Currently Loading Vol. 4
May 2021
Note to self with/Jennifer Pauline
Image: Outside of The Whitney Museum in New York on my first real trip since March 2020
‘How the hell is it May?!’ has been on repeat since this month began. Time has flown by and what was once our April newsletter has now become our May newsletter. However, it’s not lost on me that this months theme, self-evolution, is more timely than it’s ever been.
My definition of self-evolution is the process of continuously becoming the highest and best version of yourself; without judgement, pressure, or expectations.
While this process is very important, I’ve also learned that clinging to it can become an unhealthy attachment. It’s so easy to feel like a failure if you’re still, content or God forbid, complacent. However, one of my treasured sacred readings, the Bible, says to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
Timing and purpose are the companions of growth and evolution.
My current season is part evolution and part lesson in what it means to simply be. I’m 8 months into being a founder, entrepreneur and chief purpose officer (as I’ve recently deemed myself). And while my business has accelerated at a pace that I can only describe as divinely orchestrated, I’m learning so much about the power of being. Being still, being authentic, being clear, being intentional, being compassionate and being gentle with myself.
Building a brand (With/Creators) while also helping others build theirs (With/Creators the agency) has been the ultimate exercise of balancing doing with being. Yes, wearing many hats is a skill but it is also takes skill to know how to say no, de-prioritize and take mental breaks.
Removing the pressure to do everything at once is truly groundbreaking. It may not seem like you’re evolving but you are. You’re getting still for the next phase of evolution. The newsletter will get done, the deck will get finished, the calls will still happen.
Evolution is micro, seemingly insignificant shifts that push you deeper into your purpose.
And sometimes, evolution is being still and allowing it all to unfold.
With love and intention,
Jennifer Pauline
Morning routine with/Sandrine Charles
The Brooklyn based founder of Sandrine Charles Consulting, a public relations and consulting agency, shares her go to morning routine.
Wake up time: between 5-7AM depending on the day
Start with meditation and stretching - I'm in the last leg of recovery so slow and steady stretching helps to strengthen my body for my best workout summer.
With meditation, I have transitioned to using CORE. My friend Jordan Wheeler introduced me to the brand and I am so obsessed.
Between 8-10am: Walk my dog for 1-1.5 hours to get my body moving and take any EU client calls.
10AM- the day starts, I am usually online with my team or at the showroom on Mondays to align with our Showroom Manager for the week.
self-EVOLUTION WITH/MAXINE GOYNES
The Los Angeles based Creative Director of MG Method, podcast host and wellness coach on her experience with self-evolution.
I’ve experimented and flirted with many things in blind pursuit to evolve: food, relationships, accolades, depression, anxiety, fashion, distraction, procrastination and even isolation.
I will not suggest something new, for the teachings and sentiment of our ancestors, spirit leaders and nature have guided us for years. Deep fulfillment occurs by arriving where you are. Instead I will reflect upon the little things that have held space for evolution.
I sit quietly and observe the little gold star girl who had felt petrified after routinely hearing “You need to be just as good, if not better”. She eventually realized that this projection didn’t belong, for she was worthy of taking calculated risks that don’t always end in “wins”.
I think about the collegiate athlete who once found herself episodically binge drinking on tabletops at the local University bar and grin as she now reads peacefully on the couch having considered the local farmers market her wild adventure.
I think about the woman who commuted from Los Angeles to the Central Valley so she could be by her fathers side as he took his final breaths following his 30+ years of working to never see much of his retirement. I’m comforted knowing her wellness company took place of a 9-5 where she refused to be sold the old American dream.
I think about the woman who could only look in the mirror and poke, grab, tuck, and shake every corner of her body in complete horror. The woman who now stands deeply in the understanding that beyond her reflection she is compassion, patience and perspective and this same body has led her through the world and into strength.
To embody the power to evolve is to develop gradually, from simple to a more complex form. Self-evolution is grace personified, from the grit of life. It is often in hind sight that we become aware that our pain only pushes us until our vision pulls us.
With repeated experiences of openness we learn to trust something infinitely more powerful than any set of rules prescribed by something or someone else: our own being. Evolution happens in little moments when you believe in you, more than you believe in anything else.
The power of self-evolution is to make well with what can feel heavy and find light over and over and over again. Our life work is not to change what we do, but to witness what we do with enough awareness, curiosity, and exploration.
The truth is, we are never fully evolved, but we are always evolving.
ON THE PATH
Nourishment for your daily, weekly and monthly journey. Here’s what we’re eating, reading, watching and listening to.
EATING
Vanilla matcha with protein, Golde matcha, vanilla protein, mct oil, vanilla extract, sweetner of choice
Cherry breakfast bowl, 3 tbsp flax meal, 3 tbsp chia seeds, 3 tbsp hemp hearts, 1/3 c hot almond mylk, 1/3 c hot water, cherries, sweetener of choice. Mix flax, chia and hemp hearts with hot water, add sweetener, top with almond mylk and cherries.
READING
Everybody Hates Millenials The Walrus
How LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Company Became the Envy of Hollywood Fast Company
WATCHING
The Boy From Medellin, Amazon Prime
The Serpent, Netflix
Halston, Netflix
LISTENING TO
The Making of Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Fresh Air, NPR
Luuvie Ajayi Jones: What Is Fear Costing You? Redefining Wealth with Patrice Washington (wherever you listen to podcasts)
Priya Parker on The Art of Gathering Unlocking Us with Brené Brown (wherever you listen to podcasts)