Hi Reader,

How are you?

I wanted to tell you about this trip I took two weeks ago. I took the train to a tiny place in the middle of the Black Forest. 10 days off. No kids. No work. No talking. Amazing!

Yes, no talking 🤐

I was on a retreat that existed of sitting for hours on a meditation chair until my bum was sore, my legs were sleeping, and my head was bumping into my chest (this got better after day 3). And in between sessions, delicious healthy food and long hikes through the forest.

For the love of all God why, you ask?

Well, for me, this is the best way to cool my jets. Decompress. Unwind. And to recover my strengths. Afterwards I always feel like a Diesel (a sustainable Diesel of course:).

I don’t think you realise how much energy it takes to communicate all the time (I didn’t). Even when we’re not in the presence of others, we keep being connected, constantly.

As soon as I stepped into the train, e-mails and project ideas that seemed so important before appeared to be nothing but fluff! How only some distance creates clarity!

Being offline gives me - literally - time to smell the roses and feel reverence for everything!

For example, how amazing it is that a tiny seed grows from the earth. First creating small leaves that become bigger leaves. And then a flower that comes out of a tiny bud. It’s mind-blowing!

Or the sky! Do you ever look up at the sky? I love the sky! It can change my emotions in a second. It makes me feel tiny and irrelevant. And yes, that’s a good thing!

This is the missing piece of the puzzle.

You know the circular R-ladder right?

If not👇: it is a ladder with circular strategies that takes you towards more circularity every step up. The most circular strategy at the top is refuse.

Although Refuse is an important strategy, it draws attention to loss and ‘giving up’. Not to what it gives you. What you might get.

That shows me how limited our take on social transformation is in the circular economy debate…

Yet, it’s the missing piece of the puzzle: our own mind set!

We don’t have reverence for the stuff that we own. Right?

If you revere your relationships with people or the products you use, it’ll make the smallest thing appear to be significant and every little creature dignified.

Practicing reverence can save our relationship with each other and the earth. It will promote care, connection, and cooperation instead of neglect, separation, and rivalry.

When you have reverence for the whole universe, your own consciousness expands. Cultivate the skill of having reverence every moment in your life. – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher, and an ambassador of peace.

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If this is too airy fairy for you, have you heard about the red-hot trend of decluttering or minimalism? Probably.

Here is a practical way to cultivate reverence to the things you own:

Marie Kondo, the a-list decluttering coach recommends keeping only the things that ‘spark joy’. Remove all other unnecessary clutter by thanking it and passing it on. It’ll make you peaceful, happy, and free.

🧐 Note that this advice mostly focusses on the material.

The actual point is: joy does not depend on things, people or things outside of you!

When will you be happy, Reader?

When you

• found that perfect job?
• Own a house?
• Have found your soulmate?
• Have children?
• Drive that awsum car?
• Are free?
• Have a purpose?
• Have received massive funding to grow your circular business? 🤑

What can these things give you that you don’t already have? Could you be happy without them?

👉Hit reply and let me know :).

And then, what? Then you have that job, that soulmate, those children, that house full of objects that spark joy..

Then you wish that you had more stuff that spark joy or that your children would be a bit more independent or . Isn't it?

It's a never-ending story…

The only thing you need to realise is that you do not need anything outside yourself to be happy!

Material is there to use and pass on. Put it back in its right place!

Ask yourself: do I need it, or do I only want it?

Only you can answer that question. And the answer varies from person to person (don’t be harsh on yourself but be honest).

If you really need it, then revere it, cherish it, repair it and maintain it.

Just change your mindset and bring your wants and needs closer.

Cultivate reverence every moment in your life, Reader, it’s the only R we need to reach a circular economy!

Your actions matter.

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With reverence,👣

Elisa

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