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--- michka:transiency_summary [2014-11-25 16:08] – michka
+++ michka:transiency_summary [2014-11-27 11:32] – michka
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 FoAM Brussels being a temple of cooking, I spent some time trying [[http://lib.fo.am/michka/know-hows/recipes|a few recipes]], and cooking lunch occasionally to the FoAM team.
-It also helped in the body-mind reconnexion process.
+In addition to reducing my reliance on industrial food, it also helped me decelerating & reconnecting body & mind.
 ===Teaching===
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 I wish I could bring part of this way of teaching to my engineering school, as I think it would help have engineers concerned with society, conscious of their personal issues, and more able to question the myths and taboos of the society they live in.
+===Gardening===
+{{ :michka:gardening.jpg?400 |}}
+One of the initial objectives of this year was also to learn practical know-hows to include more DIY in my daily life.
+FoAM Brussels gave me a "carte blanche" for a garden on their small balcony. I went to purchase seeds to the marvelous [[|http://www.bio-logiques.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=175:fraternites-ouvrieres-a-mouscron&catid=100&Itemid=518|Fraternités Ouvrières]] garden, and started some seedlings. Which died when I travelled - see below. I started again some seedlings, which died again. A few lived through my periodic travels, and managed to give some fruits - mainly red radishes, carrots and tomatoes - both yellow and red.
+This experiment in itself gave me an idea of how hard it is to rely on my own food production, and how devoted and sedentary I had to be. Which made me re-think completely the self-sufficient hypothesis.
+====Spring - Seeding====
+After decelerating, and hitting in different ways the reality wall, I needed to plant seeds of what a post-Transiency life could be. I was lucky, it was Spring, a good period to plant seeds.
+===Reading===
+{{ :michka:reading.jpg?400 |}}
+I needed to feel inspired, and learn from others' experiments. So I picked up two experiment-based books from my reading list: [[http://www.moneylessmanifesto.org/the-moneyless-man-book/|The Moneyless Man]], and [[http://fourhourworkweek.com/|The Four Hour Workweek]].
+The Moneyless Man is about the experiment Mark Boyle performed over one year. He tried to live without earning, spending or using any money during one year. It is great book, easy to read, and full of tips on how to reduce your reliance on a destructive monetary economy. However, I could not find any answers to the two most pressing questions I had with moneyless lifestyle:
+   * How to get healed in case of a big incident ? Mark Boyle relied on the rights he precently acquired to the British Security system. However, the book gives hints on how to self-heal yourself with plants, and how mutual aid provides you help when you deeply need it.
+   * What happens to your social life with less coherent people ? Mark Boyle says that it was one of the most difficult aspect of his experiment. He could not spend time with friends in money-based social activities, which is OK for one year, but for more ? Does it make sense to transform your social network for the sake of coherence ?
+I think it is important for me to be able to meet people which opinions are far away from mines, to understand better their viewpoints and what builds the difference between me and them. I have the feeling that if I live such a life, I will cut myself out of such opportunities.
+The Four Hour Workweek is a book about entrepreneurship. This world has always interested me, as I like the strength and perseverance of people getting involved in the creation of a company. However, I always felt distant from them in the sense that I am not attracted by the idea of devoting all my time to one single project, thereby risking to lose everything in case of failure.
+This book gave me a quite uncommon answer. What if your company was designed to bring you money back to do whatever you want to do ? Even though I do not agree with all the strategies proposed in this book, I like the idea of designing your income source so that you can maximize your freedom of lifestyle - and not necessarily try to merge both. It was a very pleasant, inspiring and thought-provoking read.
+The full reading list of this year is available [[http://lib.fo.am/michka/reading_list|here]].
+===Traveling===
+{{ :michka:traveling.jpg?400 |}}
+One of the things I disliked with my studying & working lifestyles was the forced sedentarity induced by the fact of having to follow courses / having to work in a give place. However, my initial hypothesis was to become self-sufficient, which means even more sedentarian.
+It was one of the conclusions of this Transiency: I prefer to travel than to garden. As I discovered this in April, I traveled a lot ever since.
+The very first important trip of this year was to Slovenia, a place where Amélie lived for a couple of years. After visiting Ljubljana and some very nice friends there, we moved to the countryside to spend some time at [[http://rollinghedgehog.com/|Rolling Hedgehog]].
+Rolling Hedgehog is a self-sufficiency experiment, led by Amélie's ex-roommates in Slovenia. We spent three day here helping in the garden, drinking schnaps & kombucha, gathering bear's garlic to prepare Forest Pesto, and eating cheerfully all together copious meals to fill our bellies emptied by the countryside work & fresh air.
+It was a wonderful stay, however I understood that I would not transform it into a lifstyle. I would love to introduce slices of several weeks of this lifestyle, but I would also like to be able to escape it, and see other people, other places, other parts of the world.
+The self-sufficiency hypothesis was dead.
+===Being Coached===
+{{ :michka:being_coached.jpg?400 |}}
+Besides being actively followed by the FoAM Brussels' Core Team, I had the chance to go through a coaching program with a professional coach, [[http://fo.am/people/vali.lalioti/|Vali Laliotti]].
+During six sessions, we tackled deeply rooted brakes which left me doubtful and/or discouraged. Through very precisely phrased and chirurgically-targeted questions, Vali helped me unravel deep nodes in order to constructively & effectively move forward.
+For instance, after six sessions, I was able to precisely phrase what I felt was my mission in life. I also learned practical ways to be more efficient in my work, especially with unpleasant tasks, and how to deal with emotionnally perturbing events.
+I think that this process was one of the two most effective ones in the whole Transiency. I feel like I am work - and do stuff in general - more effectively, more peacefully, and - most importantly - with more passion.
+And yes, I will talk about the second process later.
+===Forecasting===
+{{ :michka:forecasting.jpg?400 |}}
+Between April and June, the FoAM Brussels Core Team guided me through the [[http://lib.fo.am/future_fabulators/transiency_scenarios|Transiency Scenarios]] process. This scenario planning process, fed by the works done by FoAM on this topic for a few years now, aimed to use futurology methodologies to understand better what your possibles futures are as an individual, and help you better understand dynamics at stake and make decisions on your life trajectories.
+At the end of the process, we obtained four scenarios representing extreme situations. Scenario narratives can be found here:
+  * [[:michka/scenarios/basement_researcher|Basement Researcher]]
+  * [[:michka/scenarios/passionless_expert|Passionless Expert]]
+  * [[:michka/scenarios/new_edge_hacker|New-Edge Hacker]]
+  * [[:michka/scenarios/edge_hiker|Edge Hiker]]
+Such scenarios can be used as a compass. Thanks to this work, I could better understand which of my decisions would guide me to one or the other futures.
+We also designed a masterplan of what to do from today on to reach the possible futures, which helped understand which actions I should start now in order to reach the future I want to implement.
+===Meditating===
+{{ :michka:forecasting.jpg?400 |}}
+At our very first Transiency meeting, I was talking with Maja, Rasa & Nik about my issues of body-mind connection, and my focusing issues I was experiencing since the middle of my studies. At that time, Maja had advised me to go through the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness-based_stress_reduction|Mindfulness 8-weeks course (MBSR)]], she thought it would help me with this. Her Dutch-speaking mindfulness teacher advised me a French-speaking one, and because of affluence & scheduling issues, I could only start with the cycle in May.
+It was worth the waiting.
+I remembered mentionning the quest for "inner peace" to Vali during our first session. This cycle was basically a course on how to find inner peace. With very simple meditation techniques inherited from buddhism, we would quiet, slowly but surely, whatever wind or storm troubling our souls.
+I felt more body conscious, and did recover most part of my focusing abilities. But I also managed way better with emotionnally perturbing events, increased my perseverance in unpleasant or tedious tasks, managed to get back to contemplation on a daily basis, and logically started to find beauty more frequently on my way.
+You may have guessed it: with coaching, going through this process was the most positively transformative experience I lived this year, and I cannot not stop being lyrical about it.
+===Getting Inspired===
+{{ :michka:forecasting.jpg?400 |}}
+In May, I was invited by Eva Bakselett to teach in a workshop at Schumacher College, a mythical teaching place devoted to ecology I had heard of numerous times. It was a wonderful experience, mainly because of the incredible people I have met there.
+On the picture on top of this section, you can see two people. The guy is a former graphic designer. After three months of work, he found out that working behind a screen was not his way. So he knocked at the nieghboring baker's door and asked for an apprenticeship. He got accepted, and is now a (talented) baker for several years. On the picture, we can see him teaching how to make bread from a grain polyculture flour to a Horticulture apprentice from the College.
+And he is only one example of the amazing people I met at the College. And he is only one example of the amazing people I met this year in Totnes, Nantes, Marseille, Paris, Brest and so on.
+I want to keep meeting diverse people in the upcoming years. With diverse interests, diverse opinions, and amazing life trajectories. Because it is so pleasant & enriching, and it helps me so much re-shape my vision of the world.
+====Summer - Experimenting====