Year in Review: 2021 — WiserHumans

Wow. What a year.

My experience of 2021 is that if you are not feeling burned out to some extent, are you even still alive?

Adam Grant’s word ‘languishing’ definitely captured the zeitgeist, a sort of ‘blah’ after the more crisis-type feel of last year.

For me personally, this was compounded by a complicated family situation that meant I needed to take more time off, go to Jordan twice this year, and take on very few new clients - resulting in often feeling I was letting people down, yet also knowing this was the best I could do.

Yet even in the midst of crisis and languishing, I feel incredibly grateful for the work I do. Doing work that is meaningful and stimulating feels even more precious when other areas of life are more difficult.

Here’s a look back at some of the highlights and learnings of 2021.

Blogging etc

I’m excited to have participated in two new types of events for the first time this year. The first was a talk I gave on Procrastination for Creative Mornings Lausanne - an amazing organisation that hosts free events that I have been attending for years. It was a secret dream to maybe one day be a speaker, and I was very honoured when I got the request! You can watch the entire talk for free on their website.

Another dream was being on a podcast and I was thrilled to join Nicki and Tom on their podcast for professionals, Higher! We talked about feeling stuck in the work place and ways of approaching this. You can listen to this episode here.

I still love good old-fashioned blogging, even though I keep hearing about how nobody really reads anymore! My favorite blog post this year was I Am No Longer Who I Once Was about life transitions and awakenings and the key ages we tend to experience these. I based this on life transits from Astrology and also gave a talk to Webster University students on this theme, combining Astrology and Psychology.

I had long periods of not posting on Instagram and Facebook this year, mostly because I felt disillusioned with social media while simultaneously feeling I had nothing very helpful to share.

Welcoming Willow

The best thing to happen to me this year is adopting a kitten who I named Willow. Willow is no doubt a soul guide, and he has brought so much love, tenderness and joy to my life!

learning + going deeper

“Time is how you spend your love.” - Nick Laird

One of my biggest passions as a Gemini Sun is learning, and this year felt like it was about going deeper and consolidating rather than making new discoveries.

I completed my second year of Psychological Astrology training, and continued training in Coherence Therapy, working with a supervisor who uses this approach.

I also continued sessions with my Depth Psychology therapist who I have been working with for 2.5 years now. I really experienced how the deeper we explore our own psyches or internal villages, the more complex and messy and contradictory we realise we are - and at the same time, we may also learn to lovingly hold space for ALL these different parts of us.

This year for me has been about being even more with this complexity and messiness both within myself and in life in general; allowing the not knowing and the seeming contradictions.

I really saw this inability to be with complexity in the outer world. The inability to have real dialogues or conversations about the pandemic and other topics. The extreme views. The conspiracy theories on all sides.

I actually felt disillusioned with some members of the yoga / spiritual community I had felt a part of for the health privilege they showed, for their simplistic view of the world. One of the few voices that really spoke to me from this world is the newer work of Jeff Foster.

One of the benefits of this disappointment has been recognising how much we don’t know or understand about this pandemic or about life. Sometimes one thing can be true and the opposite can also be true. Sometimes we just don’t know and there are things that are out of our control. Being with this messiness, these contradictions, this helplessness feels so much more humbling and vulnerable yet honest than trying to pin it down in a simplistic way through black or white views.

We will become our opposite if we do not learn to accommodate the opposition within us. - C. G. Jung

Magic, Mystery and Meaning

As a child, I was obsessed with stories, hearing stories, reading stories. I loved myths and fairy tales. Anything magical fascinated me.

As a thesis for my Masters degree in Psychology, I wrote about the development of magical thinking to rational thinking and did a project on the symbolism of the mother figure in fairy tales.

Yet somewhere along the way, I adapted to the ‘real’ world, to practicality, to the more scientific approach. When I trained as a therapist, I needed more scientifically valid, behavioural approaches.

I feel this is an important part of my work, for it to be grounded and practical and founded. Yet at the same time, I have been feeling a calling for more Magic, Mystery and Meaning in my life and work.

Astrology is one of the ways that I can feel this strong pull towards something bigger than us that we cannot fully understand. More soul-based approaches such as the work of Carl Jung, James Hillman and Thomas Moore have also been resonating deeply.

For now, I feel these approaches are calling me on a personal level, and not something I am wanting to apply in my work straight away. I am allowing them to perculate and trusting that they will (and in some ways already do) show up as and when needed.

Something beyond life lives within life and calls the soul. - James Hillman

2021 in an image

For me, this photo taken by my partner, Björn Rapp, symbolises this year: Trudging along, not really sure of where we are going in what feels like a never-ending journey, yet still moving forward in small steps. Not really sure of what to trust, or what has meaning anymore.

And I think what many of us are learning is that when we have no landmarks or outward signals of where to go, when nothing seems to make sense, we have to trust our inner compass more and more. What still has meaning to me? What small step can I still take?

And perhaps: How can I bring more magic, mystery and allow contradiction along the way?

Thank you for being a part of my 2021. May 2022 shine brighter for all of us.

So many books, podcasts and TV shows really touched me this year - here are a few of my favourites: