Why is it, when we see the ruins of a great castle, the knarl of an ancient olive tree or the oldest grave in the cemetery, we become so awestruck and admiring? We are so absolutely enchanted by the sheer age of things. We respect them. We willingly keep off the grass of history. We admire the flaws and crumbling imperfections. We feel a loving and protective instinct, despite no sense of personal ownership. It runs deep in us and we feel proud to be a product of our creative

Friends often tell me they dream of picking up and moving abroad. That is, until the thought of  logistics, language, visas… makes it feel too daunting a challenge. Change is hard when our ego says we are " fine where we are ", but there's more to it than that. Where do we even begin? Perhaps just begin, by beginning… A little about little me first… When I was eight years old, I was watching my mom put on makeup, when I blurted out “I want to move.” Confused, my mom asked “oh

"Labeling makes the invisible visible, but it’s limiting. Categories are the enemy of connecting." ~Gloria Stienem www.theletgo.com Everywhere we turn, there’s a statement about who we are—based not on our being, but our doing. And often, those statements trace back to childhood trauma, as if our adult choices are merely echoes of early wounds. We are constantly offered explanations, often unsolicited, that attempt to decode our lives through the lens of lack. But what if our

It is all well and good to throw buzz-words around, but one that often comes up in casual conversation these days, is ‘frequency’. Like most expressions, it can mean different things to different people and yet actually, is very rooted in science. Not in a “my frequency is like..so off today” as though you‘re just having a bad hair day, but involving physics…a real exchange of energy with the environment and people - total friends or total strangers. We’ve all been in a room

This is something I came to learn very late in life, having never questioned my beliefs or my decisions. I’ve since found so many areas in my life where I blindly accepted that my beliefs just are what they are, fixed in time, and my decisions simply followed. Turning things upside down to get a different perspective, allowing myself to question things and decide again, has become such a valuable tool. I like to think of it as “curiosity with benefits”. As young children, oft

Self-talk is not something to be taken lightly. Saying things like “I can’t carry a tune, I’m tone deaf.” whilst it can be an expression of mock humility maybe it is true... for now. How do you know? What if saying this is why you haven't become better? Sing because you love to. If all people thought they had to be perfect in order to love something or try something, we'd all be sunk. What I wanted to say has nothing to do with singing, or maybe it has everything to do with

Platform 13 CEO Vanessa Grant on Soul, Strength and the Sacred Feminine. Sitting in sacred silence There are words that carry weight far beyond their syllables: soul, strength, sacred.  Each speaks to something elemental, a truth we sense in our bones even when we struggle to name it. When combined, they sketch a portrait of the feminine at its deepest level — not as a role or a set of expectations, but as a source of power rooted in authenticity. At Platform 13, we believe s

Perhaps the greatest barrier to worthwhile communication is that we no longer listen to understand. We listen only to reply. Our ears twitch, our tongues prepare their retorts, and before the sentence has even ended, we are already halfway into our counterpoint. What passes for dialogue is often little more than a polite duel to get one’s point across and be heard. But what if listening was something else? If we approached each other’s words with kinder curiosity, the intent

Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero, confidently proclaimed that gratitude was not only the greatest of virtues, but the "Parent of all the others". What he could be forgiven for not knowing 2,000 years ago, was the positive impact that a practice of gratitude has on our emotional well-being, the strengthening of social bonds and our mental health.