doing craft
fairs. I would watch the other people who
were selling their art at the fairs, and saw
they were not 22-year-old girls like me; they
had families, they had husbands and wives,
and sometimes their kids came along, too. I
realized they were able to have a whole, full
life, even though they were living creatively.
That was when I decided, okay, maybe it’s
possible: maybe you can be an artist and
make a decent living. From then on, my only
goal was to quit my job and paint full-time.
40 _
PRESENT
I wanted to be able to live off my work, People were pinning these quotes on
which is every artist’s dream. However, I Pinterest, sharing them on Instagram; people
was raised to be pragmatic and responsible, couldn’t get enough of having little phrases
and independent. We were taught, my sister in their lives that could motivate and inspire
and I, to never be dependent on anybody them. But the effect was leeting—you
else. I had no interest in being a starving would read the quote, feel inspired and then
artist. There was no romance in that for me. the feeling would fade—and there would be
It took seven years to achieve my goal, no real change left behind.
and for those seven years I did not have a I wanted people to dissect these
life. I moved to Brooklyn and was working words further, and apply the sentiment
my day job and then working on my fully so they could change their lives.
painting, writing and illustrating at night. I wanted to create an illustrated journal of
I was so driven, almost blindly so: I these quotes, designed to help readers work
didn’t make efforts with romantic long-term on their creativity, self-motivation
relationships, and I didn’t take much and mindfulness. So after researching on the
time for friendships and family. It was Internet what a book proposal should look
really difficult emotionally. I felt lonely like, I put one together and sent it to an
a lot of the time, because I wrote alone and editor I was introduced to through a friend.
I painted alone. I spent 80 hours each week I was really lucky that this editor was open to
working because I wanted it so badly. my idea, and she made me an offer for a
I burned out often, but never for long. In book deal. >
times of frustration and dificulty, I always
faced the same decision: I could quit and
stop doing the hard work if I felt that was
what would make me happy. And each
time, I continued to choose the work, the
more dificult path.
My sister and parents were really
supportive of the decision I had made. My
sister was empathetic in times of sadness
and loneliness, and she has always
encouraged me to keep going. She helped
me realize the frustration I often felt was
justiied, but that it shouldn’t determine
what my next action would be.
I wrote my irst book, Start Where You
Are, during this time. I got the idea after I
realized there were a lot of inspirational
quotes from philosophers and writers online.
A recent career Painting on the beach
highlight: a in Thailand
book-reading
of ‘My Friend
Fear’ at Barnes
& Noble in LA

My second
love, pizza

The first home I’ve ever bought

myself: a farmhouse in the middle
of nowhere in Nashville, TN

A portrait I
painted of my mom

Me and my partner, T

I have begun
to love
creating
contrast in my
work, bright
washes against
a dark void

O, K and me

Me and my
nephew, S

_ 41

‘WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT TO ME IS HAVING A FULL AND
BALANCED LIFE, WHICH INCLUDES DEVOTING TIME
AND EFFORT INTO RELATIONSHIPS THAT SUSTAIN ME’
In February last year, I inally quit my editing
job to become a full-time author and artist.
I thought after seven years, I would
hand in my notice at work to my boss
and then I’d just be floating out of
the office. Instead, I came home and
I burst into tears. I was questioning
myself, thinking, ‘Am I making a mistake,
what am I doing?’ I felt so overwhelmed.
I knew that I wanted to have a big
change. I didn’t want to keep working,
alone, in my Brooklyn apartment after inally
reaching such a pivotal goal. So, I packed
up or sold all my things, sublet my
apartment and traveled alone for seven
months throughout the US and Canada. I
came to Nashville for a month and worked
from The Warren, an all-women art studio,
and I immediately fell in love with the space
and all of the people I met.
Nashville is quieter, smaller and more
accessible than Brooklyn. The buildings are
less impressive and there aren’t a million
people, doing a million different things. It’s
less dense, which is something I miss about
Brooklyn. I love density, buildings on top of
buildings, people ingertips apart. In Brooklyn,
I people-watched a lot. But Nashville is
different in that I can be part of what’s
happening, not simply a spectator. I feel like
I can make anything happen here—and that
feeling is daunting, exhilarating, and most
of all, extremely inspiring.
That said, after I quit my job, it probably
took six months for me to feel like it was the
right decision, to think, ‘Okay, you’re doing
well’. I’ve learned that career growth is
incremental. When I was younger, I wanted
so badly to just ‘blow up’ overnight, to be
42 _
FUTURE
TEXT OLIVIA GAGAN PHOTOS OPENING PAGE AND OPPOSITE PAGE ©PARIKHA MEHTA, OTHER IMAGES PROVIDED BY THE INTERVIEWEE ILLUSTRATIONS SHUTTERSTOCK
able to quit my job and be put on the map, comfortable in my skin, I love embracing
and it never happened. And it still hasn’t my culture and the country that made me.
happened. It’s just slow and steady progress. I’m also more comfortable having a foot in
I’ve spent a lot of time building new each world—my Indian heritage and my
friendships over the last year, and I’m Western heritage—and connecting to each
incredibly happy with the new friendships one in the way that feels right to me.
that have entered my life through The I recently bought my irst home in the
Warren. My dear friend and illustrator northern-most tip of Nashville, a beautiful
Rebecca Green and I are planning on farmhouse with land where I can hopefully,
traveling to Spain together this fall, and eventually, build my own studio space. My
I’m working with my beautiful friend Emily dream is to one day have that separate home
Arrow, who is a singer and author, on a studio that I can work from, along with a
children’s book that I hope we’ll share with sustainable garden and a few small animals:
the world someday. a home outside of the city with my family.
I also met my partner in Nashville. That The past year as a whole was such a
relationship, along with my friendships, is year of change, and it was really proof
something I prioritize over my work now—not of what can happen when you are
because my work is less important, but open to the world. My life is so different
because I’ve realized that being a full-time now from what it was a year ago. I’m really
artist is not what is most important to me. happy that I’ve begun cultivating my dreams,
What’s most important to me is having a full simply by being more open—both to people,
and balanced life, which includes devoting and to the world that surrounds me.
time and effort into relationships that
sustain me and help me be who I am. When
I am most myself, I make the most honest
and genuine work.
I don’t know if there’s a word for why I
feel like I inally belong here. I feel at home,
and it’s not because of the place or the
weather or my apartment. It’s because of
the people I’ve found here. They are truly
special and I feel more connected to them
than many people I’ve known my entire life.
I feel way more interested and
engaged with Indian culture now,
too. My aversion to my culture as a
child came from a very simple desire
to fit in—to be the same as the people
around me. Now that I’m older and more
_ 43
44 _
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 Feel connected
Reportage

Correspondent in…

BRAZIL
What are the stories we aren’t hearing about on T V or in the
news? In this new series, correspondents write about their
experiences in the countries where they are based. Here, Nina
Jurna shares what it’s like to live in Rio’s Vidigal favela.

There didn’t seem to be an end in sight to the steep,
narrow staircase you had to climb to get to our new house.
Panting and perspiring, the movers lugged the boxes up
the stairs. A refrigerator, couch and another load of boxes
stood waiting in the burning sun at the bottom, ready for
the next trip up. “They want more money,” warned Russo,
the man with whom we had managed to get a good deal
for our move, but only after considerable negotiation. They
knew beforehand that everything would have to be moved
up the hill; the houses are situated high up in a slum like
this, piled on top of each other and built against the many
hillsides of Rio de Janeiro. “I hope they’ll want to stay,” he
said as the movers grumpily started their third trip. “You’ll
never get all your things up the hill on your own. Just pay
a little bit extra and you won’t have to listen to their
complaining anymore.”
I have been living in Brazil long enough to know I have
to take doom scenarios into account; there was a really
good chance they would just leave me and all my things
right there on the street. Swindling comes in many forms
in this country. I was just doing a quick calculation in my
head when an imposing man called out to me from the
house next to mine. “I’m already done with work for the
day and thought maybe I could lend a hand? Does
everything that’s down there still need to be moved up the
hill?” He sounded cheerful. “You’re the irst gringa (foreign
woman) to come live on our street. There are Argentinians
a little further down, and an American couple. And at the
top of the neighborhood there are a couple of pensions
where foreign tourists stay,” he said. The movers gave my
cheerful neighbor an angry stare as he introduced himself
as Reilson Oliveira. “Come on guys, let’s all lift this
refrigerator together and bring these last boxes up, and
I’ll get us all beer afterwards. Welcome to Vidigal!” He
laughed and I suddenly felt completely at home.
BIT BY BIT, A LITTLE SAFER
“Why are you moving to a slum?” my Brazilian friends
asked me, perplexed, when I told them I had decided to live
in a favela for a few months in 2014, on the eve of the World
Cup in Brazil. The housing prices had skyrocketed because
of international sports events; in addition to the World Cup,
the Olympics would also be held two years later in Rio.
The lease on my apartment in the famous beach area of
Copacabana was about to expire, and the owner had said
he was going to double my rent. There are a few smaller >

_ 47
 ‘After all those years among the well-to-do,
I was eager to get to know another side of
Brazil from the inside out’
favelas around the beach neighborhoods which, because of
their unique location and increasing safety, were becoming
more popular. After three years in the high-end Copacabana
area, why shouldn’t I try something completely different?
After all those years among the well-to-do, I was eager to
get to know another side of Brazil from the inside out.
In the run-up to the sports events, José Beltrame, Rio’s
head of security at the time, proposed an ambitious
project to make several of Rio’s favelas safer; after all,
millions of tourists would be descending on the city, and it
had a bad reputation for being an extremely dangerous
place. Applying controversial, daring and successful
methods, Beltrame managed to ensure that the number of
murders was halved, and robberies also declined. Thanks
to a special program called the Police Paciication Unit
(PPU), favelas that had been run by armed drug gangs
were reclaimed by the government, or ‘paciied’. Special
heavily armed police units patrolled these neighborhoods
day and night. Of the approximately six to seven hundred
favelas in Rio, this program managed to get 38 of them
under government control.
Initially, Beltrame’s plan was a success: the favelas
became a lot safer, the drug war faded into the background,
commerce lourished and these ‘no-go zones’ even became
tourist attractions. Once an incredibly dangerous favela
with around 20,000 residents, Vidigal was one of these
success stories. An area with bars and restaurants
was built at the top of the neighborhood, and shops,
small hotels and beauty salons were also added. It was
during this period of growth that I moved to Vidigal with
my family.
THE HIGHER YOU GO, THE NARROWER IT GETS
“This is Rio’s best-kept secret; you picked the right place
to live,” Reilson told me, after we had moved the last
things up and we sat enjoying a beer and the amazing
view. My new home was pretty high up, and from the large
porch, we looked straight out at the dazzling blue sea.
Vidigal was built organically against the steep hillside of
the impressive Morro Dois Irmãos, or Two Brothers Hill.
The neighborhood is wedged between these rocky
48 _
mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. Looking down to the
left, I had a gorgeous view of Leblon, the city’s most
expensive area. To the right, a jumble of hundreds of small
brick houses piled on top of each other, connected by
small, narrow alleys and surrounded by forest. The higher
up you go, the narrower the paths get. Cars have trouble
getting up this far, but it’s still teeming with mopeds which
also serve as taxis. The peaks of the Dois Irmãos rise up
behind. These mountains’ hiking trails are popular among
tourists and are covered by the green patchwork
landscape of the mysterious Mata Atlântica, the Atlantic
rainforest which originally ran along the entire Brazilian
coast and is even older than the Amazon. Scientists
estimate it is at least 60 million years old.
Despite all the beauty and the gorgeous view, Vidigal is
not an easy place to live as I quickly discovered. The
neighborhood may have been paciied, but the facilities
have not improved as a result. There is no permanent
running water supply, for example. The water company
does not ill the huge blue tanks on top of every resident’s
home on a regular basis, sometimes only a couple of times
a week. After only the irst week, we ran out. The neighbors
came to our rescue, offering buckets and bottles so that we
could shower and lush the toilet. Garbage is picked up only
very sporadically, and large garbage trucks can’t get
through the narrow alleyways. There aren’t any garbage
cans on the street that I lived on; trash is just dumped in
bags or boxes at an improvised dump that, as it turned out,
was right in front of my house. And then there are the daily
power outages which the residents resolve by illegally
tapping power from one another. They learned a long time
ago that there’s no point relying on the government, and this
has made them resourceful and creative.
“If the government won’t invest in these neighborhoods,
then they’re missing out on a great opportunity. It’s only a
matter of time before they become dilapidated and unsafe
again,” says Theresa Williamson, a city planner of
American-Brazilian origin who is doing research on the slums
in Rio, and who I interviewed for a report on the favelas in
the run-up to the World Cup. “There is an enormous amount
of potential; people here are survivors, but you can’t just
 1 2
walk around armed with weapons and fail to give the
residents the feeling that they have a say in things.” The
residents of Vidigal are mostly fortune-seekers from the
poor northeastern region of Brazil who left that area in
large numbers heading for the major cities of Rio and
São Paulo in the 1970s and 1980s, leeing poverty and
hunger and looking for work. Many of them found jobs as
cleaners, doormen or nannies in the beach neighborhoods
of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon. “There’s a saying
that every wealthy neighborhood in Rio has its own favela
a stone’s throw away because that’s where the staff live,”
Williamson says.
CELEBRATING GOOD FORTUNE
Vidigal’s residents love to barbecue on the weekends
and they quickly invited us newcomers to join them one
Sunday. Reilson’s wife Rosangela laid large slabs of meat
on the grill, while her brother made strong caipirinhas. A
music genre that originates from the northeast of Brazil,
forró, blared from the speakers, and children splashed
around in the pool as the aroma of grilled meat permeated
the neighborhood. “There didn’t use to be brick houses in
Vidigal,” Reilson informed me, “only houses made from
wood, and some people even slept in boxes. My father
built our irst house himself, from wood planks. It was a
ramshackle house where the water would come in when it
rained.” After having worked as a doorman for years at an
upscale apartment complex in Ipanema, Reilson’s father
1. ‘Vidigal is referred to as a “fancy” favela. This isn’t that far off the
mark with a view like this out over Leblon and the Atlantic Ocean.
What a luxury.’
2. ‘My children Leila and Zen, eleven and eight years old at the time,
in front of our house.’
3. ‘Beach volleyball on Leblon Beach, with the Morro Dois Irmãos
(Two Brothers Hill) in the background.’
3
had saved enough money to build a brick house for his
family. When he was twenty, Reilson bought a small van
and had the idea to drive the children from the favela to the
neighboring schools. “Armed gang members were still
walking around at the time and the regular buses avoided
the favelas, so it was safer for the children to go to school
by car,” he explained, before calling out to the children in
the pool that the food was ready.
This was the irst major surprise I had after arriving in the
neighborhood: Standing among the typical slum houses are
luxury homes like my neighbor’s, villas with swimming
pools. “Eventually, I had more and more school children to
transport. I bought a larger van, then two vans, and even
Rosangela started helping out. That’s when we were able
to buy this house,” he said proudly. Each day, they take
more than one hundred children to school, and Reilson has
long-term contracts with the Ministry of Education which
subsidizes most of the costs of school transportation for
children from the favelas. On his birthday, which was the
case that particular Sunday, he invites all of the children to
come to a huge party at his home. There’s a trampoline,
they can swim the pool, he serves food and drinks, and
there is plenty of candy. “On my birthday, I celebrate my
good fortune with the people around me, such as the
children I drive to school,” he said with enthusiasm.
RICH AND POOR
At eight and eleven, my children made friends fast. They
joined the local theater school Nós do Morro (literally
translated as ‘we of the hills’), played soccer in the streets
and took free capoeira classes at a central square in the
neighborhood. My own birthday party was also an unusual
one; favela residents and foreigners socialized with one
another and there were also a few Brazilian friends in
attendance from outside of the neighborhood who weren’t
afraid to come to the favela. A disabled friend from São
Paolo was carried up the steep staircase, wheelchair >
_ 49
50 _
 ‘ Brazil is a class society... We mainly
learn to stay in our own social pigeonhole’
and all, by ive strong neighbors before being safely
deposited on the rooftop terrace. This was the irst time
he’d ever been in a favela, and it’s an experience he’ll
never forget.
“Brazil is a class society, with stark contrasts between
rich and poor. We mainly learn to stay in our own social
pigeonhole,” my friend Rodrigo Braz Vieira, who is a tour
operator, once explained to me. Take the telenovelas, the
popular soap operas in Brazil, for example. “They always
TEXT NINA JURNA PHOTOGRAPHY NINA JURNA, ©VISUALSPECTRUM/STOCKSY UNITED (OPENING IMAGE)
Who is Nina Jurna?
Journalist Nina Jurna lives in Brazil and works as a
Latin America correspondent for Dutch newspaper
NRC Handelsblad, among other publications. She
also creates TV reports for the Dutch public service
broadcaster NTR and news channels. “I was born
and raised in the Netherlands,” she says, “but when
I went in search of my roots in 2000, I ended up in
Suriname, living and working as a correspondent
there for a while. It was my dream to see more of
Latin America, so I moved to Brazil in 2011 with my
family. I really like living and working here. It is
an exciting country full of challenges as well as
contradictions. Rich and poor live side-by-side, and
the line between violence and passion is a very thin
one. These extremes and contradictions fascinate
me, and inspire me in my work as a journalist.
Suriname is still an important part of my professional
and personal life. My children were born there, my
roots are there, and in addition to the Netherlands,
where my family still lives and where I go back every
year for a visit, Suriname has also become home.”
feature a rich white family with dark-skinned maids, and a
poorer family in a working-class neighborhood. The rich
people are usually the bad guys, and the poor are happy,
enjoying their music, barbecues and soccer matches. The
underlying message is: ‘Don’t get rich; the rich are mean
and unhappy’. Stay in your own class, stay in your
neighborhood; that’s what will make you happy and
cheerful,” Rodrigo said. “We don’t have anything like the
American Dream here, rising above your poverty, believing
that you can always have a better life. Millions of boys in
slums might dream of becoming a professional soccer
player, but how many of them actually achieve this?”
INDESTRUCTIBLE SOLIDARITY
In spite of this, there are still rays of hope. An upmarket
samba club opened at the top of Vidigal, and with views
out over the hills, the ocean and the beach at Leblon, it is
one of Rio’s top hotspots. On the weekend, buses full of
rich residents from Leblon and the surrounding areas climb
the hill—it used to be deemed as inconceivable for this
group to set foot in the favela. Yet, at the same time,
Williamson’s predictions did come true; there are still no
facilities in the favelas and the violence has escalated
again now that the Olympics are over.
When house prices started to drop again after the World
Cup, this offered new prospects. We ended up moving to
a nearby ‘regular’ neighborhood, to an apartment complex
where everything works as it should. The trash gets picked
up, we have running water every day and there are hardly
ever any power outages. The ive months we spent living
in the favela were an unforgettable experience and have
given us a feeling of solidarity that is still there. Each year,
as the numerous children jump in the pool on Reilson’s
birthday, my kids and I are among them. I may still be the
gringa, but I am also the neighbor who walked into his life
from the outside, exposing him to a completely different
world. This is something we are both still happy about
and proud of.
_ 51
NEW

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The My Perfectly Imperfect Life 2019 Calendar (30 x 30 cm) celebrates slowing down, making mistakes,
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Live mindfully
 ILLUSTRATION ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THIS PAGE ANNE BENTLEY

Anne Bentley studied Fine Art and Painting. She became

a professional painter but took time out to raise her
children. Although she didn’t discover illustration
until a few years ago (she considers herself a late
bloomer), she promptly proceeded to win Lilla Rogers
Studio’s prestigious Global Talent Search illustration
contest in 2016, and has been represented by the agency
ever since.
 To sit in the shade
on a fine day
and look upon verdure
is the most perfect
refreshment.

Jane Austen (1775-1817), British author

IMAGE ISTOCK

_ 55
 LIVE
MINDFULLY
Experience the conscious life

MAKING THE MOST

OF EVERY DAY
The Danes ind cozy contentment in hygge,
the Swedes love to live ‘just right’ with lagom,
and the Japanese ind their raision d’être in
ikigai. Commonly understood as ‘your reason
to get up in the morning’, ikigai’s premise is
simple: Find out what makes you happy and
keeps you motivated. This can range from
little things—the morning air, a compliment,
coffee—to deep convictions—a fulilling job,
lasting friendships, balanced health. In his
book Awakening Your Ikigai, neuroscientist
Ken Mogi explains that inding your purpose
in life is about focusing on ‘ive pillars’: start
small; accept yourself; sustainability and
harmony; seek out small joys; and be in the
here and now. So, be your most authentic

Sonic Shores self and start each day the ikigai way.
Workman.com
When you have trouble getting some shut-eye, are in need of
some downtime or need to refocus, take yourself off to the tropical
coast of Sonus Island. Designed to help you relax, focus and
sleep better, this app features guided meditations in different
locations on the island, so you can listen to the birds in the forest,
the ocean’s waves rolling on the shore, whales underwater, and
more. And all without having to book time off from work, dish out
loads of dosh or (over)pack a suitcase. Bliss. Wildventures.nl

IN THE GROOVE
If you’re someone who likes to get down and boogie, it turns out you may also
be someone who is more emotionally sensitive than those who prefer to ‘sit
this one out’. Or so says a study held by City, University of London, in the UK
and the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain. The researchers investigated
the effect of dancing on empathy and found that dancers not only recognized
the emotions better, but their bodies also responded more sensitively to the
displayed emotional movements. So: anyone care for a dance?

56 _
 HAPPY READING
For some inspiration or guidance on
TEXT JULIA GORODECKY IMAGES ©GUILLE FAINGOLD/STOCKSY UNITED (IN THE GROOVE), ISTOCK (FAITHFUL FASHION, MUSICAL NOTES/SONIC SHORES),

which book on mindfulness is worth

reading, turn to Melli O’Brien, aka Mrs.
Mindfulness, who offers up a very
helpful list of her favorites and Top-10
EASY AS 1, 2, 3…
Committed to reducing plastic pollution—one of the largest
classic must-reads. The books are by
environmental problems of our time—Australian not-for-proit
the likes of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Eckhart
organization Take 3 has a very simple message to help combat
Tolle, Byron Katie, Kristin Neff, Brené
this issue: Take three pieces of trash away with you when you
Brown and Steve Taylor, so you know
leave the beach, waterway or any nature spot. Go one step further
you’re in good hands. To see them all,
and take a photo of your deed, share it with the hashtag
go to mrsmindfulness.com and scroll
#Take3fortheSea and you’ll hopefully inspire others to help make
through her suggested catalog.
a big difference in this small easy way. Take3.org

TAKING
THINGS SLOW
Pushing back against the
conventional wisdom that ‘busy
is better’, Hurry Slowly is a
podcast hosted by writer and
editor Jocelyn K. Glei that
SHUTTERSTOCK (HAPPY READING, TAKING THINGS SLOW)

features in-depth interviews

with thinkers, artists and
entrepreneurs to explore how
we make smarter decisions,
feel more comfortable taking
risks and manage our attention
more intelligently when we
learn to take our time and live
life at a more sustainable pace.
So, what are you waiting for?
Visit hurryslowly.co to ind out
more. You can also read our
story, Too Little Time, on page
32 in this issue of Flow.
FAITHFUL FASHION
Made from a hybrid of materials including Japanese
selvedge denim, organic cotton and ultra-durable
Spectra ibers that are stronger than cable steel,
Half Century Jeans are ‘the closest thing to
indestructible jeans available’. It’s a claim the
designers are so conident of that they are providing
a 50-year guarantee of free repair or replacement.
Search for Half Century Jeans on kickstarter.com.

_ 57
 IT CAN HIT YOU LIKE A TON OF BRICKS. EVERYTHING SUDDENLY

BECOMES TOO MUCH AND YOU FIND YOURSELF HEADING FOR A

BURNOUT. ANNEKE BOTS FOLLOWS ARCHITECT LISA IN HER SEARCH

FOR A SOLUTION AND DISCOVERS SOME SURPRISING INSIGHTS.


On September 5 at 11 a.m., the lights went
out for 27-year-old architect Lisa. It was her
irst day back at the ofice after a vacation
in Bali. She had begun working at this small
architecture irm eighteen months earlier. It
was her irst job and she had thrown herself
into her work with enthusiasm, never saying
‘no’ to anything, and feeling like she should
be able to do it all. She preferred not to ask
for help—if she didn’t know something, she
igured it out on her own or taught herself.
Her plan had been to relax on the tropical
island and recharge her batteries. But she
hadn’t succeeded. Quite the contrary. “I was
having panic attacks,” she says. “My memory
was like a sieve, and I wasn’t in the mood for
anything.” In short: it was a terrible vacation.
She longed to be home, but when she was
welcomed by her family at the airport, she
wasn’t even happy to see them. “I was
empty. I couldn’t feel anything anymore. All of
my emotions were gone, everything felt lat
and dull.”
Two days later, on that fateful September
5, she went back to work. After irst attending
a meeting, she turned her computer on and
that’s when it happened. “My ingers started
tingling,” she recalls. “I felt lightheaded and
had trouble breathing. I wanted to go
outside, but it seemed like I couldn’t even do
that. After a lot of effort, I inally managed to
make it outside, and all I could do was cry.
After that I didn’t go back to work for six
months. It was the deepest hole I had ever
been in.”
TOTAL CHAOS
Lisa was completely exhausted. In the irst
week, she couldn’t even take a shower
standing up. In the irst month, she couldn’t
face going out to shop, so others did it for
her. “When you’re in the midst of a burnout,
your body is completely depleted and your
brain is in a state of total chaos,” she says.
Carolien Hamming, director at the Chronic
Stress Reversal Center—a Dutch knowledge
center founded by psychotherapist and
psychologist Sonja van Zweden, that helps
people recover from stress and burnout—
explains. “When you work constantly and do
not relax enough, you end up exhausting your
body’s resources and deregulating your
hormonal system,” Hamming says. “Once
you become aware of this, it becomes clear
that you need to change your behavior.
Psychological treatment alone is not enough.”
That’s why she doesn’t agree with the advice
usually given to someone who is stranded
with a burnout, which is to start working on
solving their problems immediately, or to
visit a therapist to hash out their childhood.
Such advice is based on the premise that the
stress is caused by the mind. “Which is
understandable, because there are often
psychological problems too, but irst of all
your body has to recover and your brain has
to be functioning a bit better,” she explains.
“Once your body regains its balance, the
depressed feelings and panic attacks usually
also subside.”
LONG-TERM OVEREXTENSION
Psychologist and mindfulness teacher Karin
Rekvelt coaches people who have already
tried out many different forms of therapy
without inding a solution to their problems.
She, too, has noticed that many therapists
focus too much on the mind. As a result,
patients often learn a lot of valuable things,
such as the fact that it’s good to try to be less
of a perfectionist, to say ‘no’ more often or to
set realistic goals for themselves, but they’re
Live mindfully
Psyche
still stuck in a negative spiral and feeling
more and more unhappy, despite the therapy.
“It’s essential to also gain insight into what
stress does to your body and what happens
when your body has become deregulated by
long-term overextension,” Rekvelt says. “The
physical component is so important, because
you can be aware of the stress factors in your
life, like the pressures of work for example,
but it’s crucial to understand that it’s the
incorrect response to these stress factors
that’s draining your body.”
Lisa also saw Rekvelt, but not before
visiting a psychologist that her GP had
referred her to. “Right from the get-go,
when I was still feeling so very unreal, the
psychologist started digging around for the
psychological causes of my problems,” she
says. “I wasn’t able to see anything in
perspective. I couldn’t handle those kind of
conversations at all.” Lisa didn’t go back after
that irst session and after asking around,
ended up going to Rekvelt instead. She
always experienced her burnout in a
emphatically physical way, Lisa says. “So
for me, the explanation that my body was
overextended and therefore lost its balance
made a lot of sense. I couldn’t actually relate
to my negative thoughts at all; I had never felt
depressed before. Now I know I had simply
made it impossible to rest, I was ‘on’ all the
time. Actually resting became more and more
unnatural; it had become a trigger for feeling
restless. As I started recovering, my somber
thoughts vanished. Learning to do nothing
was the most important thing for me.”
STRESS MECHANISM
There’s nothing wrong with working hard;
it’s the working hard without giving your
body the rest it deserves that’s the >
_ 59
 ‘Be conscious of all your senses:
what do I smell? what do I taste?
Get back in touch with your body’
 ‘learn to simply do nothing
without feeling embarrassed’

problem.“It’s all about striking a healthy anxiety attacks, worrying, sleepless nights, managing to charge its battery only a little bit
balance between expending energy and not being in the mood to do anything (even at a time, and some functionalities don’t work
recharging again,” Hamming says. “The fun things) and physical ailments that won’t properly anymore. You have barely any
stress mechanism is an activation system go away. These are all warning signals of a energy left, and slowly gaps appear in
that ensures we have enough energy to get system about to hit a burnout. Most people your mind. You can’t think clearly anymore
out of bed and be alert and active. The stress will then stop working. If you keep working, and can’t remember things. All kinds of
hormones adrenaline and cortisol play a big you tire your body out even more, until it substances in your brain are out of whack,
part in this. If you are under stress or when reaches a point where it simply says, ‘Stop, which makes you unstable and emotional,
you’re playing a sport, you need more energy I can’t take it anymore’. You could be and you probably even have trouble
and the stress mechanism steps up its overcome by a panic attack in the middle recognizing yourself at times. Once you’ve
efforts. When you are resting, your body of the street, freezing you on the spot. The reached this point, it won’t matter if you
recovers, especially when you’re sleeping: tiniest setback could make you fall apart. An remove the stress factors. Your body won’t
you need that time to recharge so you wake appointment being canceled, a sneer from a be able to recover with a good weekend of
up ready for the next day. If you don’t allow co-worker, something trivial, can make you rest or a few weeks of vacation.” Once you’ve
this to happen, you’re overextending your burst out crying and not be able to stop. crossed this line, recovery takes a long time:
body’s resources and exhausting yourself.” “You can keep going for a very long time on Count on six to nine months to come back
It’s not like it happens all at once of course, willpower and last reserves,” says Hamming, from a nervous breakdown and between six
but there are plenty of signs on the road “but the moment comes when your body months and two years for a burnout.
there: tiredness, headaches, somber feelings, gives up. It’s like a telephone that keeps
WHERE’S THE ‘OFF’ BUTTON?
The key to healing from a stress overload is
TIPS FROM THE COACH irst of all learning how to rest. After that,
you can work on self-management, which
What can you do when you’re stressed out or hovering on the edge will prevent you from reaching this state
of a nervous breakdown? Here are some tips from Karin Rekvelt: again. Resting isn’t easy if you feel super
Accept that stress is a natural part of life. When you feel stressed at the smallest provocation and
tired, edgy and depleted: give that feeling some space. can’t ind the ‘off’ button. “It’s quite a
Only do what you have to. Cut all non-essential activities challenge to ind out what helps you
from your agenda, in work as well as in your private life. personally the most, but it’s generally a
Cancel social appointments too; especially those that seem good starting point to accept that it’s okay
like a lot of fun—it might seem to be a leisure activity but that you’re not okay and not to feel guilty
in reality it costs more energy than you realize. about that,” Hamming says. “Rest up, and
Make sure you sleep well. Slowing down in the evening helps learn to simply do nothing without feeling
you fall asleep: listen to calm music, read a book, and teach embarrassed, but keep some structure in
yourself to do relaxing exercises before you go to bed. your day. Loaf about, but try not to worry a
Consider doing a mindfulness or yoga class. lot. Being out in fresh air, taking a walk,
Don’t think of stress as your enemy, but as a fascinating visiting a spa, getting a massage—those
process that engages you to listen to your mind and body. You things usually do a world of good. But for
might also benefit from having someone else around who can people with a burnout, sports are actually
help you to see it that way. not a good idea. When you’re physically
active, your body creates extra stress

62 _
 hormones and that’s exactly what you don’t
need. To recover, the repair system in your
body needs to be dominant. So it’s the
opposite of what you’ve been doing in the
previous years, when the activating stress
system was dominant all that time. Seek
out social support; talking to friends can
be really good. But also remember, when
you’re in the midst of a burnout even that
can generate stress, so don’t do it then.
TEXT ANNEKE BOTS PHOTOGRAPHY HANKE ARKENBOUT, ©CACTUS BLAI BAULES/STOCKSY UNITED (COVER PHOTO)

Listen carefully to your body and see what

works for you.”
“Take your body seriously when it tells you
it’s tired, and take a nap,” adds doctor and
burnout coach Gijs Schraa. “You shouldn’t
worry you won’t be able to sleep at night
afterwards. It’s a good thing to let your body
get used to sleeping again. Rest is very person but now I was clearly in need of let the wind blow through your hair, feel the
important to build up stores of energy.” help. I needed someone to tell me, ‘It’s sun on your skin, walk in the sand with bare
Schraa recommends you take a bit of okay, let it go, let go of it all’. Rekvelt was a feet. Be conscious of all your senses: What
distance in order to keep stress down to a tremendous help: she used an anatomy do I smell? What do I taste? Get back in
healthy low level. “Make sure you think book to show me what was wrong with my touch with your body.”
about what you’re doing and how you’re body. That was perfect for me—I always Lisa’s recovery process continued with
STYLING HOLLY MARDER HAND-LETTERING VALESCA VAN WAVEREN

doing it on a regular basis and before things
derail. Put your affairs in order and most
importantly also plan moments of rest.”
WIND IN YOUR HAIR
But being this relaxed—resting and taking
naps—is easier said than done when you’re
used to always going that extra mile. For
Lisa, it took a long time before she could
activate the relaxation mode. “I knew I was
supposed to take it easy, but I was still
caught up in an activity vortex,” she says.
“I couldn’t stop thinking and my body was
stuck in overdrive, which created a lot of
anxiety and kept me from sleeping full
nights. It was a vicious circle, and I wasn’t
managing to break out of it on my own. I
thought of myself as a pretty insightful
like to know how things work in practical ups and downs. For a while she was scared
terms. Starting from the ‘off mode’, in which she was never going to be her old self again,
I wasn’t able to do any little thing, I slowly but she has since regained conidence in her
rebuilt my life. Very slowly. It took ive body. She feels energized again and is back
months before I was able to relax again and at her job, with a twenty-hour workweek. “I
sometimes sleep an entire night. I watched now have a more relaxed attitude to myself,”
TV series endlessly, read books and tried to she says. “I’ve learned to listen to my body
write about what I was going through. Every and to take a timeout when my body tells
day I took a walk. I started with ten-minute me I need it.”
walks, in the end I was walking three miles
[ca. ive kilometers] every day.”
Rekvelt also advises you to always listen
to your body, whether you’re recovering
from a burnout or feel like you’re at risk.
“Listen carefully to it and take it seriously,
no matter what the people around you tell
you,” she says. “This is essential. Take the
time to observe the world with your senses:

_ 63
 Live mindfully
Insight

What Would
Jane Eyre Do?
ANNA KARENINA, JANE EYRE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD:
ALL GREAT LITERARY CLASSICS THAT ARE CHOCK-FULL OF
LIFE LESSONS. JOURNALIST MARISKA JANSEN EXPLORES

WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THE PAGES OF A BOOK.

Being completely surrounded by books sounds like a
dream come true to me. For Professor Peter Kien, the
main character in the book Auto-da-Fé, it is reality. As the
owner of about 25,000 books, the only place he is truly
happy is in his private library, where his books are always
awaiting him, neatly arranged and dusted clean. Maybe
this creation of Bulgarian author Elias Canetti sounds
excessively eccentric, but his love of books sounds all
too familiar to me. Kien is of the opinion that all knowledge
and truth in this world is captured in books. And the only
way to access this knowledge is by constantly studying
them, closed off from the world. The books he so dearly
loves are mainly academic works and manuscripts from
ancient China and Japan. But novels can also be
repositories of knowledge, full of life lessons waiting to
be unlocked—all you have to do is turn to the irst page.
YOUR FIRST BOOK
According to British author Graham Greene, knowledge
gained from literature begins the very moment you learn
to read. That magical moment when separate letters
suddenly begin to form words and mental images. The
irst book I read on my own was a story about a mouse, a
mole and a little rat. They had to leave the ield where they
lived because people were building on the land. This mini
emigration upset me; it went against the grain of my sense
of fairness. The animals were there irst! Even now, when I
pass a construction site, I sometimes dwell on that story
from my childhood. Which mice, moles and rats have had
to relocate now?
Greene would call the moment that I read this story a
decisive one for the rest of my life, because it taught me
about good and evil, about unfair power dynamics and the
need for nature preservation. According to Greene, the
stories you read as a child are like windows through which
you will continue to view the world around you. They
allow you to see past your own backyard and become
acquainted with other ways of life that are equally valuable.
For the African-American author Richard Wright, who grew
up in the south of the US at the beginning of the 20th century,
his encounter with literature was of great consequence. His
love for books began when a maid in their household secretly
told him the story of Bluebeard. In his book Warum Lesen
glücklich macht (‘Why Reading Makes You Happy’), German
author and teacher Stefan Bollmann writes that it was dificult
for young Wright to obtain books to read, as black people
were not permitted to borrow books from the library in that
place and time. Eventually, Wright succeeded in taking out
the books he wanted with a borrowed library card. ‘Surely
you are not reading these books yourself?’, the librarian
asked. ‘Oh no, ma’am, I can’t read’, he answered.
With access to these books, a new world opened up for
Wright, who most decidedly could read. He learned how
to see his disenfranchised position from a more distant >

You can also find lots of classic books on Instagram. Look for hashtags #bookclassics or #hotcocoareads _ 65
 ‘SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR INTENDED TO WRITE
ABOUT LIFE AS IT REALLY WAS, WITH ALL ITS
HAPPINESS, SUFFERING AND SADNESS’
perspective and igured out ways in which he, too, could
exert control over his life. He moved to the north of the US
where racism was less prevalent. Without his book-learned
knowledge, Wright may never have been able to make
that decision.
I have kept Greene’s philosophy in mind throughout my
reading life and often note down what a book has taught
me; what kind of lessons can be drawn from the words
that have been imbibed. Here are just four that have made
an impression on me and to my outlook on life:
LIFE ISN’T ALWAYS SWEET
It is precisely because literature offers so much in the way
of wisdom and insight that it forms a threat in the eyes of
certain groups; they fear that the status quo will be upset.
One woman who refused to pay any notice to conservative
morals was the French author and philosopher Simone de
Beauvoir. She intended to write about life as it really was,
with all its happiness, suffering and sadness—as well as
the attendant choices and boredom.
One of her most impressive books, Les Belles Images, is
about a woman who, at irst glance, seems to have it all.
She belongs to the most elite social circles of France, has
a family, a job in advertising, a beautiful house and a lover.
Her life is much like her advertisements: a pretty picture.
This all changes, however, when her eldest daughter
Catherine starts asking her questions about life and why
she and her family exist. Now the dilemma arises that all
parents face sooner or later: How do you tell your child
that the world isn’t always all that perfect? She begins by
trying to protect her daughter from this truth, but in the
end lets go of all subterfuge. She wants a different life for
her daughter; one that is not the follow-the-road-in-life-
66 _
that’s-been-laid-out-for-you-without-ever-straying-from-
the-path one that she has led. De Beauvoir’s protagonist
says she will not prevent her daughter from reading the
books or seeing the friends she chooses. Her children
deserve to see that life isn’t a pretty brochure, but that
it contains a world full of pain, crime and treachery.
FEELINGS AND REASON
And that message—face real life; don’t escape into romantic
fantasies—is also the theme of the classic novel Jane Eyre
by British author Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre is an orphan
who lives with her heartless aunt and stony-faced cousins.
During her time at boarding school, Jane makes friends
with Helen, a girl she admires for her brave attitude toward
life. Helen teaches Jane that you can try to forgive the
people who treat you badly. ‘Life appears to me too short
to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs,’
says Helen. A valuable lesson for Jane to consider as,
on the one hand, she has a strong character with burning
emotions, but on the other, has a highly developed
thinking faculty that she uses in her efforts to stop her
emotions from overtaking her. The lesson I learned from
this classic is not to get stuck in feeling sorry for myself,
but to lead the best life I can within my possibilities and
the situation I am in.
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Another novel full of interesting life lessons—this time
about identity and what is considered to be ‘beautiful’—is
The Bluest Eye by American author Toni Morrison, who
won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. It is about a
black girl who wishes she had blue eyes, because she
feels unloved and thinks that if she had blue eyes,
someone would love her. The book starts with a >
 ‘YOU CAN TRY TO DESTROY BOOKS,
BUT YOU CAN NEVER ERASE THE THOUGHTS
AND IDEAS THAT THEY HAVE SPREAD’
conversation between two black girls who are admiring
a picture of the white child star Shirley Temple. Claudia
doesn’t understand this sentiment; she feels something
for all the Shirley Temples in the world which goes beyond
hate. If she could, she would dismember all of her white
dolls and worse still, all of the white girls too. ‘To discover
what eluded me: the secret of the magic they weaved on
others’, she says. ‘What made people look at them and say,
“Awww”, but not for me? The eye slide of black women as
they approached them on the street, and the possessive
gentleness of their touch as they handled them.’
The Bluest Eye highlights how important it is for
African-Americans to develop their own sense of identity
and self-worth. In her afterword, Morrison explains that,
when she was a child, she knew a black girl at primary
school who wanted blue eyes. Morrison wondered how
that desire was possible. ‘Who had looked upon her and
found her wanting? Who had ranked her so low on the
TEXT MARISKA JANSEN ILLUSTRATIONS BECCA STADTLANDER
scale of beauty?’ she asks.
FOLLOWING YOUR HEART OR CONVENTION?
The literary tome Anna Karenina by Russian author Leo
Tolstoy takes place in a totally different world. Even though
it is based around the story of one woman, Anna, it
explores a diverse range of topics, from family to social
class and from morality to religion. Married to Count
Karenin, a dull senior government oficial, Anna falls in
love, and has an affair, with the more dashing Count
Vronsky. The brilliant thing about this book is how Tolstoy
describes the ways life in Russia was circumscribed by
social conventions in the 19th century, and how your
choice of life partner could become oppressive. ‘The third
circle with which Anna had ties was preeminently the
fashionable world—the world of balls, of dinners, of
The illustrated scenes from ‘Pride & Prejudice’ featured in this story were made by Becca Stadtlander. The images
were originally made for a series of ‘Classics Unfolded’ books by UK publishing company Frances Lincoln
sumptuous dresses’, Tolstoy writes, ‘the world that hung
on to the court with one hand, so as to avoid sinking to
the level of the demi-monde. For the demi-monde the
members of that fashionable world believed that they
despised, though their tastes were not merely similar,
but in fact identical’.
Anna Karenina’s message? That it’s wise to live an
orderly life and not be bowled over by love, because love
does not always guarantee a happy ending.
ALL-INCLUSIVE
And that’s a truth in many a book. The famous classics
may well be full of wisdom on how to live, but they don’t
necessarily have a happy ending, or use one to make their
point. A case in point here can possibly be made with
Auto-da-Fé. Peter Kien ends up setting ire to his most
prized possession, a tragic event that is a reference to the
book-burning by the Nazis in 1933 in Berlin. Perhaps this
is the transcendent message to be found in literature: You
can try to destroy books, but you can never erase the
thoughts and ideas that they have spread.
WANT TO READ (AND LEARN) MORE?
✻ ‘Auto-da-Fé‘ (1935), by Elias Canetti
✻ ‘Les Belles Images‘ (1966), by Simone
de Beauvoir
✻ ‘Jane Eyre‘ (1847), by Charlotte Brontë
✻ ‘The Bluest Eye‘ (1970), by Toni Morrison
✻ ‘Anna Karenina‘ (1877), by Leo Tolstoy
_ 69
 T RA
X
E

EXTRA
RA

EXT

READING
WOMEN
From a royal queen to screen queens:
Four postcards depicting a love for reading.

70 _
 SOPHIA LOREN
PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES, PIERLUIGI PRATURLON/REPORTERS ASSOCIATI & ARCHIVI/MONDADORI PORTFOLIO, BRIDGEMAN IMAGES (SOPHIA LOREN)
This photo of Italian
actress and singer
Sophia Loren was
taken in 1963, at the height of her
fame. She won an Oscar the year
before for her starring role in war
drama La Ciociara (‘Two Women’),
received as much as one million
US dollars in 1964 for The Fall of
the Roman Empire, and would
once again be nominated for an
Oscar a year later. Between jobs,
Loren would read books at home.
PRINCESSES
ELIZABETH
AND MARGARET
As third in line for the
throne, it wasn’t expected that
Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary
Windsor would become Queen of
the United Kingdom and the other
Commonwealth realms. But as her
uncle, King Edward VIII abdicated,
and her parents had no son, it
actually happened in 1952. And
now she is the world’s longest-
reigning monarch. In this photo
she is sitting in a window at
Windsor Castle, reading to her little
sister Princess Margaret Rose.
MARILYN
MONROE
The ‘most beautiful
girl in America’ also
had another side. In the late 1940s,
Marilyn Monroe took night classes
at university. She also devoured
books by well-known authors.
After her breakthrough, she studied
less but her love for literature
remained. Here, she is reading To
the Actor: On the Technique of
Acting by Michael Chekhov in a
New York hotel in 1955.
AUDREY
HEPBURN AND
COLETTE
British actress
Audrey Hepburn lived with her
Dutch mother in the Netherlands
during World War II in the cities
of Arnhem and Velp. Hepburn
wanted to be a ballerina, but was
unsuccessful. She landed her irst
ilm role in 1951, and was spotted
by French novelist Colette, who
insisted she star in the Broadway
play Gigi, based on her novella of
the same name. That was the
beginning of Hepburn’s illustrious
and successful career.
_ 71

The Benefits
of Daydreaming
T he more we focus on something, the quicker we will
achieve our goal. At least, that’s what we tell
ourselves. Meanwhile US-based psychiatrist Srini
Pillay says that too much focus limits our creativity.
Why, in your opinion, are we
so focused on focusing?
When people want to change
something, they feel that more focus
will be the key to solving their
problem. Whether they want to get
more work done, become a better
leader, have a happier marriage or
lose weight, they seek their salvation
in heightened discipline, detailed
action plans, rigorous time schedules,
carefully composed to-do lists,
calendar notiications and noise-
cancelling headphones. And after all
that they often discover that it’s not
working, or at least it’s not working as
well as they had expected it to. And it
isn’t making them any happier either.
Why is the emphasis always
on success?
First of all, we are being asked to
do more and more in today’s world.
This is partly because of all of the
technological developments: We need
to answer our phone, the messages
that come in, our emails and so on.
So many things are thrown at us
every day that it’s impossible to
process it all. In response we are
trying to have as much control as we
can, to streamline everything and to
focus better. As there is currently a lot
of competition in the labor market,
people also feel on their guard at
work. On top of all this we are trying
to live with a healthy balance between
our private life and working life, and
we waste a lot of time worrying about
this. We wonder, ‘Am I spending
enough time with my family? Maybe I
should focus on them more, but I’m
always so tired...’
What happens when you focus
too much?
Let me say irst of all that focus is a
good thing to a certain degree, even
indispensable, as it helps you inish
your work, it organizes your thinking
and keeps your emotions in check.
When you focus less, you see more,
because focusing too much can
backire. You can compare it to the
narrow, bright beam of light from a
lashlight that shines in a straight line
ahead. It’s handy when you need to
see what’s right in front of you, but less
useful when you want to also see the
things around you, in your peripheral
view. Too much focus can make you
less creative and less innovative.
Live mindfully
Zeitgeist
A funny example comes from the
Gillette company. Back in the day, it
had a toothbrush department and a
battery department, but initially it
wasn’t managing to develop an
electric toothbrush because each
department was focusing separately
only on its own range and own
working methods. Being overly
focused also exhausts your brain. It
becomes dificult to make decisions
and you become alienated from the
people around you, even from yourself.
Research has shown that you become
less empathetic toward the people
around you. Test subjects who were
told to focus very intensely while
watching a video, were afterward less
inclined to voluntarily offer to help
victims of a tragic event.
Your solution is to alternate
focused periods with periods of
defocusing. What is that exactly?
Defocusing is a process that relaxes
your brain. It’s pondering, mucking
about and trying things out. It is a
state of non-focus. A way to widen
your light beam, so that you also start
seeing the things in your peripheral
ield of vision. When I was a >
_ 73
 ‘BEING DISTRACTED IS A SIGN OF FATIGUE.
YOUR BRAIN NEEDS A BREAK AND IT WILL
TAKE IT WITHOUT ASKING’
medical student, I experienced
irst-hand what excessive focusing
can do to you. Nobody spent more
time studying and working than I did
in that time. But even if I stayed up
all night, it didn’t show in my grades.
They only improved when I learned
to take a break every hour, spent
more time with friends and started
meditating. Defocusing reduces the
activity in your amygdala, a part of
your brain that transmits stress
signals. If this area of the brain is
less active, you become calmer. In
addition, your ‘observing ego’ is less
present when you are defocused, so
you don’t hear that critical voice in
your head all the time. The third
advantage is that your store of
thinking energy is replenished during
this period, which reduces the chance
of a burnout. And next time it’s
necessary, you’ll be able to
concentrate better.
What things are good to do if
you want to defocus?
Showering, walking, knitting, gardening,
making music and listening to music,
imagining things, daydreaming, musing
out loud, sharing your thoughts with
someone the moment you think them.
Or doodling. Say that you want to listen
to something really well, it’s good to
know that you remember 25 percent
more if you are just doodling on a pad
while you listen. But having said that,
there is no one-size-its-all for
defocusing. Try everything out and
do whatever feels best for you.
74 _
What is the difference between
defocusing and staring out
the window when you should
be working?
Being distracted is a sign of fatigue.
Your brain needs a break and it will
take it without asking. It’s more
beneicial if you can stay ahead of
that moment and consciously choose
when to take a break. There’s a big
difference between defocusing
consciously or unconsciously. You do
one voluntarily, the other involuntarily.
Our thoughts tend to wander half of
the time anyway, usually in the form
of negative woolgathering: worry,
worry, worry. That is not a nice way
to defocus, it doesn’t do anything for
you. While conscious and positive
daydreams help you be more open
to new experiences.
‘Conscious and positive’ sounds
quite focused again, or at least
a matter of some concentration.
True. You start with the focus to
decide to stop doing what you’re
doing. This can be as simple as
putting down your pen, for example,
or closing your laptop. Then you
‘disconnect’, with the intention to let
your thoughts run free after that. Now
you switch to defocusing until you are
completely absorbed in the lightness
of your daydreams. In mindfulness or
meditation the same thing often
happens: You start by focusing, on
your breathing for example, and then
after that you end up in a different
state of being.
In your book, Tinker Dabble
Doodle Try, you also describe
what it’s like to consciously
assume a different identity.
Isn’t that scary?
That’s one of my favorite experiments.
Here in the US it’s also called
‘psychological halloweenism’:
consciously submerging yourself in
another identity—like on Halloween.
Imagine becoming someone you’d like
to be: an entrepreneur, a poet, a chef.
If you are completely absorbed by this,
you may even dress for it, you’ll ind
yourself doing things that you wouldn’t
normally do. By using your imagination
in this way, you’re increasing your
creative possibilities. If you feel anxiety
about it, I think that’s because of
what the Danish philosopher Søren
Kierkegaard called the ‘dizziness of
freedom’. We are always looking for
something secure; we like to have
solid ground under our feet. When we
have too much freedom and too many
possibilities, we become afraid. Also
where your identity is concerned. So
you might think: I’m not the kind of
person who pretends to be someone
else, or dresses up. But when you just
try it out, you may ind that letting go of
the reins can teach you something—no
matter how serious you are.
You also recommend defocusing
when we’re faced with our
problems, for example, if a
relationship is not going well.
In my book I give the example of one
of my clients, Jackie. She thought her
 husband was a good person, but,
according to her, their marriage was
hitting a low point. Another date night
didn’t seem like enough of a solution
to her anymore. But the more you
focus on your problems, the more
you get stuck. So if you want to move
forward, you irst have to start looking
at your situation from a different
perspective: What are the possibilities?
Tell yourself—and preferably out
loud—that you can change this
INTERVIEW CATELIJNE ELZES HAND-LETTERING VALERIE MCKEEHAN
situation. By looking past the miserable
feeling, Jackie realized that she was
lacking enthusiasm for everything in
her life. To rekindle the ire in herself,
she started taking piano lessons again.
That gave her the energy to talk to
her husband about their marriage.
Eventually they agreed to keep half
an hour free for each other each night.
They spent that time talking about
positive points, how their relationship
had enriched their lives and why they
were proud of the children. They also
planned a weekly cocktail night at
home. By thinking about things
together and trying new things out
together, they both felt more energized.
Their connection got better.
How do you make defocusing
a fixed part of your life?
As contradictory as it sounds, in
the beginning you really have to set
an alarm for yourself as a reminder.
For example, start planning one
defocusing activity per day. You can
take a walk, listen to music, water
the plants while you let your thoughts
low freely, consciously daydream
or watch a movie on your computer.
Next, start planning more of these
moments in your day. For example,
work 75 minutes and then defocus
for 15 minutes. The next step is to
pause after every 45 minutes. What
you’re trying to achieve here is that
it eventually becomes an automatic
habit. Also book weekly time for
activities that make your week less
monotonous. A movie night with
friends, for example, or something
else that you like to do in your spare
time. And then also make time for a
longer ‘defocus period’ such as a
vacation (it can be a staycation) or
a retreat. During such periods you
often get new ideas and inspiration,
and you again realize what you really
like doing.
What is your own favorite way
to defocus?
For my work I like to study the
workings of the brain, but I also love
making music. At the moment I’m
writing a musical. People sometimes
ask me: ‘What are you? A scientist
or an artist?’ I’m both. That, too, is a
way to defocus.
Srini Pillay is Assistant
Professor of Psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School in
the US. He is also a brain
expert, musician and author.
Pillay is currently working
on a model to help people
shift their way of thinking
so that more burnouts can be
prevented. He also gives
employees of large companies
classes about the benefits
of defocusing. His latest
book is ‘Tinker Dabble
Doodle Try: Unlock the Power
of the Unfocused Mind’.
_ 75
 Notice all
that is good
DEEP DOWN WE ALL KNOW THAT HAPPINESS CAN BE FOUND IN
SIMPLE AND EVERYDAY THINGS, YET WE TEND TO OVERLOOK THEM

BECAUSE WE’RE JUST TOO BUSY. BUT IF WE WRITE DOWN THOSE

LITTLE MOMENTS OF JOY, WE START TO NOTICE THEM MORE OFTEN.

Relecting on the little things you are
grateful for: there is plenty of scientiic
evidence to show that this is not only
fun, but also beneicial. For example,
it seems that gratitude gives rise to
behavior that we regard as moral and
good. Grateful people are more caring,
more compassionate and more fair,
and have more respect for others.
Robert Emmons, gratitude expert
and professor of psychology at the
University of California, Davis, in the
US, believes gratitude boosts energy
and inspiration. ‘Gratitude provides
life with meaning by encapsulating life
itself as a gift,’ he writes. So you focus
on what you do have instead of what
you don’t have. That generates
happiness and gives you comfort
during dificult times.

76 _
 Live mindfully
Inspiration

GIVE YOURSELF A BOOST OF GRATITUDE

Beautiful sentences or phrases that I read or heard this week:

Something good that happened unexpectedly:

Something that I’m really looking forward to:

>

_ 77
 A fear I successfully overcame:

TEXT MARIJE VAN DER HAAR-PETERS ILLUSTRATIONS ANISA MAKHOUL

A song that makes me happy:

Things that worked out really well this month:

78 _
Spoil yourself
 ILLUSTRATION ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THIS PAGE ANNE BENTLEY

Anne Bentley says she often combines traditional

painting with digital drawing. She makes her colorful
illustrations on an iPad. “I don’t sketch, but just
start drawing on my tablet. It’s quick and it’s easy
to make changes while I’m working. That way of working
suits me really well.”
 For years, Ulla-Stina Wikander has collected cross-stitch embroideries.
According to the Swedish designer, they are ‘seen as kitsch and regarded
pretty worthless. I think that sometimes they are really beautiful and I want to
bring them back to life.’ And that’s what she does by covering everyday
household items from the ’70s—like a rotary phone, iron or coffee machine—in
embroideries. And then, all of a sudden, they look completely different.

Ullastinawikander.com; Instagram: @uskonst

_ 81
 SPOIL
YOURSELF
Don’t forget to take some time
for life’s little pleasures

IT’S ALL ABOUT ME

We all need some me-time and to spoil
ourselves, but with our fast-paced lives, we
tend to forget to do so on a regular basis.
Which is why signing up to Moi-Même might
be just the thing. This (quarterly) subscription
MOTHER NATURE’S service sends out ‘life’s little pleasures’ boxes
TRUE COLORS illed with surprise gifts from the worlds of
Hands up: Who knew that the color jewelry, stationery, beauty, homeware,
Prussian Blue can be found in the accessories and more. The products inside
beauty spot of a mallard’s wing, on come from independent brands and are
the stamen of an anemone or in a tailored to customers’ preferences, when
piece of blue copper ore? If yours relevant—from skin type and clothes size to
didn’t go up (or even if it did), you color and even sometimes personalized. To
might want to delve into Werner’s ind out what this edition holds and to
Nomenclature of Colours by subscribe, go to moi-meme.co.uk. 
Patrick Syme. First published in
the pre-photographic age, it was
the 19th-century’s leading guide to
color and its classiication. Ok, so
we have Pantone swatches to refer
to now, but they don’t provide the
same vast (handwritten) detail that
describes where each speciic
shade can be found on an animal,
plant or mineral. And they also
weren’t used by Charles Darwin to
name nature’s colors during his
voyage on the HMS Beagle...
Smithsonianbooks.com

Picture-Perfect Poetry
Whether you’re at the start of a relationship, been with your sweetheart for years or
just a pure romantic deep down, Love Found: 50 Classic Poems of Desire, Longing
and Devotion is bound to set many a heart a lutter. Not only because of the collection
of classic love poems compiled within its covers—which capture the full spectrum of
romance—but also because of the artwork, especially illustrated by Jennifer Orkin
Lewis, that brings each poem to life. Get ready to swoon. Abramsandchronicle.co.uk

82 _

And So To Sleep...
Aaaaaah, the hammock: a symbol of sheer
relaxation. Just seeing one evokes that sense
of being on vacation and balmy days outdoors.
But you can also beneit from one at home.
Researchers at the University of Geneva in
Switzerland found that sleeping in a hammock
is more relaxing than sleeping in a bed due to
TEXT JULIA GORODECKY IMAGES JENNIFER ORKIN LEWIS (PICTURE-PERFECT POETRY), ©RG&B IMAGES/STOCKSY UNITED (AND SO TO SLEEP...)
a connection between soft swinging motions
and a synchronizing action in the brain that
intensiies our impulse to fall deeply asleep.
You can ind out more, and order your own
hammock, on lasiesta.com.
CREATIVE CRITTERS
Owls, lamingoes, llamas, what have you: Every
few months, a new creature wanders into our
hearts in the form of Insta posts or images on
clothes, cups, cases and so on, proving that it’s
not just kitty cats that are taking the world by
storm. If you fancy ‘domesticating’ your favorite
one for your wall (without having to take up
taxidermy), you can ind a plethora of craft kits
encompassing embroidery, cross-stitch
patterns, mosaics and more from places
such as Etsy (the ones above are from
NamasteEmbroidery), Amazon, Not on the High
Street, or even from the actual High Street.
CUTE ROOMIE
Her start in life was a
bumpy one: when Pumpkin
the raccoon was just one
month old, she fell out of a
tree and into the lives of
Laura Young and her family.
Her fall resulted in a broken
leg. And adoption, as the
Youngs took the abandoned
raccoon in and ixed her
up. Pumpkin is now a
fully-ledged member of the
family, and you can follow
her adventures (with her
‘sisters’ Toffee and Oreo the
dogs) on Instagram
(@pumpkintheraccoon).
A TASTY FEAST
‘Life is too short to eat boring food’. Wise words indeed. And
not so surprising to learn that they come from a teenager. But
what is surprising is that this teenager is the guy behind a
popular Instagram account that depicts healthy vegan food.
Peru-based Jose became a vegan at the age of 14, and has
been posting pictures of his creations since he started having
to cook for himself. Not only is the food he posts tasty on the
palate, it’s also tasty on the eye as he aims to present it in an
aesthetically pleasing and fun way—think galaxy ice-cream,
unicorn smoothies and mermaid bowls.
Get your serving at @naturally.jo.
_ 83
 Spoil yourself

Web shopping
FOR THIS ISSUE, WE PUT TOGETHER GOODIES FROM

SOME OF OUR FAVORITE WEBSITES THROUGHOUT

THE WORLD. FROM POLKA-DOTTED TOTES TO
GEOMETRIC LLAMAS—AND EVERYTHING CAN BE

BOUGHT WITH THE CLICK OF A MOUSE.

84 _
 Shaping up nicely

2 3 4

5 6 7

8 9 10

11 12 13

G eometric 1. 3D triangular collar necklace, €29—oliverbonas.com 2. Chevron pencil case, €9—seapinks.etsy.com 3. Teardrop terrarium by Lenka’s
Terrariums, £60—amazon.co.uk 4. Origami sloth enamel pin, €8—folditcreations.etsy.com 5. Sketchbook with handmade embroidery thread, €15—kariniti.com
6. German shepherd necklace, €17—glorikamishop.etsy.com 7. Wooden hexagonal planter, €65—waldmade.etsy.com 8. Galaxy phone case, €8—overcase.net
9. Llama mug, €18—designgenesstudio.com 10. Geometric print, €8—pennyjanedesign.etsy.com 11. Porcelain honeycomb air planter, €21—revisionsdesign.etsy.com
12. Bear brooch, €25—mariaallenboutique.etsy.com 13. Gold geometric pendant light, €160—revealcrochet.com

Prices are given in the currency of the original website _ 85

 1

86 _
 Going dotty

2 3 4

5 6 7

8 9 10
PRODUCTION ANNE-MARIE REM ILLUSTRATION SHUTTERSTOCK

11 12 13

Circles and polka dots 1. White Stuff dotty canvas tote bag, £35—johnlewis.com 2. Tea towel, US$16—relishdecor.com 3. Coin/card purse,
£22—hedleyield.com 4. Drawstring backpack, US$42—baggu.com 5. Confetti garland, US$14—aidieshideaway.storenvy.com 6. Round sunglasses, €120—follifollie.com
7. Washi masking tape, £3—prettylittlepartyshop.co.uk 8. Polka dot gift wrap set, £6—katieleamon.com 9. Confetti balloon (set of 8), €17–crankycakesshop.etsy.com
10. Candle tin, £10—daisypark.co.uk 11. Emma Bridgewater mug, £18—johnlewis.com 12. Bamboo pastel plates (set of 6), £23—prettylittlepartyshop.co.uk
13. Needle carry case, US$8—stitchedmodern.com

Please note that prices and items on websites may vary _ 87

VLASTA ČÍŽKOVÁ (1910)
Ages: 101 & 23 Worked
as: a cook in a canteen on an
airield Lives in: her own
home in the same village as
her family Hobbies: keeps
up with current political affairs
Family bond: changing;
some family members visit
her regularly, others rarely
Engraved in memory:
Russian soldiers in her
house after the liberation;
the arrest of her only son by
the Communists in 1948;
reciting her own poetry at
weddings Wish: to have
her family together
 Spoil yourself
Picture story

CZECH PHOTOGRAPHER JAN LANGER CREATED

PORTRAITS OF CENTENARIANS IN THE SAME

POSES OF PHOTOS TAKEN WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG.

_ 89
 VINCENC JETELINA
(1906) Ages: 30 &
105 Worked as: a
construction worker
Lives in: his own home
in a village Hobbies:
peace and tranquility
Family bond: bad; his
family has severed ties
with him Engraved in
memory: eight years in
prison for his position as
district commissioner
during World War II
Wish: God’s justice for
one and all

LUDMILA
VYSLOUŽILOVÁ
(1912) Ages: 23 &
101 Worked as: a
maid, nanny Lives in:
a terraced house
Hobbies: chopping
wood, sweeping snow
Family bond: good;
lives with her retired
son, and her other son
often visits Engraved
in memory: her dear
husband who died over
60 years ago; she never
remarried Wish: that
things go well for her
two sons

90 _
ANNA
POCHOBRADSKÁ
(1910) Ages: ca. 30
& 100 Worked as: a
farmer, laborer on a
collective farm Lives
in: a nursing home
Hobbies: sleeping
Family bond: good; her
daughter visits every
weekend Engraved in
memory: independence
Wish: to die

LUDVÍK CHYBÍK
(1908) Ages: 20 &
102 Worked as: a
postman Lives in:
a nursing home
Hobbies: none Family
bond: bad; don’t see
each other Engraved
in memory: doing the
daily postal round
Wish: to see his daughter

_ 91
 PROKOP VEJDĚ LEK
(1909) Ages: 22 & 101
Worked as: an engineer
Lives in: the family
farmhouse that his daughter
built for him Hobbies:
working with a circular saw
Family bond: really good;
lives with his retired daughter,
his granddaughter and her
husband Engraved in
memory: fresh, warm goat’s
milk Wish: good health and
happiness for all

92 _
_ 93
 ANTONIN
BALDRMAN (1910)
Ages: 17 & 101
Worked as: a clerk
Lives in: a nursing
home Hobbies:
reading newspapers
Family bond: good; his
daughter visits him
twice a week
Engraved in memory:
great work colleagues
Wish: peace

MARIE BUREŠOVÁ
(1910)
Ages: 23 & 101
Worked as: a butcher
Lives in: own lat in
prefab house
Hobbies: chatting with
her family Family
bond: great; she gets
visits from her daughter,
son-in-law or
granddaughter every
day Engraved in
memory: nationalization
of her company Wish:
to have her family
around her

94 _
 ‘NATURALLY, PEOPLE CHANGE WITH THE
PASSING OF TIME... BUT THERE IS ALWAYS
SOMETHING THAT ALSO STAYS THE SAME’

“I’m mad about eyes, and not only in photography,”
says Jan Langer from the Czech Republic city of
Opava, where he was born and still lives. “Sometimes
a look says more than a long conversation, especially
if you look a little longer in someone’s eyes.”
Perhaps the essence of Langer’s portrait series
TEXT CHRIS MUYRES, JAN LANGER (CAPTIONS) PHOTOGRAPHY JAN LANGER HAND-LETTERING VALESCA VAN WAVEREN
draw as a viewer. Actually, I am still unraveling that.
Because, naturally, people change with the passing of
time. They have more life experience, are sometimes
humble or just tired out. They can feel satisied or
complete, but also disappointed. They ind their life
valuable or worthless. Because of these insights, their

Faces of Century is hidden in the eyes. On YouTube
(search for ‘Jan Langer’) you can ind a slideshow that
blends his portraits of centenarians with portraits of
them that were taken 70 or 80 years earlier. If you put
the two photos beside each other, you notice that one
thing hardly changes: the eyes. And it’s not so much
the eyes themselves, but the look. “Before the project
really took off, I didn’t quite know how I would handle
it,” Langer says. “When I was sitting in the living room
with the irst centenarian, I couldn’t just take a picture
without knowing anything about this lady. And so we
started talking. She pulled out a box of family photos
from her childhood and began to recall memories. It
was magical hearing her talk about things that had
happened 80 years or even longer ago. When she took
out a studio portrait of herself from the 1930s, she
suddenly stopped and mused, ‘It all went so fast, in a
second it seems’. She became silent. Me too. Time
stopped for a moment. That’s when the idea came to
me: What if I try to take a photo of her that would be as
similar as possible to that portrait from her youth, so
that you can see what has taken place between then
and now? I asked her if she would go along with that
idea and she agreed, with visible pleasure.”
personality also changes in some way. But there is
always something that makes them unique, something
that also stays the same. You can see that at a glance
in older faces, combined with the memories that remain
in a hundred-year-old spirit.
I’ve noticed that people get really moved by the
photos. Looking at them makes us realize that we will
all become old and look back at our lives. That we
really should try to live every moment. Then one day we
will see very clearly what really has been of value. What
sticks with us are the feelings we cannot escape. Was it
a good life? Did I live it well? Have I lived in a way that
was of value to me, but also to the people around me?
If this all happens to me in my future, then I’ll be more
than grateful.” Janlanger.net

‘WAS IT A GOOD LIFE?’

“To my surprise, I didn’t need to put people into a
certain mood or atmosphere to evoke their previous
look,” Langer says. “Apparently there’s something in a
person that stays the same through the years. I think a
lot about what that means, what conclusions you can

_ 95
‘This display
case contains a
lot of souvenirs
from Japan.’
 Spoil yourself
Inspiration

A Peek Inside
the Eclectic House
of Two Designers
WINNEKE AND FELIX LIVE AND WORK IN A CREATIVE NIRVANA:
DOWNSTAIRS, IN THEIR STUDIO, THEY FOCUS ON THEIR DESIGNS

AND ILLUSTRATIONS. UPSTAIRS, THEIR HOME IS FULL OF PLANTS,

THEIR OWN CREATIONS, SOUVENIRS AND DESIGNS.

Winneke de Groot
& Felix van Dam
PROFESSION:
Designers,
illustrators and
founders of We
are out of office
LOCATION:
Utrecht, the
Netherlands
WHAT: A studio/
home where they
work, and live
with their cats,
Paling and Vis

_ 97
‘Our living room.
We like having
lots of plants in
our house.’
 ‘Dutch designer
Dirk Vander Kooij
made this chair using
a 3D printer.’

Want to see more of Winneke and Felix of We are out of office?

Visit their pages on Instagram (@wereoutofoffice) and Etsy (weareoutofoffice.etsy.com) _ 99

How would you describe
your home?
Winneke: “Colorful and organized
chaos. It is tidy and contained, but we
have a lot of little corners, cabinets and
shelves full of various collections. When
I was living in student housing, visitors
said that I always had something for
them to look at, and this is still the
case. Sometimes I see photos of those
beautifully styled Tomado racks on
Instagram that contain no more than
four objects. I can’t do that; I always
have to add another object or two.”
Felix: “The things we collect are mostly
souvenirs from our trips. We still know
exactly when we found them and
where we were at the time.”
Winneke: “My favorite souvenir is a can
of watermelon seeds. I just love the
packaging, it inspires me and is a nice
memory. We bought it from a sweet old
lady who had all these bags of seeds
hanging over her door.”
Who made the prints on the wall?
Winneke: “A lot of what you see is our
own work. We also do this to see how
a design looks in an actual interior.
We have a lot of work from other
people that we want to hang on the
wall, but we’re still looking for nice
frames to put them in.”
Felix: “I often make the frames myself,
but I just don’t have enough time now.”
Was it a conscious decision to
have your workspace at home?
Felix: “Yes. We were going crazy in
our old house, always having to work
at the kitchen table. We did have a
100 _
‘Most of the things in
our house were a matter
of love-at-first-sight’
separate studio, but then the things
I needed always seemed to be
wherever I wasn’t at the time. We really
wanted to have a place in our home
where we could work, so we can just
shut the door at the end of the day yet
still have it nearby. This has turned out
to be a perfect solution for us.”
Winneke: “We send a lot of packages
by mail and, before we lived here, this
always left such a mess in the house.
Our work and private lives were
intertwined. Now that we’ve separated
the two, our house is much neater.”
Have you been living and
working together for long?
Winneke: “We’ve been living here for
two years now, but we’ve known each
other a lot longer. We both worked at
a campsite on the island of Vlieland in
the Netherlands as teenagers. After
that, we would run into each other
when we were in college. We were
both studying graphic design at the
HKU University of the Arts Utrecht.”
Felix: “We never planned to work
together, but that’s just how things
turned out, and it works well. The
irst design we created together was
for a school project, around seven
years ago. I love to travel, and during
certain points in our program we
would come up with another project
idea on our travels. We were enjoying
a really good curry in this garage-type
place once in Thailand. The customers
would write about how great the food
was on little notes and hang them on
the wall. We came up with the idea of
creating a poster for these people to
hang up. It was a lot of fun and after
that, we started to create more
products together.”
How did you come up with the
name ‘We are out of office’?
Felix: “I inished my studies in New
York, and Winneke went with me. We
weren’t allowed to work there, but I
had built a suitcase we could use for
silk-screening. This way we could
travel and make prints. We tried to
trade our designs for certain things, like
a poster for a laundromat in exchange
for doing a few loads of laundry. That’s
how the name was born.”
Winneke: “We couldn’t live from the
work, but the responses from people
were great. We also got our irst
commission during that period:
designing the corporate style for
INTERVIEW JEANNETTE JONKER PHOTOGRAPHY VAN BELKOM PRODUCTIES
Le Bazarre, a market in Utrecht.”
Where do you find your
vintage furniture?
Winneke: “I check out second-hand
sites online, and also regularly check
the auction website Catawiki. I try to
make a mental note of the things I
like, and sometimes I will see them
again later somewhere else. We also
go to second-hand stores a lot.”
Felix: “Most of the things in our house
were a matter of love-at-irst-sight.
We are usually drawn to a shape
or color.”
Winneke: “We also tend to like
abstract objects.”
 ‘We like sitting next
to each other when
we work because we
always want to show
each other things
we’re working on.’

‘We use Riso and

silk-screening techniques
to make our prints. We
print the colors by
layering them on top of
each other. Color is really
important in our work.’

_ 101
 A Real Zest For Life
SHE HAD AN UNHAPPY CHILDHOOD, ATTRACTED THE WRONG KIND OF MAN AND LED
A TURBULENT LIFE AMONG THE CULTURAL JET SET. OVERCOMING IT ALL, PEGGY
GUGGENHEIM BECAME AN IMPORTANT ART COLLECTOR AND REMAINS A LEGEND.
In 1919, at the age of 21, Peggy Guggenheim inherited
a modest fortune—modest by her family’s standards, at
least. Henceforth, she would receive an annual income of
US$22,500 (comparable with US$330,000 today). The irst
thing she chose to spend her money on was a new nose.
Plastic surgery was a brand-new treatment at the time and
impossible to afford unless you were rich like Peggy. But
unfortunately everything that could possibly go wrong went
wrong during the procedure, which was performed under
local anesthetic. The plastic surgeon was unable to create
the nose Peggy had chosen prior to the operation and
asked her to pick another model on the spot. She was in
so much pain that she just wanted them to stop altogether.
After this botched operation, Peggy’s nose was worse than
before. But no matter the embarrassment, she forever after
made do with the one she now had. With a nose that
‘looked like a potato’, this woman, who became one of the
most important art collectors of the 20th century, looked like
a misit, matching how she felt inside.
WEALTHY BUT UNHAPPY
Marguerite (Peggy) Guggenheim was born into great
wealth in 1898. Her parents both came from very rich New
York families; the Seligmans, her mother’s family, acquired
their capital as bankers, and the Guggenheims had made
their fortune in iron and steel. The Seligmans were a pretty
eccentric bunch. There was one uncle who spent his
whole day chewing on coal (his teeth were black as soot)
and another uncle who was so paranoid about hygiene
104 _
that he lived his life in a bathtub. Peggy’s mother, Florette,
had a compulsion to say everything three times. Once she
ordered a hat with a feather from the milliner, saying, ‘A hat
with a feather, with a feather, with a feather,’ and as a
result received a hat with three feathers.
‘My childhood was excessively unhappy,’ Peggy wrote
in her book of memoirs Out Of This Century (mockingly
called Out of Her Head by her family). ‘I have no pleasant
memories of any kind.’ Her father Benjamin was always
preoccupied with his work and his extramarital affairs.
Her emotionally remote mother ran a suffocating and
bourgeois household. Her only playmates were her sisters.
Benita—‘the great love of my early life’—who was almost
three years older, and her younger sister Hazel, with whom
she didn’t get along very well. When Peggy was thirteen,
her father, whom she adored, died in the sinking of the
Titanic. ‘My father’s death affected me greatly,’ Peggy
wrote. ‘It took me months to get over the terrible nightmare
of the Titanic, and years to get over the loss of my father.
In a sense, I really have never recovered, as I suppose I
have been searching for a father ever since.’ Worse yet,
Benjamin’s inancial affairs were not in order when he died,
and Florette and her daughters had to move to a smaller
apartment. From that moment on, they were the poorer
relations of the Guggenheims. Naturally it was a very
relative kind of poverty, but the pain of it was felt acutely
nevertheless. Peggy would continue to watch her pennies
all of her life. In a world where she was considered rich as
Croesus, this sometimes irritated the people around her. >
 Spoil yourself
Inspiring lives

Peggy Guggenheim departs from the

museum in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in
Venice, Italy, in her personal gondola.
 2

‘She financially
supported many
artists, and traveled,
partied and had sex
with them’

5
 ‘She wasn’t bothered in the least that
people looked upon her as eccentric, or
that they laughed at her behind her back’
INSATIABLE
At home, Peggy was bored out of her mind. When she went
out, she was faced with anti-Semitism. There was nowhere
she could truly feel comfortable. She was expected to marry
a banker from her own social circle, but she had other plans.
The moment she became inancially independent, thanks to
her inheritance, Peggy left for Europe. She had become very
interested in art and artists, and in those days Paris, France,
was the cultural epicenter of the world. She dove right in and
soon met Laurence Vail, a French-born American artist,
author and Dadaist, also known as the ‘king of bohemians’.
In no time at all, they were married and had two children:
Sindbad and Pegeen.
It was not a happy union, however. Laurence had regular
its of anger, which he vented on Peggy, and he also abused
her physically. Peggy’s way of coping was to put up with it,
as she continued to do in later relationships. She blamed
it on her inferiority complex. After seven years, the couple
divorced. They were dificult years: her sister Benita died in
childbirth; the two sons of her sister Hazel died after falling
out the window of a New York penthouse under suspicious
circumstances. In 1934, Peggy’s British boyfriend John
Holms also died unexpectedly during a simple operation. For
Peggy, this was proof, once again, that everyone she loved
was taken from her, but fortunately her zest for life was
indestructible. She inancially supported many artists, and
traveled, partied and had sex with them. Sexually she was
insatiable—and in those days of poor contraception, she
paid a price for it in the form of several abortions.
A PAINTING PER DAY
Her rather aimless life kicked into a higher gear when she
opened the Guggenheim Jeune gallery in London, UK,
which was wholly devoted to contemporary art. Not that
she knew much about it at the time, but she hired the best
consultants to advise her. It was exciting and new and
maybe she identiied with the resistance that Modernism
at the time was still encountering. It was in her gallery
that, with some baflement, the British public got to
know the work of artists such as Kandinsky, Cocteau
and Mondrian.
The Guggenheim Jeune gallery didn’t make a lot of sales,
however, and after eighteen months, Peggy closed it, as
she had decided to open a museum of modern art. English
art historian Herbert Read made a list for her of modern
artists and art movements that would certainly have to be
included. But then World War II broke out and Peggy, who
was in Paris at the time, changed her plans, deciding that
running a museum in London would be too dangerous. She
decided to start collecting art instead. In August 1939, the
art world was decidedly unsettled. Artists were trying to sell
their work and those who, according to the Nazis, made
modern ‘morally reprehensive’ work had an even greater
necessity to do so. Jewish art dealers particularly needed to
sell their possessions to raise money for their light from the
country. Peggy started buying up Abstract and Surrealist art
by all of the artists on Herbert’s list at an extraordinary rate,
sometimes a painting per day. For what now would be a
laughingly low total of US$40,000 (in today’s value:
US$690,000), she was able to buy 125 artworks that are
now considered priceless, by artists such as Picasso, Miró,
Magritte, Brancusi, Man Ray, Léger and Van Doesburg. She
wasn’t bothered in the least that people looked upon her as
eccentric, being one of the only women in the art world, or
that they laughed at her behind her back. She was happy,
because she had discovered her destiny in life.
The Guggenheim Collection was born. But where could
she keep it safe if the Germans invaded France? The
Louvre showed no interest: the collection was too modern,
they told her, and not worth sheltering. Even with the Nazis
breathing down her neck, she refused to leave for the US
without her collection. Eventually a scheme was devised
and the artworks were clandestinely shipped to the US,
packed with pots and pans and registered as ‘household
goods’, and that’s how they stayed out of the hands of
the Germans. >
1. Peggy with her dogs on the roof terrace by the Canal Grande.
2. Peggy in the bedroom at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni.
3. With her sister Benita at a dog show.
4. Standing in the doorway of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni.
5. Film poster for the documentary Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict.
_ 107
‘ Peggy chose the museum’s opening hours to sit sunning
on the roof terrace, when possible in the nude’
1

1. Peggy with her beloved dogs.

2. & 3. At home in Venice, early
1960s.
4. Peggy giving a tour of her private
art collection.
5. In front of an artwork by Alexander
Calder, 1961.
6. A cocktail party in Peggy’s Italian
garden, 1958.

6
 ‘No one thought I would ever amount to anything.
I think I may have surprised them’
NEW YORK TO VENICE
Peggy herself arrived in New York in 1941, along with the
German Surrealist painter Max Ernst, whom she’d helped
lee Europe. They got married, but Peggy, again suffering
from an inferiority complex, chose a man who abused her
and seemed to view her, more than anything else, as a ticket
to freedom. In New York, she opened a new art gallery, Art
TEXT LIDDIE AUSTIN PHOTOGRAPHY HOLLANDSE HOOGTE, GETTY IMAGES, A COCKTAIL PARTY AT PEGGY GUGGENHEIM’S HOME,
of This Century. The modern loft space with the most avant-
garde of interiors, where the art was hung without frames and
could be touched, quickly became the talk of the town. Art of
This Century was innovative in more than one way: Peggy
ITALY, 1958 (B/W PHOTO) / MARIO DE BIASI PER MONDADORI PORTFOLIO / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK
linked together European and American Modernism, also
thanks to her newest discovery: American painter Jackson
Pollock. She gave him a stipend and four solo exhibitions,
and loaned him money that allowed him to move to the
country with his wife. During the war, Peggy also found time
to write the irst version of her own autobiography, in which
she reported quite candidly on her life as an art collector and
her sexual experiences—describing herself as a man-eater.
After the war, Peggy divorced Max, closed her gallery
and returned to Europe. In Venice, Italy, she found the
perfect home for herself, her dogs and her art collection:
the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Canal Grande. From
1951 onward, she opened it to the public three times a
week over summer so they could view her collection.
Peggy chose those times to sit sunning on the roof
terrace, when possible in the nude, cultivating her
bohemian reputation. Triumphing over her many
misfortunes, she became a legend in her own time with
her scandalous lifestyle, personal gondola and lamboyant
HAND-LETTERING VALESCA VAN WAVEREN
sunglasses. She slowed down on her art purchases,
however, as it was becoming too expensive for her.
THE BLACK SHEEP
Peggy Guggenheim was a bundle of contradictions. She was
shy and lamboyant, could be generous and warm, but also
cold, stingy and manipulative. As admirable and consistent
as she was in her care for her artists, she was less so in her
care for her own children. With Sindbad, she developed a
love-hate relationship; with her daughter, she had conlicts
but also more afinity. However, Pegeen, who became an
artist, possibly to attract her mother’s attention, suffered from
depression from a young age. When she died at the age of
42 from an overdose of pills, Peggy latly refused to believe it
was suicide. She did admit that she never really knew how to
be a mother to Pegeen. ‘Peggy’s art collection was simply
the most important thing to her, not her children’, says Karole
Vail, her granddaughter and currently the director of the
Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
However, Peggy never recovered from losing her ‘darling
Pegeen’. Twelve years after Pegeen’s death, Peggy wrote,
‘She was not only a daughter to me, but also a mother, a
friend, and a sister’. If anything Peggy’s collection became
even more important to her then. Eventually, she decided to
leave it to her uncle’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
in New York, upon the promise that the collection would be
kept intact in Venice. ‘I was always the black sheep in the
family, no one thought I would ever amount to anything,’
she wrote. ‘I think I may have surprised them.’
On 23 December 1979, Peggy died from a cerebral
hemorrhage, alone in a hospital near Padua, Italy. She was
81. Her ashes were buried in her garden, alongside the
graves of her dogs who kept her company over the years.
One of them was called Pegeen. During her life, many people
were amused by this rich woman with the unattractive nose
who lived among artists and called herself a man-eater.
Today, fortunately, she is seen for who she really was: a bold
and inluential collector who did a lot for the art world.
WANT TO LEARN AND SEE MORE?
‘Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art
Addict’, by Peggy Guggenheim
‘Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy
Guggenheim’, by Mary V. Dearborn
‘Peggy Guggenheim: The Life of an Art
Addict’, by Anton Gill
‘Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict’, a
documentary by Lisa Immordino Vreeland
www.guggenheim-venice.it
_ 111
AVAILABLE
NOW

Flow books
& calendars
Just over a year ago, The Tiny Book of Tiny Pleasures appeared: the irst book we
produced together with the creative people from Workman Publishing in New York. As you
can see, the list of Flow books and calendars has grown a lot since then.

A Book That Everything The Tiny Book

Takes its Time
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Simplify your life
 ILLUSTRATION ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THIS PAGE ANNE BENTLEY

Anne Bentley’s Instagram handle is @annembentley. On

Instagram, she not only shares her work, but also her
views on social and political issues. She took the
Women’s March of 2017 as the subject of one of her
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share are bigger than the ones that separate us,” she
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people, we have the power to initiate change, which is
a reassuring thought.”
 From cycling in wide-legged trousers to the intricacies of making a perfect messy bun,
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ILLUSTRATION NINA COSFORD

_ 115
 SIMPLIFY
YOUR LIFE
Make your life a little easier,
especially in your head
ALOUD IS ALLOWED
According to research carried out at the University of Waterloo
in Canada, we are more likely to remember things if we read
them out to ourselves aloud. The study shows that the active
involvement of speaking, in particular the dual action of talking
and hearing oneself speak, has the most beneicial impact on
getting words into long-term memory. Among the four
methods tried—reading silently, hearing someone else read,
listening to a recording of oneself reading, and reading aloud
in real time—participants found they remembered things best
when reading information aloud to themselves.
116 _
BRAIN DUMP
You remember something important while
on the go, hear a good idea while in a
meeting or see something you like
in a magazine at the dentist’s waiting room.
So, you capture it in a recording, photo or
note on your smartphone. And then promptly
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annoyance of the past. This handy app helps
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CHAOS UNDER CONTROL
If you ind yourself in a lood of chaos and
clutter but with a drought on time, try
Gretchen Rubin’s ‘One-Minute-Rule’. It’s an
easy and effective way of keeping things in
order, on a constant basis. By simply
pushing yourself to do any chore that takes
less than one minute, you save yourself a
great deal of hassle and avoid that dreaded
‘Where do I start?!’ feeling when things pile
up. Find out more on gretchenrubin.com.
 ONCE UPON
A TIME...
Whether it’s for drawing,
painting, photography, travel
ideas, cooking, crafting or what-
have-you, the fact that Instagram
is a treasure trove of inspiration
can never be denied. One such
gem aimed at the wordies out
THE FABRIC OF ART there is Writing Prompts
Creating a truly unique garment isn’t as (@writing.prompt.s), an account
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of websites out there that offer customized people to write. With regular
printed fabrics. All you need to do is to posts, there’s a plethora of
upload your design, choose the fabric and prompts to work from—just ind
amount you want and wait for the mail. one that moves you and let that
©BRUCE AND REBECCA MEISSNER/STOCKSY UNITED (THE FABRIC OF ART), CELINDA VERSLUIS (CHAOS UNDER CONTROL)

American pioneer Spoonlower ships story or poem start lowing

worldwide and offers a range of textiles as through your ingers.
TEXT JULIA GORODECKY IMAGES ISTOCK (ALOUD IS ALLOWED, ONCE UPON A TIME), SANNY VAN LOON (BRAIN DUMP),

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Spoonlower.com

Take Note
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Workers Who Lunch
Done with over-priced soggy sandwiches,
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_ 117
Slow Yoga
YOGA DOESN’T HAVE TO BE GRUELING OR DIFFICULT.
THERE ARE MANY STYLES OF YOGA THAT FOCUS

ON RELAXATION, CONNECTION AND SLOWING DOWN.

HERE ARE EIGHT TYPES OF ‘SLOW’ YOGA.

RESTORATIVE YOGA
What? This meditative yoga is
about comfort and support in all
different areas. The classes consist
of relaxed poses, each of which
you assume for ten minutes to
half an hour. To make sure that you
can relax as deeply as possible
during the exercises, all kinds of
accessories are used, including
cushions, blankets, blocks and
eye masks.
Why? We have become so
accustomed to receiving stimuli
that we are often no longer aware
of all the tension that we carry with
us. In this way you end up ignoring
the physical, mental and emotional
issues that need to be attended to.
Because you are fully supported
and relaxed in this yoga style,
these issues will now receive
attention. If you are someone who
bottles things up, it can be a little
confrontational at irst, but after a
few lessons you will notice that
you’re able to relax much more
often and more consciously. By
letting go of tension you become
more lexible, in your body as well
as in your mind. Restorative yoga
is a kind of vacation for your body,
giving the nervous system a
chance to rest and the mind
to relax.
Who? Everyone, with any
limitation, can practice this form of
yoga. After the lesson, everyone
just wants to keep lying down and
to hold on to that wonderful feeling
of optimal relaxation.
Noteworthy Unlike many other
types of yoga, every form of
physical exertion is lacking;
restorative yoga is purely focused
on relaxation and comfort.
Simplify your life
Insight
SLOW FLOW YOGA
What? During slow low yoga, the
basic techniques follow one after
another in a smooth, calm rhythm,
which is determined by your
breathing. By bringing attention to
your breathing and connecting your
movements to it, you increase your
power of concentration. You can see
slow low yoga as a kind of moving
meditation. Out of your head, into
your body.
Why? During slow low yoga you
work on building strength, inding
balance and improving your
concentration. If you do it regularly,
your posture improves and you can
ind peace more easily by bringing
your attention to your breathing.
Who? This style is suitable for people
who like to be active, but who, in
power yoga, tend to lose themselves
quickly in competitive behavior with
themselves or others. For people with
a lot of ire, slow low yoga is a great
way to ind more peace and connect
with their bodies.
Noteworthy Ujjayi, also known as
‘victorious breath’ or ‘ocean’s breath’,
is used during slow low yoga. If you
execute this breathing correctly, it will
create strength, balance and relaxation
in your body. >
_ 119
 YOGA THERAPY Who? People with physical or
What? This is a quiet form of psychological problems can
yoga. The goal is not to reach or beneit greatly from yoga therapy. AERIAL YOGA
perfect certain poses, but to bring For example, it can be used during What? Aerial yoga is an experience
your health back into balance. the treatment of a trauma, in in itself, because you perform all the
You achieve this with the help addition to seeing a psychologist. poses with the support of a hammock.
of different poses, breathing Yoga therapy is also often used The cloth of the hammock massages
exercises and mantras. during a rehabilitation period, after your body during the poses by
Why? Yoga therapy uses the tools the treatment of a serious illness. pushing back. This creates space in
of yoga to reach a therapeutic Noteworthy Yoga therapy is often your body and a free feeling in your
goal. It is preventive in nature and carried out one-on-one. That is head. You have the idea that you are
empowers you to progress toward a big difference with the other loating, which you sometimes quite
greater health and freedom from slow yoga styles. The medical literally are.
disease. But it can also be used as background also makes this Why? Playing with gravity makes this
a treatment, often as a supplement yoga style unique. yoga style lots of fun. You end up in
to another treatment. a low: out of your head and in the
moment. Each class ends with a
massage while you’re swinging in
the hammock. That is such a perfect
moment of relaxation that you’re
TAKE IT EASY going to want to hang up a hammock
like this at home.
“During some yoga classes it sometimes seems to be all about Who? With the aid of the hammock,
who can strike the most difficult poses or who wears the you can easily and gently achieve
most beautiful outfits,” says yoga teacher Melissa van den advanced poses, making this yoga
Bos, who is a big fan of slow and easy yoga. “A lot of style suitable for both novice yogis
people feel kind of anxious about the competition element and professionals. Aerial yoga is also
and outward appearances. We already have so much to do in good if you have injuries, because you
our work and at home that many people are looking for rest, can prevent unwelcome pressure on
relaxation and some light exercises. The rise of slow yoga your joints by having the hammock
is a reaction to the highly motivated, competitive yoga take the weight off in those places.
classes that we’ve been seeing for a while. Slow yoga goes Noteworthy Inverted poses such
back to the basis that yoga was actually meant for: relaxed as the headstand, the shoulder stand
poses, coming into contact with your body and mind, and and the handstand are naturally
letting go of your everyday thoughts.” meditative, easy (or easier) and safer
with the aid of the hammock.

120 _
 ‘YOU CAN ALSO FIND A LOT OF TUTORIALS ONLINE
IF YOU’D LIKE TO GET STARTED AT HOME.
THEN YOU CAN ROLL STRAIGHT INTO BED AFTERWARD’
SIVANANDA YOGA
What? Sivananda yoga is a form
of hatha yoga. Every form of hatha
yoga is about connecting yin and
yang, the sun and the moon, the
masculine and the feminine
principle—with all of the
associated qualities. Connecting
the active (yang/masculine) and
the restful (yin/feminine) creates
an optimal balance. In Sivananda
yoga, the spiritual aspect is
emphasized a bit more. Each class
starts with an opening mantra,
ends with a closing mantra and
consists of twelve asanas always
carried out in the same order, with
the irst pose being the headstand.
CANDLELIGHT YOGA
What? This is a mild form of
vinyasa yoga that is practiced in
a studio lit only by candles. With
TEXT FLEUR BAXMEIER ILLUSTRATIONS RUBY TAYLOR
the soothing scent of essential oils
surrounding you, you practice the
Moon Salutation instead of the
Sun Salutation. You do not hold
the poses for long, but you move
slowly from pose to pose. This
makes this form of yoga more
intensive than, for example,
restorative yoga, but never enough
to break into a sweat.
Why? The beneits of candlelight
yoga include a more lexible body,
enhanced hormone metabolism,
improved concentration and
Why? You learn a lot about the ive
basic principles of yoga: proper
nutrition (vegetarian), correct
postures (asanas), proper breathing
(pranayama), proper relaxation
(savasana) and positive thoughts
and meditation (Vedanta and
dhyana). With all of these added up,
you end up feeling nice and rested.
Who? Everyone who is looking for
a nice mix of peace, philosophy
and challenge.
Noteworthy Besides the asanas,
the focus is on the yogi lifestyle.
Not many other yoga forms pay
attention to mantras, to thanking
the masters and to the magic of
the body in every lesson.
sounder sleep, which results in
more energy during the day. It is a
soothing form of yoga that helps to
clear your mind.
Who? If you suffer from sleep
problems, or are in need of
de-stressing at the end of the
day, candlelight yoga is the thing
for you. The classes are also ideal
if you simply enjoy a nice, safe and
peaceful atmosphere.
Noteworthy The lessons are only
given late in the evening, but you
can also ind a lot of tutorials
online if you’d like to get started at
home. Then you can roll straight
into bed afterward.
YOGA NIDRA
What? Yoga Nidra is guided
relaxation lasting from 30 to 45
minutes. The teacher leads you to
a conscious deep sleep, in which
you gain access to your conscious,
subconscious and unconscious
minds. The goal of this ‘yogic sleep’
is total relaxation of your body and
mind. In the beginning it is dificult to
lie with your eyes closed and not fall
asleep, but it becomes easier if you
do it on a regular basis.
Why? During Yoga Nidra, you reach
a meditative state without having
formally meditated. After even one
lesson you’ll notice the beneits, such
as stress reduction and better sleep.
Who? From children to the elderly.
The only thing you need to be able to
do in Yoga Nidra is to lie on the loor.
Noteworthy For people with sleep
problems, Yoga Nidra is a good way
to get to sleep. You can also practice
this form of yoga yourself very easily
at home; you’ll ind plenty of sessions
on iTunes and YouTube.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Networkyogatherapy.org
On YouTube you can find practice
videos and tutorials for almost
all yoga styles, slow and
otherwise.
_ 121
 RA
XT
E

EXTRA
RA

EXT

Sneak Peek at our New Flow Book

Creativity
Takes Courage
Creativity is something we all need.
With a creative mind, it is easier to ind
solutions to daily problems: work gets
more interesting, it’s easier to manage
relationships, it’s simpler to think of
new ways to ind a good work-life
balance, and so on. So it’s no wonder
that we look upon all those to whom
creativity comes naturally with envy:
The people who invent new products
or who create the most stunning
paintings and sculptures. Or those who
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professional to be more creative? No,
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everyone. That’s why we made a new
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with Workman Publishing.
Creativity Takes Courage is a book
full of dares, because creativity begins
when you are able to silence your
critical inner voice. And for that, you
need courage. Courage to fail, courage
to look at the world as a child does,
courage to bore yourself to death
sometimes, and courage to get out of
your comfort zone. In the mini booklet
on the facing page, you will ind a
sample chapter of the book: it’s about
the courage to commit, which can help
you to silence your inner critic by
breaking up a project into smaller
pieces. Included are 29 tips on projects
you can start today.

WANT TO READ MORE? CREATIVITY TAKES COURAGE (€21.95)

IS AVAILABLE FROM THE FLOW WEB SHOP (WHILE STOCKS LAST)
AND IN BOOKSTORES ACROSS THE US.

122 _
 With lots of ideas on how to
get your plans off the ground.
ILLUSTRATIONS KATE PUGSLEY BACKGROUND ILLUSTRATION SHUTTERSTOCK

_ 123
 Why We Prioritize the Small Tasks

THE IMPORTANCE
TRAP
WHY DO WE ALWAYS PUT OFF THE BIG, IMPORTANT TASKS AND
TACKLE THE LITTLE THINGS FIRST? JOURNALIST FLEUR BAXMEIER
KEEPS GETTING CAUGHT IN THE SAME TRAP. IS THERE A BETTER

WAY TO APPROACH ALL THE THINGS WE NEED TO DO?

Thirteen years ago, when I went to view the
house where I now live, my irst thought was,
‘It’s perfect, but the metal kitchen cabinets
have to go. I need to get rid of those rickety
cupboards, the old oven, the moldy drain
and the leaky refrigerator’. Those were the
irst things I planned to do. ‘Then I’ll make
the layout more eficient, add new white tiles,
put in a dishwasher and new pipes under
the loor,’ I told myself. ‘It will beautiful.’
The only stumbling block was that I work
from home as a freelance journalist, so I had
to think really hard about when all the work
could be done. Preferably not during a really
busy period, but then again, how do you plan
for that? Finding the right contractor was
another problem. There are plenty of builders,
but which one should I choose? My boyfriend
and I couldn’t completely agree on the colors
either. The same went for the boyfriend after
him, by the way.
Years passed, and I thought about that
unrealized new kitchen often. Almost every
evening, actually, whenever I would make yet
another attempt to prepare a meal on the two
burners that still worked, and occasionally
also in the morning when I would ind the
butter frozen into a layer of ice at the back
of the refrigerator. And the need to make
major changes to my open-plan kitchen,
visible from every corner of the ground loor,
became an excuse to put off making other
changes to my home’s interior, too.
I’LL JUST SEND THIS EMAIL FIRST...
The new-kitchen-that-never-materialized
had a paralyzing effect on everything. But
actually doing something about it? Forget
it. It is a common phenomenon referred to
as ‘The Importance Trap’. “It’s related to
procrastination, but the difference is that you
can also postpone something because it’s
not enjoyable,” says Paul Loomans, Dutch
Zen monk and the author of Time Suring.
“The Importance Trap is actually about all
those tasks that are so important to us that
we wait until all the conditions are just right,
every circumstance is perfect and we have
all the knowledge we need before we tackle
them. We want to be completely covered
before we take the irst step, but wind up
in a sort of stalemate, even though we are
constantly thinking how we need to just do
it. It’s something that almost everyone can
relate to—it’s that common of a problem.”
Putting off the things that matter has to do
with the times we live in, when information is
coming at us in small increments and at great
speed. Take emails, for example. They send a
constant drip-feed of demands into our daily
life, and there are always a few that require
prompt attention. “If your focus is on these
smaller tasks, you’ll never get around to
completing that one large one,” Loomans
says. “This is why it’s important to be
proactive instead of reactive. Suppose you
get up in the morning and you want to do
your paperwork today, but you open your
email inbox irst instead. At this point, you’re
taking a reactive approach, because the
emails are looding in and you are going to
read and respond to them. Responses to
your responses then start coming in, so you
stay where you are, driven only by what is
coming into your inbox.” >

124 _
Simplify your life
Insight

A proactive approach means that, before
you open up your emails, you think about
what you really want to do that day, what’s
most important to you. “This is something
that we should not only do in the morning,
but maybe even six times each day,” says
Loomans. “Step back from what you’re
doing, because distance creates a broader
picture. Get up and walk away, go make a
cup of tea or do something else you can do
on autopilot, because these are the times we
start to daydream. It’s the times when we’re
not focused that we can get a bird’s-eye
view of what we need to do, because our
minds are somewhere else. You can see the
big picture, and from there choose your
next move.”
RAPID REWARDS
In an ideal world, a proactive attitude
like this would help us complete any big,
signiicant task that we want. In reality,
however, our brains sometimes play cruel
tricks on us, causing us to fall into the same
trap over and over again. As humans, we’re
126 _
wired to crave short-term happiness—the
instant shot of satisfaction we get from
completing a small, simple task like replying
to an email or posting a photo and watching
it receive likes on social media. Bigger,
more signiicant jobs don’t deliver that
same quick dose of dopamine, so we have
to make a conscious choice to do them.
Canadian-American motivational speaker
and self-development author Brian Tracy
calls prioritizing key tasks and doing them
irst ‘eating the frog’.
‘Your “frog” is your biggest, most
important task, the one you are most likely
to procrastinate on if you don’t do something
about it. It is also the one task that can
have the greatest positive impact on your
life and results at the moment,’ he writes in
his book Eat That Frog! ‘You must develop
the routine of “eating your frog” before you
do anything else and without taking too
much time to think about it.’
Tracy also argues that the emotional
reward of working on bigger tasks is far
greater than the short-term highs of doing
smaller, less signiicant tasks—it just takes
longer to achieve it. ‘You are designed
mentally and emotionally in such a way
that task completion gives you a positive
feeling,’ he writes. ‘It makes you happy. [...]
The more important the completed task, the
happier, more conident and more powerful
you feel about yourself and your world.’
But when it comes to the long-term
projects and things we want to achieve in
life—like writing a book, learning a language
or even just clearing out a bedroom—the
sheer scale of the task can be overwhelming.
It just seems like too much to wrap our heads
around, so we ignore it and tell ourselves we’ll
come back to it later. Meanwhile, that undone
task keeps spinning around in the back of our
minds, quietly causing stress. To beat this,
American author and life coach Tony Robbins
is an advocate of a technique he calls
‘chunking’—breaking our large task down
into easy-to-achieve steps. ‘A major source
of stress in our lives comes from the feeling
that we have an impossible number of things
to do,’ he writes on his website. ‘If you take
on a project and try to do the whole thing all
at once, you’re going to be overwhelmed.
And similarly, if you take a task and break
it into too many small steps, it’s equally
overwhelming, daunting and frustrating.’ He
advises that by ‘taking all that is coming at
you and putting it into ideal-sized groups your
mind can handle, you are positioning yourself
to accomplish your goals.’
So when it comes to tackling that unruly
cupboard, becoming luent in another
language or completing the novel you’ve
been meaning to write for the past ive years,
break it down into sensible steps. Don’t try
and write a whole book in a month; try and
write ive hundred words a day until it’s done.
 ‘IT’S ALWAYS BETTER TO MAKE A
START ON YOUR GOALS RATHER THAN
NEVER DOING ANYTHING AT ALL’
Commit to learning one element of your new
language each day, not all of them. You’ve
made a start, and you’ve broken your goal
down into bite-sized, manageable pieces.
Now, you’re on your way to completing it.
TRICK YOUR BRAIN
The chance of succeeding is even higher
if you block off time in your agenda for
completing these smaller steps on the road
toward achieving your ‘Big Task’. By
dedicating small blocks of time to the task
in your smartphone’s organizer, on your
computer or on your kitchen calendar, the
theory goes, you’re more likely to actually
TEXT FLEUR BAXMEIER ILLUSTRATIONS LIBBY VANDERPLOEG ADDITIONAL WRITING OLIVIA GAGAN
see it through.
For example, if you want to make your
attic a tidy, organized haven, but you also
know that you have to pick your child up
from school at 3 p.m., there’s not much point
in telling yourself you will work on it all day
and complete the job in one go. It’s much
more realistic to block out three hours of
your time in the morning to get started, and
then create another block of time later in the
week in which you’ll inish it. During those
three hours, turn off all distractions; put your
phone on silent and switch off your computer.
Why? Because every time you do something
else, every time you pick up your phone
and quickly scroll through Instagram, it’s
estimated that your brain needs ten to
twenty minutes to regain focus on what
you were doing before.
Another way to get things done when
you’re not in the right frame of mind is to
commit just a tiny amount of time to your
big job. This is a favorite method of Fokke
Kooistra, a Dutch organization coach and
‘productivity ninja’ at Think Productive, a
British business that helps clients around
the world to use their time more effectively.
“What really helps me is to say to myself,
‘I’m not in the mood for this and don’t know
if I’m going to be able to do it, but I will work
on it for ten minutes. After that, if I still feel
like it’s not going to work, then I’ll stop’,”
Kooistra says. “Nine times out of ten, you
become completely consumed by the task
or you will have made so much progress
that you think, ‘I’m going to keep going’.
You succeed in breaking through the
resistance in your head by tricking yourself
with the permission to stop after ten
minutes without feeling guilty.”
IT’S BETTER TO DO SOMETHING
THAN NOTHING
Another thing Kooistra considers to be
important is seeing the humor in the whole
Importance Trap concept and the ways our
brains work. Don’t take the fact you haven’t
started a project yet too seriously; it won’t
help and, in fact, it can make things worse.
Not only will you feel even more guilty
about not achieving your goals, the tasks
themselves will also start to feel too serious,
demanding and unappealing. “Sometimes,
I have to laugh at how I go about things,”
Kooistra admits. “I think, ‘How funny, look at
how evasive I’m being’.” This is another key
to making progress on your big goals: being
able to put things in perspective. Life is not
perfect, some projects will never be inished
and there are always tasks you’ll ind it hard
to make time for. It’s important to know that
it’s okay to not inish everything, and that it’s
always better to make a start on your goals
rather than never doing anything at all. This
attitude helps prevent us from becoming
uninspired and disheartened by the size
of our to-do list. As Tracy puts it, ‘Do
something. Do anything. An average plan
vigorously executed is far better than a
brilliant plan on which nothing is done.
For you to achieve any kind of success,
execution is everything’.
When it came to executing the renovation
of my old, broken-down kitchen, it was my
father who inally encouraged me to take
action last year, after I had called him
because my kitchen sink had looded again.
He had had enough, and asked a handyman
friend of his if he could come to my house
that day, take some measurements, draw up
some plans and schedule the work. Not ‘six
months from now’, but ‘now’. I panicked, but
it turned out to be a good idea to trust what
my father and the professional had to say.
Why? Well, the end result was snow-white
tiles, four working burners, baby-blue
cabinets, a refrigerator that works and a
shiny, clean oven. And now, every time I
make coffee or a sandwich, I get a tiny
feeling of jubilation. Why hadn’t I done this
years ago?
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
‘Time Surfing: The Zen
Approach to Keeping Time on
Your Side’, by Paul Loomans
'Eat That Frog!: 21 Great
Ways to Stop Procrastinating
and Get More Done in Less
Time’, by Brian Tracy
Thinkproductive.co.uk
_ 127
African Philosophers
You May Not
Have Heard Of
When we think of philosophers, names such as Socrates,
Nietzsche and Sartre quickly spring to mind. T he insights of
African thinkers, however, are rapidly gaining attention.

Anyone familiar with Western philosophy
considers Socrates and Plato to be important
philosophers. African philosophers may not
be as well-known, but there is one name that
stands out, as Nigerian philosopher Sophie
B. Oluwole describes in her book Socrates
and rúnmìlà: Two Patron Saints of Classical
Philosophy. Like Socrates, rúnmìlà lived
around 2,500 years ago. His ideas were
never written down, but passed on for
centuries through an oral tradition. As a
result, rúnmìlà was not taken seriously
by Western philosophy for many years.
The tendency was to view him more as a
non-existent god than a philosopher, and his
ideas were written off as myths. For some
time now however, rúnmìlà, and all African
philosophy along with him, have been
restored to their former glory, thanks in
no small part to the efforts and books of
Oluwole. What, according to Oluwole, can
we learn from rúnmìlà and African
philosophical tradition?
BOTH/AND
For someone who grew up in the West,
surrounded by that culture, African
philosophy can be somewhat dificult to
understand. Oluwole believes that the
biggest difference is that the Western way of
thinking is based on contradictions, ‘either/
or’, in other words. The reason is that since
the time of Socrates, Westerners assume
that there are two sides to reality: matter
on one hand, and non-matter on the other.
Put simply, there is the tangible, and the
non-tangible (an idea, our minds or energy,
for example). Our entire way of thinking is
Simplify your life
Insight
based on this dichotomy; something is ‘Western thinking
either good or bad, or of the body or mind,
is based on
or is true or false. This is referred to as an
exclusive way of thinking. As such, in the contradictions; in
Western world, we always assume that African philosophy,
there is a contrast between individuals and
everything is one,
the common good for example, or between
nature and what is man-made. yet has two sides’
In the African way of thinking, everything
is one, yet has two sides. It is inclusive and
complementary. This means that it’s all
about both/and. A person is a complete
entity, and our bodies and minds are two
sides of the same coin. A table is not just
matter, but also energy and spirit. Men
and women are not opposites, but can
complement one another. The same
applies to young and old. And this is why,
according to Oluwole, good and evil are an
inseparable pair. Wealth can be good and
bad, for example, depending on what you
do with it. Everyone has good and bad
experiences during their lifetime because
good and evil always go together.
TAKING CARE OF EACH OTHER
‘“Africans have a thing called ubuntu”,’ Sophie B. Oluwole is the
Oluwole writes, quoting the South African grande dame of African
Archbishop Desmond Tutu in her book. ‘“It philosophy. Born under
is about the essence of being human, it is British rule in 1935
part of the gift that Africa will give the world. in the state of Ondo in
It embraces hospitality, caring about others, Nigeria, she studied
being willing to go the extra mile for the philosophy at the
sake of another. We believe that a person University of Lagos,
is a person through other persons, that and has lived and worked
my humanity is caught up, bound up, in Russia, Germany and
inextricably, with yours. When I dehumanize the US.
you, I inexorably dehumanize myself. The >
_ 129
 ‘Life involves always learning a bit more even
though you know you’ll never know everything’
solitary human being is a contradiction
in terms. Therefore you seek to work for
the common good because your humanity
comes into its own in community, in
belonging.”’
Ubuntu is a basic element in traditional
African philosophy. Literally translated, it
means a person is a person because of other
people. The basic assumption is that you
can only function if you are part of a larger
context. You can only be successful if the
community you are part of is successful. The
functioning and survival of the group is more
important than the success of the individual.
At the same time, individuals are also
important since their talent, role and value
are essential to the group’s interests. In
traditional African societies, ubuntu is the
starting point for all social relationships and
this means that family ties are very important,
as are contacts with friends and other loved
ones. The important ubuntu values are:
taking care of one another, sympathy, being
sensitive to what others need, being friendly,
taking one another into consideration, and
respect for everyone. ‘Everything and
everyone, as independent of one another as
they may seem, are connected to something
else,’ Oluwole writes when describing
ubuntu. ‘I am because you are, and we
form an entity with others, nature and God.
Anyone who denies the existence of others
is in essence denying their own existence.’
RESPECT FOR YOUR ELDERS
According to Oluwole, ‘Wisdom is always
knowledge and human experience. Wisdom
is not limited to knowledge. If I have
130 _
knowledge, know something about
something, this doesn’t mean anything.
I also have to ind out if that knowledge
is true. It’s important to always take our
circumstances into account, as well as our
experiences. This knowledge of experience
is always relative, temporary and never
absolute. There is more that we don’t know
than what we do know. In spite of the fact
that we strive each day to ind knowledge,
our knowledge about the things around
us will always remain incomplete and
imperfect. The older we get, the more
experience we gain, the more we learn and
the wiser we become.’
Africans associate old age with wisdom
and experience. This is why the elderly are
considered important, and their wisdom
and life experience are valued. After all, the
elderly have already experienced everything.
In Africa, they are consulted for advice
much more than they are in the West, and
their experience is used to make choices
and decisions, mediate in arguments and
help repair dificult relationships. They use
their knowledge and experience to help the
entire community, and the elderly remain
respected and loved members of the
community until they die.
BEING MODEST
‘Wisdom is the possibility to view
something in a different way,’ Oluwole
writes. ‘Wisdom is not a matter of age,
color, education or background. We have
to learn from each other; only then can we
grow and develop. Western philosophy is
always looking for absolute certainties. As
rúnmìlà once said, “I don’t say that I know.
Your wisdom is never perfect or absolute.
This is why we can and must never stop
learning from one another. There are
different ways of knowing. Knowledge is
not something you can only get from
books; all of our senses are important for
wisdom, including our sense of smell, touch
TEXT SJOUKJE VAN DE KOLK PHOTOGRAPHY ©PAUL TESSIER/STOCKSY UNITED ILLUSTRATIONS SHUTTERSTOCK
and hearing. African philosophy teaches
us that we can see things from different
perspectives. And that we shouldn’t judge
people because they are a man or a
woman, black or white, young or old. I want
to get to know you for who you are. No one
is perfect, not a man, or woman or child.
This is what makes us modest. Life involves
always learning a bit more even though you
know you’ll never know everything”.’
WANT TO READ MORE?
‘Socrates and rúnmìlà: Two
Patron Saints of Classical
Philosophy’, by Sophie
B. Oluwole
‘The Power of African
Thinking: About Ubuntu,
Unifying Leadership and a New
World’, by Leontine van Hooft
ILLUSTRATION ANISA MAKHOUL HAND-LETTERING VALESCA VAN WAVEREN

INCLUDING:
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_ 131
 FLOW DIARY 2019

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132 _
Everything you need to
organize your plans

Artwork
by Dinara Week-to-view
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Plenty of space
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Set of
postcards

_ 133
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_ 135
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136 _
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 IN THE NEXT ISSUE

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138 _
 GOOD NEWS
FROM...
Lize Prins
TEXT CAROLINE BUIJS ILLUSTRATIONS LIZE PRINS

Dutch-born Lize Prins lives in Seoul. “A friendly, social atmosphere is really important here,” she says. “Perhaps
that’s what I like most about South Korea—going out for picnics with friends when the weather is nice, visiting stylishly
decorated cafés and restaurants, and I’m even starting to appreciate noraebang (Korean karaoke). I do ind always
being seen as ‘the foreigner’ dificult, though. It’s just as hard as being so far away from my family and friends in the
Netherlands.” Lizeprins.com

_ 139